The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3) (28 page)

“
Wait!
” I screamed before the guys let her go. Following my intuition, what I felt to be true deep in my heart and soul, I soared in front of them, hovering over the ring of fire myself. “She has hope. So does he. There’s
hope
for them! We can’t kill them! We can’t let them go like this!”

I flew at Enyxa’s soul, slid my fingers between the Dark and Light parts, and pulled as hard as I could at a white fiber. The guys held Enyxa tightly, their fingers digging into her black shoulders, and pulled her backward. Bex came over and helped me. Those who had been on that other Earth with me understood what I meant. They knew what I was trying to do. Asia and Jeric only stared at us for a moment, but with a word of encouragement from Hope, they joined in the tug of war with Enyxa’s soul. Asia, Jeric, and Bex pulled me back as I held onto the Light piece, stretching it until a little bit unraveled, then stretching it more.

Touching it like this, I realized the Dark parts were part of Satan. I could feel him and how he’d attached himself to her. And I could feel through his deep, deep Blackness that he’d only been using Enyxa all of this time to get his hands on Earth. As soon as she would have claimed this world, he would have taken it from her. She had been barely more than his puppet all of this time. She must have finally felt this truth, too, because her Light part in my hand began undulating and wriggling, trying to pull itself free from the black.

And then a horrible sound of fabric ripping apart, except it wasn’t fabric.

We all knew the sound well. We also knew the pain. We’d all experienced it before. My soul hurt for Enyxa as she shrieked in agony while we tore hers into two, Separating the Dark from the Light. We flew backwards when they finally detached from each other. Asia, Bex, Jeric, and I, with the Light part of Enyxa’s soul crying in my hands, stopped on the far side of the ring of fire. Brock and Hayden hovered opposite of us holding the black remnant as it hollered in a weak threat. As though tossing a piece of garbage into the bin, they released the shreds of soul into the fiery Gate, sending it back to Hell, back to Satan, where it belonged.

Lakari swooped down, a gush of Dark souls pouring into the Gate after their master. A river of them screamed by us and downward. Away. Out of our world. Once and for all. As if the Gate to Hell knew they’d all been sucked out of our Earth, it closed up with a swoosh, and the flames disappeared.

Enyxa jerked out of my grip and flew to her other half. They tried to join with each other, swirling together, but they were too weak on their own. Hope gathered them together and cupped them in her hands.

“Very good, Jacquelena, you followed your instinct and saw their love,” she said as her body lit up and glowed a bright white. “Let’s get them to the Space Between.”

Jeric’s soul clashed into mine, his pride for me washing through me. I returned the feeling, so proud of him for being the leader he was meant to be, before we shared a moment of peace. Then we pulled apart and, along with the others, followed Hope out to the permanent Gate in the middle of the bay.

“While we’re here, you and Hayden can finally Forge,” I said to Bex.

“Thank God and baby Jesus. I have no idea how we even survived that. That shit was crazy!”

I laughed, and so did the others.

When we reached the island with the weeping willow tree, Hope paused.

“That’s my tree,” she said.

Asia gasped. “I knew that! The Tree of Hope!”

“I planted it in the very beginning. I put a tree by each one of Earth’s Gates,” she said. “Maybe some day I’ll tell you why.”

She plunged downward then, the two souls still in her hands. We followed her down. The lights of the Gate sprang up. More Guardians joined us. Hundreds of souls. Hope held the two up.

“I hold here the two halves of Ny’xan, one of the Original Seven,” she said. “May they find each other and their peace once again. May they grow together and return to us the strong souls of the Light they are meant to be. Until we meet again.”

“Until we meet again,” every Guardian said in unison.

Hope let them go, and they soared into the Gate. Everyone cheered and hollered when they disappeared inside. The sounds must have been strange to anyone else, and a pod of dolphins swam toward us to check it out. After a brief celebration in our soul forms, Jeric promised everyone a real party later. All of the Guardians except the remainder of the Original Seven left. Brock, Asia, Jeric, and I stood by as Bex and Hayden entered the Gate. We didn’t need to hear their vows. It was too late anyway, and they’d already proven themselves worthy.

When the Gate disappeared several moments later, a ball of blinding white light remained—their souls conjoined. In other words, making love in the way only souls can do.

“Well, then,” Brock said, chuckling as he turned away. “We’re out of here. You two enjoy that Bonding.”

He took Asia’s hand, and they flew upward together.

Jeric wrapped his soul around mine. “I think
we
have lots of Bonding to do, too.”

The feeling sent tingles through me. We bounded upwards together and flew over the city lights as One, enjoying our reunion for all it was worth.

Chapter 29

1 Week Later

Warmth on my face awoke me. I squinted my eyes open against a bright light with a large form silhouetted in it. I didn’t have to wait for my eyes and brain to focus to know that was Brock standing in the sunlight streaming through the window. My soul felt him before I’d fully gained consciousness.

“Hey, beautiful,” he greeted as he squeezed my hand and lifted my knuckles to his lips.

He shifted out of the light, allowing me to see his ruggedly handsome face better. His dark hair was as disheveled as always, as though he’d been pulling at it, which he probably had been. His chocolate eyes smiled warmly at me. Without moving my gaze from the face I missed so much, I could see from peripheral vision that I wasn’t in the same room I’d spent the last week in, healing. No, this one was more familiar, although it felt different now. Bright. Not like the dark one it had been while Brock was gone.

“The healers let me bring you to our room,” he said. “I didn’t even wait for help. I carried you up here myself.”

I smiled. “It’s not like you left my side anyway.”

He’d even slept in the chair next to me the first few nights, then in the bed with me when the healers allowed. We’d spent most of that time outside of our bodies, Bonding.

“No. But I couldn’t wait to get you alone. I’ve been going crazy waiting for you to wake up. I’ve already wasted too much of my life without you.”

My heart swelled, and my soul sang. I squeezed his hand and brought it to my lips to return the gesture of kissing his knuckles.

“I love you, Brock,” I said around the lump in my throat.

He fell from the chair to his knees and rested his chin on the side of the bed.

“You give me life, Asia,” he replied. “I will never doubt us again. I will never push you away. In fact, I will never let you go again.”

I sucked in my bottom lip and gnawed at it as I looked into his deep brown eyes. “Before you say that, I have to tell you something.”

“Nothing will change my mind, babe. Nothing can be worse than what we’ve been through already.”

I nodded, although I wasn’t quite sure I agreed. “Just let me get this out there. Jeric was right. You deserve to know everything about me. And then you can decide for certain.”

I tried to sit up, but my legs couldn’t quite cooperate.

“You’re not fully healed yet,” he said. “You’re doing better than Jeric—he apparently took the brunt of the gozzard’s weight and has that broken arm, too—but you’re not quite up to snuff. Let me.”

He came around to his side of the bed and crawled in next to me. Then he lifted my torso up and situated himself around me, then pulled me back against him. His muscular arms encircled my shoulders and his hands found mine in my lap, over the covers. Under the blanket, I wore only his extra-large shirt and panties. He picked my hands up and intertwined our fingers as I leaned back against his chest. His head leaned in, and he kissed my temple.

“What’s on your mind?” he asked.

I drew in a deep breath and almost chickened out. “You’ve already been through a lot. Maybe now’s not a good time.”

His breath fluttered through my hair, and he lifted our hands to push some stray strands away from my face. I’d changed the color to a silvery lilac after he’d told me the other day that it had been his favorite color on me. I’d made it long, too, because I knew he liked to pull on it.

“I’m here with you. Life is good. Our souls are Light again. So unless you’re about to tell me that you don’t want me here …”

I squeezed his fingers. “Never. But hear me out. I’ve done something really horrible—”

“Asia. Stop. I know you were taking the blame for what happened to Connor, but that was never your fault, babe. I
never
blamed you one second for that. Mom has some explaining to do, whenever she gets back from whatever she’s doing, but not you. You took some of that pain for me, Asia. I would have never made it through that time if not for you. I would have gone Dark immediately.”

I nodded against his chest. “I know that now. I’d always felt terrible about that, and it had caused a lot of strain between us before … before you … went to Hell and came back. But I understand now. I mean, it’s good to hear that from you. You have no idea how good.” I paused and sighed. “But this thing I have to tell you is definitely all me. Jeric can verify it.”

Brock tensed up behind me, and his fingers tightened around mine. When he spoke, I could tell it was through a clenched jaw. “While I was gone …?”

“What? No! Nothing like that!” I extracted a hand from his grip and lifted it to his cheek, soothing his jaw. Then I blew out a breath and spilled. “It was the night you disappeared, but first, I have to go back, to when I had my miscarriage.”

And I finally told him everything. Everything about douchebag Drew and dickhead Mark, about my pregnancy and miscarriage. About being shoved down the stairs and my medical records being wiped out. About how they’d bought their way out of trouble and how badly it had pissed me off when Mason had done the same thing and then nearly killed Bex. And then, with a heavy dose of guilt mixed with fear of how he’d react to my atrocity, I told him what I did to Mason. He cringed.

Then he sat in stunned silence for a long moment.

And then he laughed.

He laughed so hard that he had us both bent over, his chest shaking me. His arms tightened around me as he settled down and sat back against the headboard again, pulling me with him.

“You really stabbed a broken bottle neck into his dick?” he asked, his voice mixed with disbelief and humor.

“Yeah, I pretty much did. It’s bad, I know, and I still can’t believe I did it. But the fucker deserved it.”

“He most certainly did.”

He laughed again and then crossed our arms over my chest, hugging me tighter.

“You’re my hero,” he whispered against my ear. He chuckled again. “I don’t remember teaching you that move, though.”

“The situation called for improvisation. Jeric had already beaten him to a pulp.”

“He saw you do it, huh?”

“Yeah. I think it gave him a whole new perspective of me.”

He laughed. “I don’t doubt it. Nobody messes with my girl.”

“Or the ones she loves.”

His lips pressed against my cheekbone. “That includes me?”

I tilted my head and turned my neck, our mouths less than an inch from each other. “More than anyone.”

He caught my lips within his full ones and kissed my worries away. When my neck couldn’t hold that position any more, he kissed over my cheek and jaw and down the side of my throat, until his mouth landed on my favorite place. His lips parted, and his tongue swept out, swirling against my skin. I shuddered in his arms, then pulled his hands up to my chest and cupped them over my breasts. My nipples strained against the material of my shirt—I wore no bra—aching for his touch.

“Can we …?” I asked breathlessly.

He moaned against my neck. “We’re not supposed to. You can’t be moved like that yet.”

“But there are other ways to pleasure each other.”

His mouth moved up to my ear, and he nibbled on my lobe. “I like your way of thinking. But I’m not going to do anything that might hurt you.”

Despite his words, his erection pressed against my lower back.

“I’m pretty sure it would feel good, not hurt.”

He pulled my lobe between his lips and circled it with the tip of his tongue before releasing it. “When I make love to you, Asia, I’m going to make
real
love
with
you.”

“Oh, you most definitely will.” I pulled his arms from around me and motioned for him to lie next to me. “Wait. Take your shirt off. I miss seeing you like that.”

He pulled his shirt over his head, and I smiled at his beauty, although it only made me ache more for him. Once he lay down next to me, we turned to face each other. I trailed my fingertips over his glorious pecs and abs, then back and forth above the waistband of his jeans, making his muscles jump under my touch. Then I slid my hand over the large bulge in his jeans.

“Asia,” he moaned, his eyes hooding over, the darkness of them smoldering.

“Touch me,” I whispered. “I need your hands on me. I need to feel your body
and
your soul.”

His hand slid under my shirt and up my side, over my ribs. He cupped my breast and rubbed his thumb over my tight nipple, then rolled and pinched it between his fingers.

“More,” I whimpered as I undid his jeans and slid my hand inside, freeing him from the confines. His hand moved downward, under the covers, between my legs. He leaned in, and his mouth found mine at the same time his finger stroked against me. I became liquid at his touch.

“I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Then keep doing what you’re doing,” I moaned.

His whole hand became involved in pleasuring me as mine pleasured him, and we stroked each other more frantically and urgently until we both felt the release we needed—the release of our souls from our bodies at the height of our physical climax.

“This is what I really needed,” my soul said to his. “Feeling you in all the spaces within me.”

“Right where I belong,” he agreed. “Where my soul belongs. As a part of yours since the beginning of time.”

“And into eternity.”

Our souls swirled more tightly together, forming an almost solid bond like when we had first been Forged. No longer would either of us doubt these words. Never again would we let anyone try to convince us differently, including our own selves.

We belonged together. Our souls two halves of the same One.