Endless (47 page)

‘Of course you will,’ I spat.

Uri glanced over his shoulder to where Lincoln lay. As he and Nox began to fade he looked back to me, his eyes fiercer than ever. ‘Nothing is a certainty.’

And they
were gone.

But I was still there in this twisted reality. I wondered if I could just stay there, ignore the rest of the world and simply fade away. But as soon as I formed the thought I felt the tug.

A whimper fell from my lips and I turned to see Phoenix lying on the ground, barely alive, arm outstretched.

‘Come back, Violet. Come back!’

He was calling me back to the world. He was my anchor.

Lincoln must’ve told him.

I closed my eyes briefly.

There is still more to do.

I stepped towards Phoenix and the world around me came back into focus. Phoenix shook with pain as I crossed the border between reality and other. Around us, exiles began to scramble.

The combination of chaos combined with their vindictive natures made the exiles as furious with one another as they were with me. And now that Lilith was gone and Phoenix down it appeared the timeless rivalry between light and dark had been reinstated.

Helicopter blades sounded overhead, along with an explosion nearby. I heard voices yelling out commands from outside the ballroom. The exiles started to turn towards the new threat.

The cavalry had arrived.

My eyes sought out Evelyn, bracing for the worst. But there she was, alive, struggling against her restraints, while Spence helped her.

I fell to the ground beside Phoenix.

He was barely breathing. The sword he had used on Lilith had not been a full Grigori blade, so when she’d turned it back on him it
hadn’t killed him instantly. Still, I was amazed he was managing to hang on.

I grabbed his hand. It was cold, like mine.

‘Ironic, isn’t it?’ I said, coughing up some blood, registering the pain in my side and wrist. ‘After all of this, we’re just going to die.’

He squeezed my hand.

‘You won’t die,’ he said, each word an effort.

I didn’t bother arguing. ‘Just one more thing to do first.’

With the last of whatever strength Phoenix had, he pulled me roughly towards him. ‘I need to tell you something,’ he pleaded, pulling me close.

He whispered.

I listened.

And trembled with his words.

‘It’s too late!’ I cried.

‘I thought that once, too. But it’s never too late. You taught me that. Love can make us eternal.’ Phoenix’s eyes closed, haunted to the end. ‘I’m sorry,’ were his last words.

‘I forgive you,’ I sobbed, gripping onto him desperately. ‘I forgive you.’

It was too late.

All. Too. Late.

CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN

‘Angel, my little angel … I am small, you make me big, I am weak, you make me strong
…’

Orthodox children’s prayer

T
he
double doors to the ballroom exploded in a mass of flying debris and smoke, black-clad troops armed with Grigori blades storming the hall to be met by a throng of waiting exiles.

I kept staring at Phoenix’s inert body.

Why hasn’t he disappeared?

It took me a while to realise it was because he was part-human, too. Unlike other exiles, this was his true body. Perhaps that was why it had taken longer for him to die.

Within seconds of his last breath, all of the emotions from which he’d spared me rushed back into me. It took everything I had to endure the onslaught, but I couldn’t let myself succumb to them yet.

I cried as I crawled over and retrieved my katanas, still lying where Lilith had dropped them. I struggled to my feet just as I saw a pair of exiles coming towards me.

Spence appeared from nowhere, leaping in front of me and taking the exiles’ attention. While he took care of them, I pushed my
power out one more time as more Grigori entered the fray, to hold back as many exiles as I could.

Digging deep, I found something new tucked well within my power. It was part of Phoenix that had come to me in his essence. While the rest of me was dominated by my soul’s pain, burning with an icy coldness, in this new part of me, there was … nothing.

I travelled down a long dark corridor in my mind, searching for its meaning. When I reached the end, an understanding dawned on me. Phoenix had had the abilities of an empath and could both give and take emotions, but when he’d transferred his essence to me, it had mutated.

I could neither feel the emotions of others, nor give them away.

Instead, I could lock everything – every emotion – down. All of them. It was as simple as flicking a switch.

And so I did.

Everything melted away.

Numbness spread through me quickly. I could think more clearly, move more easily. The pain in my soul was still there, lurking, but it was no longer attacking me. I was … nothing.

I started to move again, controlling as many exiles as I could, even as I headed away from them towards the basement.

This will not all have been in vain.

I was weak. I staggered and lost my hold on the exiles.

The Grigori will have to deal with them now.

I looked back at Spence. He was in the middle of the battlefield.

‘Spence!’ I screamed.

He turned.
I must have looked a sight – covered in blood and no emotion to show for it.

Spence screamed back at me even as he fought off oncoming exiles. He pushed one down and when another Grigori jumped in to take the next off his hands he started to run towards me, pulling out something from his waist.

He’d done it.

He had the Grigori Scripture.

I put up a hand. ‘No! Get Lincoln!’

Spence skidded to a halt. He was close to Phoenix and I caught him register his lifeless body. Spence’s eyes quickly moved to Lincoln, still chained and lying motionless on the sofa.

He shook his head. ‘I’m coming to help you!’

‘No, Spence! Swear to me you’ll get him out. Swear it!’ I yelled.

Spence’s eyes darted between Lincoln and me. ‘I’ll get him!’ he yelled back. ‘I promise, Vi. I’ll get him out.’

He held my eyes. Spence would do as he promised.

I turned back to the basement as total war broke out around me. I gripped my katanas and slashed at exiles that got in my way. I didn’t stop.

I fell into the doorframe, using it to hold myself up. Before I’d righted myself completely, a hand grabbed my bleeding wrist from behind, squeezed tight and spun me around.

He pushed me against the wall. The back of my head hit the sandstone hard and I felt fresh blood run towards my neck. His strength was surprising, but I wasn’t at my best. The small man, whose presence had troubled me earlier, restrained me as he placed his briefcase beside him and pulled an open vial from his inside jacket pocket.

He smiled soothingly,
pinning me to the wall. ‘It’s a problematic world we find ourselves in,’ he said with a heavy sigh. He looked forlorn and yet his eyes were alight when he looked back at me. ‘I’m simply
fascinated
by you.’

‘Who are you?’ I ground out.

‘That’s a complicated question. But on this occasion, a mere financier. And I must say, though not living up to my original expectations, it seems it may still be money well spent.’ He looked over his shoulder at the battle still raging. ‘I would’ve loved to spend some more time together.’ He placed the vial under my wrist and watched carefully as my blood flowed into it.

He was patient as I struggled, but there was little I could do – my power was almost entirely spent, my strength gone.

‘What are you doing?’ I demanded as I squirmed.

‘Unfortunately, this is not the best time for a chat, but let’s call it research.’ He glanced behind himself again. He was going to run. It was a most un-exile-like trait, and yet, it wasn’t due to fear. It was worse … He was smart.

I pulled on the dregs of my power, sending the very last from me, just enough to try and hold him for a few seconds. My mist floated right past him as if he were immune to it.

His smile widened and he pulled back the large vial, now filled with my blood. I realised I had never had him under my hold at all. Like Phoenix, briefcase man had been pretending.

He released me and I slid down the wall.

He bowed in a gentlemanly fashion. ‘I do hope you survive.’

I blinked and he was gone. He could’ve run, dawdled or disappeared into thin air. In my state, it was impossible to know.

I picked up
my sword and used the doorframe to force myself back onto my uncooperative legs. Another explosion rocked the room, the large chandelier falling with a crash, taking out whoever was beneath it. The far side of the room began to fill with smoke.

Half walking, half falling down the basement stairs I moved on until the sound of fighting grew faint. Finally, I reached the bottom. I looked myself over, the bleeding at my side and my wrist beginning to slow, eventually you just run out of the stuff.

It took everything I had just to breathe and stay upright.

Phoenix was dead. Lincoln was lost. Everything was gone.

The screams were repressed but they were there nonetheless, clawing at my throat, waiting to pull me down with them.

I turned to the cages just as another massive explosion erupted. Concrete chunks started to fall from the ceiling. The thirty children who had not been spared by my arrows huddled in groups. When they saw me, they started to scream.

Simon was standing up against the bars. Of course he was still there. I’d be willing to bet he’d insisted on staying with the others, even if he had been one of the children offered freedom.

‘Violet!’ he yelled, but it sounded more like a question.

I tried to smile. It was unlikely it looked convincing.

I scouted around for keys and finally found a set in a wall box. Staggering over to Simon’s cage, I opened his first. He reached me just as I started to fall to my knees. He stumbled under my weight but managed to sit me against the bars.

I took his hand and pressed the keys into it. ‘Get them out.’

His eyes connected with mine.

Such a small boy. So brave.

He nodded and
started to unlock the other cages. A few minutes later all of the remaining children were huddled around me. They were free, but they still had to get out of the building.

Another explosion shook the basement and more concrete fell.

I gripped onto the cage and pulled myself to my feet, praying it would be the last time. I needed to be strong for them. I looked at the children.

My vision was starting to blur but I could see the smoke that had started streaming down the stairwell.

‘Listen to me, this place is going to go,’ I gulped. The whole building was on fire. ‘Simon, take everyone upstairs. Stay low. Try not to breathe in the smoke. Everyone hold hands and stay in a line.’

The children began to join hands. ‘Stay together,’ I ordered. ‘When you get up there, follow the hall. The front doors are at the end. Find a man called Griffin. Tell him … Tell him I sent you to him.’

The children nodded.

Good kids.

‘Go!’ I said. They started to move up the stairs in a line.

‘What about you?’ Simon asked, unsure.

I forced a smile. ‘I’m right behind you.’ Then I nodded him on and he left. Finally,
finally
, I dropped to the ground, face down.

When I could no longer hear their footsteps, I knew they had reached the top of the stairs. Tears welled with the relief of knowing that they would make it to safety. Griffin would look after them.

Smoke filled the basement. I didn’t care. Time slowed
down. I could see myself dying. I doubted I would come back this time.

Only now, did I let myself think of him.

I thought of our love, how much Lincoln meant to me. But even as my life drifted away, Phoenix’s last words – the ones he’d whispered into my ear – played back. Over and over.

Is it even possible?

I forced another fraught breath. All I wanted was for it to be over. I wanted to go away, to never have to fight again.

But Phoenix’s damn voice kept whispering to me.

What if? What if? What if?

I growled, angry at him for doing this to me. It would be just like him to lie to me, to make me fight and live only to discover it was just another trick to force my hand.

But still …

What if there’s a chance it could be the truth?

I’d once promised Steph I would fight with every last breath to survive, but how could I when every breath felt like a thousand deaths?

The floor vibrated with another explosion. A large piece of ceiling crashed to the ground nearby. I could hear the crackling of the fire above. The building’s structure was starting to give. It could cave in at any moment.

Oh, God. What if he was right?

I cried out. Rolling onto my back, clawing at the ground, trying to grab hold of something, anything. Suddenly I was fighting to get to my knees and trying to pull myself up.