The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3) (26 page)

Hope made a face. “All souls lose memories of past lives when you’re born anywhere, every time, but for Guardians, that loss should be only temporary, until you Bond and Forge. It’s been Enyxa who’s prevented that recall all along.”

“And she could still do it, since she’s with them, right?” Asia asked.

Hope sighed. “It’s a possibility, yes. But Anastasia, no matter what happens or what’s already happened between the two of you, you and Broderick will know each other and you will love each other. That’s something I can guarantee because you
are
one and the same soul.”

Asia blinked several times and sucked her lips in as she sniffed. Then she nodded and dropped her fingers to the Book’s cover. “I guess there’s only one way to find out.”

Hope smiled.

“Then let’s call them home.” She closed her eyes. “Bring Jacquelena, Broderick, Rebethannah, and Nathayden back to this world, this place where they belong,” she ordered the Book, and Asia and I echoed her. “Besides water, the most important ingredient is belief. You must truly and completely
believe
from the space within.”

I put my whole damn soul into believing my girl would return to me, as well as the others, and I murmured the chant under my breath. The light of a Gate sprang out of the water directly in front of us. I watched and waited with bated breath. A form darkened the light, followed by several more.

None were the souls we’d summoned.

Chapter 25

The slightest bit of warmth filled my soul for a short moment. A feeling of Jeric’s soul briefly brushing against mine. Impossible, I knew, but maybe it was a sign that he’d heard my messages. Maybe he was trying to respond to me. I really had no idea if this was true or not, but I had to fight through the Darkness weighing heavily on me and pray that he heard me … that he would open the Gate for us. I also had to hope that we had enough Light left in us to enter the Gate into Earth.

And to keep Enyxa from following us.

She paced around the cavern, waiting for us to succumb to her Darkness. Our physical bodies, already weak, would likely die before we turned completely, and we’d have to go through as many life cycles as it took on Dark worlds like this one and Erde, churning through the pain she threw at us over and over until the process was complete. She must have thought we were close to giving in this time around since she remained by our sides. Or maybe she simply stayed for the entertainment of watching us spiral into the Darkness.

When she was on the far side of the icy cave, far enough away that she couldn’t push me back down, I gathered every last bit of energy I had remaining to shove the Darkness aside and pull myself to my hands and knees. Every cell of my body felt like it was made of lead, and I strained just to remain upright. Although the world we were on remained colder than cold, sweat beaded on my forehead as I reached for the knife I’d stuffed in my boot.

“We … have … to … fight her,” I said to the others as I struggled to breathe.

Brock didn’t move, but Hayden and Bex did. They rose to their feet and pulled out their own weapons. Enyxa only laughed.

“You dare to fight me?” she asked, her tone teasing like an adult would use with a child in a tickle fight.

For a moment, I fell for it, thinking how ridiculous of me to even consider challenging her. She was strong and powerful, a queen of the Darkness. And why should I fight her when giving in to her was so much easier? When giving in meant I’d become one of hers and she’d take care of me?

But only for a moment.

“Damn right,” I said as I shoved myself to my feet and lunged at her, knife poised to plunge into her neck.

Blackness filled my vision. I flew through the air. My back cracked against something hard—a wall of solid ice—and I fell to the floor. My memory of the fire that killed Jacey’s parents flashed through my mind. As soon as I realized what she was doing, I pushed the memory away and focused on Jeric and my love for him.

Enyxa snarled. As though silently planned, Hayden and Bex attacked her. With a swipe of Enyxa’s arm, they flew across the room as I’d just done, screaming against the memories Enyxa forced onto them.

“Brock,” I whispered through clenched teeth as I nudged him with my boot, barely able to reach his leg with the tip of it. “Snap out of it, Brock, and help us.”

He didn’t budge. I blew out a breath and tried again with Enyxa. I managed to slice my blade over her shoulder before she sent me across the room, but by the time I returned to the present after another horrible memory, her wound had closed. I’d landed between Hayden and Bex who were crouched next to me. Enyxa stared at us from the center of the room, her black eyes sparkling with laughter and her mouth stretched into a toothy grin. She was enjoying this.

“You can’t beat me,” she said, and she let out a wicked laugh that lifted the hairs on my arms.

Hayden tapped three fingers on the floor in front of him. He tapped it again, this time with the tips of two fingers.

“You’ll
never
win,” I said, and Hayden’s single finger hit the floor.

The three of us sprang upwards and outwards. We tackled Enyxa, but only managed to land a few blows before she threw us off of her again. I slammed into the wall once more with several loud cracks. I didn’t know if that was the ice on the wall or my bones breaking, but pain wracked through me. I slid to the floor next to Brock, who remained in the fetal position, ignoring everything going on around him. Darkness enveloped me. More memories slammed down, and these were too awful to bear. With one last-ditch effort, I silently screamed for Jeric until my soul could barely hold on and tears spilled over and froze to my cheeks.

Lights sprang out of the ice. A circle of them reaching for the cave’s roof.

Enyxa let out a shout of glee. “Oh, Jacquelena, I think I
will
win. Thank you for your help.”

With a siren’s shriek, she stepped into the lights. Snarls and growls filled the cave as her hellhounds entered and followed her. They all disappeared into the Gate.

We need to go, too
. I thought the words, but couldn’t act on them. My body hurt too much and felt too weak to move. My soul felt heavier and Darker with each beat of my heart.

“Come on,” Bex said, shaking my foot. She crawled over to me. “We have to go in the Gate.”

“I can’t do it again,” I said. “What if we don’t go home?”

“Who cares?” Hayden said. “As long as we get the hell off this place.”

Small arms slid under my pits and pulled me up to sitting. Bex braced me from behind. She’d somehow become the strong one trying to save my life. But it was becoming too late for me.

“We’re going through the Gate, and ya’ll are comin’ with us,” she said as she scooted for the lights. “And you’re going to believe real fucking hard that we’re goin’ home. You can do this, Leni. You
need
to do it. For Jeric, if no other reason.”

I was too helpless to fight her and too weak to help her. She tugged me toward the Gate.

“Brock,” I said. “We can’t leave him.”

“We’re not leaving anyone,” Hayden said as he squatted at Brock’s feet. He grabbed the other man’s ankles and pulled.

“Brock, come on,” I tried to yell at him. If I could muster this much energy, so could he. “Let’s find Asia, Brock.”

“Why?” he moaned. “So I can break her heart again?”

“Stop it,” I snarled. Or I tried to. It came out more like a soft hiss, too weak to be a real command. “Just come with us through the Gate.”

“So we can end up on another fucked up world gone Dark? Guess that’s where we belong anyway.”

Ignoring him, Bex and Hayden yanked at both of us and managed to pull us through the Gate’s walls. With the last shred of hope I possessed, knowing how much Earth’s souls needed us, I concentrated every fiber of my being and my soul on returning home and to Jeric.

Darkness consumed us. And Brock was right: that’s where we belonged.

Chapter 26

A woman stepped through the walls of the Gate, with curves that made Leni look like a boy, all of them emphasized by her tight, black bodysuit and boots that reached over her knees. Her long, black and white hair blew wildly, and her black eyes were even crazier. They matched the maniacal grin that spread on her face as she looked around. All of the fighting ceased as everyone froze, staring at her. I’d never met her before in person—that I could remember anyway—but I knew for certain this was Enyxa.

Following her came three dogs the size of cargo vans, each with three heads nearly as big as their bodies. Their black fur was matted and mangy, and their black eyes showed white as they lolled around their sockets. With the putrid stink of rotten eggs, saliva dripped from their foot-long fangs, and I had to cover my nose and mouth with the inside of my elbow to keep the sulfuric smell from gagging me.

“Yes, I’m here,” she said. “The party can begin.”

The Lakari jumped back into action, and our Guardians fought back. Enyxa spoke in a strange, guttural language, and many of the other monsters returned to their attacks. Another phrase in another language and the rest sprang into the fight.

The Darkness had become so deep in our immediate area, blacker than the darkest hour of night, and I could barely see around the manor’s lawn, but I could definitely hear the battle resuming. The sounds of gnashing teeth and metal against metal filled the air. Grunts and groans and battle cries, too. A wail of pain every now and then. Both Guardians and monsters going down. Lakari disintegrated and flew to the sky to regroup. Enyxa cackled like a stereotypical cartoon witch.

Asia and I only stood there, though, with Hope by our side. Staring at the lights of the new Gate and waiting with our breaths held. Hope and I tried to summon them again. Asia remained a statue, her lips sealed. No more bodies or souls came through the Gate opened by the Book of Phoenix, but more Dark beings continued flowing from the main Gate out in the bay.

My stomach knotted, and I wanted to throw up.

“They’re not coming,” I finally said, my words garbled because of the lump in my throat. I tore my eyes from the lights and looked around, taking in the scene of violence and death, of shadows fighting and others lying dead on the ground. We were severely outnumbered. Not that it would matter in the end, but the less Darkness in this world when we went down, the longer the human souls could hold out. “We need to close the—”

A green-skinned, troll-like beast, size XXXXXL, bowled into the three of us, slamming into my left side. I went down, falling on top of Asia and Hope. Ignoring the crunching sound I’d heard when it hit me and the pain shooting through my left arm, I jumped up and swung my right foot toward the beast’s chest, the highest point I could reach. Asia and Hope sprang up, too, with blades extended. They carved gashes into the troll’s torso, but it only smirked lopsidedly, exposing its crooked, pocked teeth.

“It takes more than that to kill a Weiran,” someone said from behind us—Enyxa’s voice. “One of the most invincible Dark races in this universe. A nearly perfect soldier.”

“But not completely invincible,” Hope said over her shoulder, and she slapped her hand over one of the cuts in the Weiran’s skin. A bright light flowed into the alien’s body, coming out at its various openings, including the gashes we’d sliced into it. Its scream was like a sonic boom. The earth shook when it fell.

Enyxa snarled, and I took advantage of the moment. With my blade held high, I charged at her. Her arm swept out, and without her even touching me, a force flew into me, slamming into my chest and sending me sailing. I landed several yards away on my back, my breath flying out of me and pinpricks of light shooting across my vision.

“You want to play that way, young angel?” Enyxa said, and she let out a wicked laugh. “You’re on!”

A wave of Darkness blasted at me. It blanketed me, soaked into me, consumed me. A vision of Leni’s body sprawled out on a sheet of blue ice filled my mind. Her opened eyes stared upwards, not sea-green and beautiful, but cloudy gray and empty of life. Enyxa’s own memory of what she’d left behind to come here. The pain I’d been living with for the past several days didn’t compare to the agony that ripped through my heart and soul now. I tried to cover my head with my hands, as if that would help, but physical pain in my arm knocked me back to reality. Asia’s screams sounded from somewhere nearby.

I forced my eyes open, in time to see Hope blast her light at Enyxa. The bitch sprang upwards and flipped in the air. The light blasted into an alien, and it exploded. Enyxa landed and ran off, out of my line of vision. I rolled over and tried to push myself to my knees with one arm. The ground quaked underneath me, and I looked up and around. One of those fire-breathing elephant-like things that had been coming through the Gate was barreling through the water, headed right for me. A shot of adrenaline forced me to my feet.

“Close the fucking Gate!” I yelled right before the beast rammed at me.

I lifted my knife up and slashed at its neck. Black blood spurted, spraying me, and it blew out a burst of fire. Someone in the direction of the flames screamed. Asia flew over the top of it and pierced her blade between its shoulders before sliding down its side. She landed next to me, panting, as the monster reared up, blowing more fire with its anger. Its tree-trunk-like front legs waved in the air before they crashed back to the ground, leaving divots in the earth and forcing us to stumble backwards.

“We’re only making it mad,” I said, and even I could hear the defeat in my voice. The image of Leni’s dead body hadn’t left my vision. The Darkness weighed me down more than ever.

“I … I can’t fight like I used to,” Asia said, still working to draw in breaths. “I couldn’t even jump all the way over it, let alone actually hurt it.”

“We can’t fight like the rest of them,” I agreed, jutting my chin toward the other Guardians. They weren’t entirely successful, but at least most of them were holding their own for as long as possible. Without our other halves here, Asia and I were comparatively weak and worthless.

The beast swung its head toward us. A Guardian came running in our direction, wielding a long sword. She jumped upwards and arced the blade downward, severing the trunk just as it hit us and knocked us down. Upon impact, the appendage shattered into hundreds of wriggling pieces, but the monster itself was only angered more. The skin at the amputation site split apart and several thin, white tentacles curled out of it, toothy, snapping mouths at their ends.

“That’s disgusting,” Asia muttered. The other Guardian screamed, swinging her sword wildly as the tentacles swayed toward her. She managed to land a few swipes, cutting the monster, but it wouldn’t go down.

“Its eye,” I said, staggering to my feet once again. It was a guess pulled out of my ass. No more than a gut feeling. But stabbing the beast in the eye was the best thing I could come up with to defeat it. “Get it … in the … eye.”

It took every ounce of effort I had to raise my knife in the air again. No way would I be able to jump to reach its eye when I felt like the entire planet was strapped to my waist, pulling me down. So I arced my hand behind me and swung the blade up, letting go at the top of my swing. The knife spun end over end. I stumbled backward and fell onto my ass from the effort. As I hit the ground, the blade’s point plunged right into the beast’s orb.

A fountain of black blood spurted everywhere. The creature wailed, blowing fire in the air. People screamed. The monster wobbled on its legs, and then it started leaning over, toward Asia and me. We tried to scramble backwards, but it fell onto us, crushing our legs and pinning us under its weight. My head cracked against the ground again. The little black pieces that remained of its trunk wriggled and jumped their way onto Asia’s body and mine. Dozens of the fuckers latched onto us, little spindly teeth or barbs piercing into our skin. I tried to brush them off, but they were hooked on like leeches.

Instead of sucking my blood, however, the opposite seemed to be true. The things were spurting thin streams of venom into my flesh—an ice-cold venom of Darkness that leaked into my blood and carried throughout my system. As if my heart and soul could take any more of the Dark.

I couldn’t move my body. My legs, shattered and pinned by the alien monster, and my broken arm screamed in pain when I tried. My good hand scrambled to fling off the leeches, but there were too many of them, each streaming Darkness into my blood, my heart, my soul. It overcame my last bit of energy. My arm fell to the ground. Splotches of black burst like fireworks in my vision.

I rolled my head to the side to see Asia lying on the ground next to me in the same predicament—half of her body wedged under the creature and her skin dotted with alien bits shooting Darkness into her veins. Her head lolled toward me. I was sure the defeated expression on her face and the despair in her eyes mirrored my own.

“Maybe we’ll meet them in the Space Between,” I whispered hoarsely.

Her glassy eyes watered, and she gave me the slightest smile. “I never thought of you as the optimist.”

“If there’s any chance of finding my Leni, I’ll hang onto whatever hope I can get.”

Her focus moved from my eyes to something behind me. “Good news is it looks like they closed the Gate.”

I forced my head to roll to the other side. The lights in the distance, out by the island, had gone dark. The main Gate was closed. The lights nearer to us, barely off shore, began to dim. The Gate the Book had opened was closing, too. My own soul Darkened even more along with its lights.

I’d failed my girl. I’d failed the Phoenix Guardians. I’d failed the world. The only thing left to do was to submit to the Darkness.