The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3)

by Kristie Cook

  “Those are expected. You went through hell, girl. And you’re handling that like a boss. But the weird stuff … the Twin Flames, projection, reincarnation stuff … you’re kind of taking it all in stride.”

  “Hayden’s helped with that. Connecting with him like we do—with our souls, I guess—helps me remember everything, which makes it difficult to deny.” She let out a laugh, a good sound that was rare in all of our misery. “I just remembered that conversation you and I had when we were packing my angels. Damn, I was so naïve then.” She shook her head, her red hair swinging over her shoulders. Hard to believe we’d been packing for her move to Mason’s apartment only a couple of weeks ago, in Earth time anyway. Her voice came out darker and thicker with her next sentence. “Not just naïve, but stupid in some ways.”

  “Don’t go there, Bex,” I warned. “You will not blame yourself.”

  She nodded but didn’t say anything more. Her whole aura changed, became dark and heavy once again. And that brought my own misery to the forefront of my mind. Helping Bex and learning Brock and Asia’s story had been a good distraction, but the ache always remained close by, ready to take center stage in quiet times like now. I wished Asia would continue writing or doing whatever she’d been doing to distract us again.

  Or, even better, that she and Jeric would suddenly appear in front of us, ready to take us home. Away from these foreign worlds that were too much like Earth, but not. Away from the misery and Darkness that settled deeper into our souls with each passing moment. Away from Enyxa and the horrible memories she insisted we relive.

  “We need to find the Gate on this world,” I said to the others later as we stood on the beach, staring over the water at the horizon, where one of the three moons rose although the sun remained high in the sky behind us.

  “We need to find something to eat,” Hayden growled.

  He and Brock hadn’t caught anything in the water, but I thought he and maybe Bex were the only ones who cared. I knew the pain in my stomach from missing my other half would make eating impossible. But I also knew we had to keep our energy levels up if we were to survive.

  Bex turned toward him, opened her mouth to say something, but then her blue eyes grew the size of beach balls as she looked behind us.

  “Son of a biscuit eatin’ bitch,” she croaked. “Somethin’ found us to eat!”

  We all swung around. Two bright orange, anaconda-sized snakes had slithered out of the jungle. Part of them remained hidden in the trees’ shadows, but all of what we could see lifted several feet in the air above us. They waggled toward us, as though catching our scents. We all backed up, but paused when the snakes came farther onto the beach, our breaths trapped, too scared to move. Scratch that. Not snakes. Those were only the antennae attached to a long, thin body that never stopped rippling out of the jungle. Hundreds of translucent legs propelled it along like a centipede the size of a tractor-trailer truck. The front portion of its body reared up, its snaky antennae wiggled, and dozens of legs as thick as my own undulated in the air, reaching toward us.

  Fear seized me in place. My breath froze in my lungs. The gigantic spiders in the movies would have been dinner for this thing. But they weren’t here. We were.

  “RUN!” Brock yelled, kicking the fight-or-flight response into gear for all of us.

  He sprinted down the beach, and the rest of us dashed after him. When the strip of sand narrowed so that the water lapped at the trees’ roots, we turned into the jungle, running back the way we’d come yesterday. We were slower and more awkward than we’d been just one day ago, tripping over roots and letting hanging vines hit our heads and shoulders. The trees were too tall to see their tops, and the foliage too thick to allow more than a dim, green-filtered light to reach the ground. The jungle felt more alive than it had last time we’d run through it. Glowing butterflies and other bugs flittered about. Animals that moved too fast for me to see raced along the branches high overhead from tree to tree. Birds chirped and squawked, and what sounded like monkeys chattered loudly. My skin wouldn’t stop crawling with the thought of one of those monstrous centipedes falling from a tree and landing on my back. An occasional roar sounded through the air, making my heart race faster than it already was.

  As we passed under one tree, vines hanging from branches thirty feet high became like tentacles and swung and cracked the air. They whipped at us, lashing at our flesh hard enough to break the skin. The pain knocked me to my knees. Brock grabbed my elbow to pull me up, but another vine snapped against his back. He arched forward with a yell, and stumbled, dragging me with him. Hayden wrapped an arm around Bex and tried to use his body to protect her, taking all the lashes himself. By the time we found our way out, our acid-eaten clothes now sported new cuts, which were staining with blood from the gashes in our skin.

  “We gotta keep going,” Hayden panted. “I don’t think that thing followed us, but it’s not the only creature in this bush.”

  He swung Bex into his arms and took off again. Brock and I glanced at each other. The look in his eyes reflected what I felt. There was only so much of a beating our bodies and souls could take. We wanted to give up. Let the trees whip us. Let the jungle kill us. The Darkness was too heavy to bear with everything else. It’d be so much easier to just give in to it. We were fools for thinking we’d ever get back to our Twin Flames, back to the Light. Why fight it any longer?

  Laaaaaay-kneeeeeeee. Jeric’s beautiful voice floated in my head in a song sang only for me. Loooooove youuuuuu.

  I didn’t know if it was real or something my survival instincts threw at me, but it was enough to keep me going.

  “We’ll … get back to them,” I huffed at Brock as I grabbed his thick forearm and pulled him forward. He stumbled a few steps, and then stopped.

  He put his hands on his hips and bent over, panting and shaking his head. “I can’t … go on. I don’t … want … to go on.”

  “What about Asia?”

  “Asia deserves better than me!” he barked.

  I crossed the two paces between us and slapped him across the face. “Bullshit! Stop that right now, Broderick. You and Anastasia are made for each other, and you will be together again. Now stop being a fucking pansy and pull your shit together. We can do this!”

  He stared at me with widened eyes and his mouth slightly open. He shook his head again, and I thought about punching him this time, but he straightened up and resumed walking, muttering something under his breath about Jeric wearing off on me. I wished I’d been channeling Jeric just now, but it was probably more the Darkness wearing on my last nerves.

  We jogged after Hayden and Bex, but they ran so far ahead, we couldn’t see them any more. Great. The last thing we needed right now was to get separated in this god-awful jungle. A scream from Bex kicked us into a sprint, following the direction it came from. A familiar screech followed right after it.

  “Shit. The gozzard,” I said as we ran. I could see its huge shape fifty yards ahead of us.

  “Dinner!” Hayden yelled from above us as we came closer. He and Bex were both in a tree with branches lower than most of the others. She sat on a branch higher than the one he stood on. He was inching his way out, over the gozzard who had swung its head and elephant-like trunk toward Brock and me.

  “Don’t cut its trunk this time,” I reminded Brock as we pulled our weapons and bent our knees into a crouch.

  “I’m not eating that thing raw,” Bex said.

  “Don’t worry, love.” Hayden stopped as the branch he was on lowered with his weight, almost touching the gozzard’s back. “You two be ready.”

  The gozzard took a step toward Brock and me, causing the ground to shake. Hayden yelled, catching its attention, and at the same time dropped down on its back haunch. With knives out, he sliced along the beast’s sides as he ran toward its front horns. The gozzard let out a bone-chil
ling roar and whipped its head around, trying to get to Hayden.

  “Grab the meat,” Hayden yelled as slices of flesh fell from the monster. “Throw it in front of its face. We only get one chance!”

  Brock and I dashed for the pieces Hayden had sliced off and threw it as instructed. The flesh hadn’t even hit the ground when Hayden drove a dagger into the side of the gozzard’s throat. Fire flew out of its mouth. The trunk whipped back toward Hayden, one of those thin, white tentacles flying out of it. It wrapped around Hayden’s leg and yanked him off the monster’s back.

  “The eye,” Hayden yelled at us as he swung a dagger at the tentacle.

  I ran, jumped, and plunged my blade into its eye. The gozzard collapsed, quaking the ground. I collapsed next to it with no more energy to move. Hayden dropped to the ground beside me, his face twisted in agony. The white tentacle, severed from its owner, was still wrapped around his leg like a tight string, digging into his skin. His flesh sizzled and smoked all around it. I tried to lift my arm, but it came up slowly as though it weighed eight-hundred pounds. Brock beat me to it and sliced the tentacle off of Hayden’s leg. He moaned and groaned and rolled on the ground.

  Bex slid down the tree trunk, holding her bad arm close to her chest. As soon as her feet touched the ground, she ran over to Hayden.

  “We have to help him!” She winced through her own pain as she grabbed Hayden’s shoulders with both hands and pinned him to the ground. “Tell us what to do.”

  “Leave me to die,” Hayden moaned as he writhed under her weight.

  “Not happenin’. Now tell us what to do!”

  “The venom will kill me. There’s nothing you can do.”

  “Can we suck it out?” I asked.

  “It’ll kill you.”

  “We’ll spit it out.”

  “As much as there is, you’ll undoubtedly swallow some. Too much and you’ll be as bad as me.”

  “Then we’ll take turns,” Brock said. “Between the three of us, we can handle it.”

  “Don’t be stupid,” Hayden said. “It’s too risky.” His eyes glassed over as he looked up, behind Bex’s head. “Ohhhh, mountains. So beautiful. I’ve never seen colored mountains like that.”

  We all looked in the same direction, but only saw more jungle. He was hallucinating. We had no choice but to take turns sucking on Hayden’s wounds and spitting out the venom. The sour, putrid taste made me gag, and I couldn’t spit it out fast enough. I didn’t think it possible to accidentally swallow any.

  “Think we got it all?” I asked, my tongue feeling thick in my mouth from all the sucking and spitting.

  I looked up at the others, but they were all gone. Instead, the most wonderful sight ever stood in front of me.

  “Jeric?” I shrieked. I jumped up for him, suddenly filled with all kinds of energy.

  He caught me in his arms and wrapped them around me, hugging me to his chest. Tears streamed down my face.

  “You made it,” I sobbed as I held him tighter. “You found us.”

  I pulled back to take a good look at him, to make sure he was really here. I laughed at the sight of him. Why the hell was he wearing a girl’s hot pink tube top and shorts made out of a United States flag?

  “You look ridiculous, but beautiful to me.” I sprang back into his arms and dropped kisses all over his face, on his brow ring, on his cheekbones, on his dimples. His skin felt rough under my lips. He probably hadn’t shaved in days, since I’d left.

  As my hands slid down his chest, though, the roughness was enough to scrape against my palms. I pulled back again. Jeric was gone. I was clinging to a damned tree. I slid to my knees on the ground and sobbed.

  “Here.” Bex pushed a piece of charred gozzard meat in front of me. “Hayden says it’ll help.”

  I shook my head. “Don’t want to eat. Want to die.”

  “Not if I can help it,” she said, and she stuffed the meat into my mouth.

  I had no choice but to chew and swallow. I thought my stomach would protest and heave it back out, but it actually seemed to welcome the substance. Almost immediately my head cleared. Bex handed me a larger piece of meat, cooked by its owner before we’d killed it. As I sat up and looked at the others, they all looked away.

  “God,” I moaned.

  Bex laughed. “Don’t worry. You weren’t as hilarious as Brock starting to strip while dry humping that tree root over there.”

  Brock growled as he pulled his shirt back over his head, and I really tried hard not to laugh, honest I did. But I couldn’t contain it. The sound bubbled up on its own accord and burst from my mouth. In seconds, we were all rolling on the ground, even Brock. I’d never done drugs, but if the high was anything like this, I thought I might take up smoking pot.

  “It’s the after effects,” Hayden said once we settled down. “From the venom. The hallucinations come first, and if you’re lucky enough to survive them and get some meat into you, the high comes next.”

  “We have to get home,” Bex said. “I thought ya’ll were gonna die on me, and no way am I gonna survive here by myself. Especially without you, Hayden.”

  She’d never spoken such truer words.

  Once we ate all of the cooked gozzard meat, which wasn’t much but enough to give us some energy, we made our way through the rest of the jungle. We came out where we’d entered yesterday, and I felt the Gate in the water. Maybe we shouldn’t have run off so fast, after all. Then again, we’d thought maybe we were on Earth, and there was that gozzard that had been dropping from the sky, too.

  “I feel it,” Bex confirmed.

  “This is where we landed,” Hayden said. “The same Gate, right? Won’t it just take us back to Erde?”

  I gnawed on my bottom lip. “It shouldn’t. That’s not how the Gates work. It should give us access to all the worlds. I think.”

  “But we don’t know for sure,” Brock added. “We really don’t know shit.”

  “I’m not going back to Erde,” Hayden said firmly. “It’s too Dark there.”

  “Enyxa can still get us here,” I said. “We have to try to get to Earth. As long as she can get to us, we’ll go Dark anyway, on Erde or anywhere.”

  Instinct told me the bitch couldn’t simply show up on Earth as she had on Erde and here. Our societies and ways of living may have been spiraling our world toward Darkness, or maybe Darkness was leading us down that spiral, but she didn’t rule us. Earth wasn’t Dark yet. And we needed to get out of the Dark. I didn’t know how much longer we’d last.

  “I agree,” Bex said. “We have to try.”

  Hayden groaned. “I don’t like it, but I go where you go.”

  Brock said nothing. His face held his perpetual scowl, which wasn’t like the Brock I’d known on Earth. He was changing, and not for the better. All the more reason we needed to get out of here.

  I didn’t know what else to do but swim for the Gate and hope it would open for us like the one on Erde did, so I did exactly that. The others followed me into the water. I prayed hard as we approached where I felt the Gate to be. As soon as I dove under the water, the lights sprang toward the surface. I popped back up.

  “Bex and Hayden, go first. Try to Forge.”

  Before they could plunge under, however, the walls of light reached upward, and the water sucked downward, taking all of us with it. By the time our feet hit the bottom of the lake where we’d landed, the cylindrical walls were solid and the water gone. We’d barely caught our breath when a hole began opening in the Gate. It wouldn’t Forge them here, apparently, so my initial instinct had been right. They couldn’t Forge on a Dark world.

  Rather than jumping through the newly formed hole this time, I peeked in. Mountains and a lake spread out before us.

  “Looks like it could be Earth,” I said hesitantly. So far, every
thing had looked like it could be Earth at first glance, even Erde.

  “The fuck it does,” Brock said just as a beast that looked somewhat like a horse but was covered in feathers galloped by. Wings lifted from its back as it turned toward us and snapped with teeth like an alligator’s rather than an equine’s. I jerked back, into the group behind me who’d been leaning forward to see, too.

  When we all pulled back, the hole closed up.

  “Here’s one,” Hayden said from my right.

  We all turned toward a new hole gaping open. A green field stretched out with a stream running through it. Creatures grazed in the distance, and they looked like normal cows.

  “Is this it?” Bex squealed with excitement.

  A huge ball, the size of a blimp, with wings and scales flew at us. We flinched away, and the hole closed up just in time. Several more began opening, giving us glimpses of worlds that looked like Earth but weren’t.

  “There are so many worlds that are similar to Earth.” Enyxa’s voice filled the space around us. “In this universe and beyond. Worlds in other dimensions, planes, and realms that are Earth. Just not yours. If you think I’ll let you find your way back to your own world, you’re more delusional than I thought. Which is good. Will only make the Darkness come faster.”

  All of the gaping holes with all their familiar-but-not-quite-right scenes began to make me dizzy. Enyxa’s words brought renewed despair that we’d never find our way home. She would never let us. My body felt heavy. My soul small. When a new black hole began yawning open, I couldn’t fight the force of it. I let it suck me through. The others followed.

  We landed on a floor of ice, surrounded by more ice. The only light came from a blue glow within the frozen water, illuminating enough to show that everything around us was coated in ice. We were in a cavern, facing nothing but darkness outside. Instinct told me the entire world was frozen over.

  “Nice choice for a layover.” Enyxa’s voice again. She appeared in front of us, her black-and-white hair covered in frost. “This is one of my favorite worlds. The cold and endless Darkness make me happy. You lot won’t last long here, which makes it even better. I don’t think this will be a layover after all. No, I think this will be your final destination, for this life cycle, at least.”