by Kristie Cook
I jumped to my feet. “Are you fucking serious?”
Hope’s brows lifted. “Completely serious.”
“Yeah, right,” Asia muttered. She stood, too, and placed her hands on her narrow hips. “If that were the case, why are they gone? Why didn’t Leni just summon Nathayden here for Bex?”
“The Book can send you to other worlds, too. It works both ways,” Hope said. “Leni obviously didn’t remember this, or trust me, she would have brought Nathayden here instead.”
I paced a few times and wiped my hand over my face before stopping in front of Hope. “You can bring Leni and Brock back? You know this for sure?”
“Yes,” she said simply. “And Rebethannah and Nathayden, wherever they are.”
“How?”
“With the Book. And the Gates. We’ll need to open the Gates again.”
“And there it is,” Asia said, throwing her hands in the air in an I-told-you-so way. “How do we know you aren’t using this to open the Gates for Enyxa and her Lakari?”
“I am.”
Gasps filled the room again, followed by complete silence. If a pin dropped on the carpet, we all would have heard it.
“It’s the only way to defeat her,” Hope explained. “We need the remainder of the Original Seven on this Earth, and we need her here, too. She can only be defeated in the world she truly belongs to, and that’s here.”
Asia snorted. “Sounds like a plan to destroy us all and the rest of Earth’s souls.”
“Asia, why don’t you trust me?”
Asia leaned toward her. “Because you already set me up. Brock and me.”
“I helped you. I protected you from the time Brock was conceived, becoming his parent myself so I could be close. I pulled you south, I made sure you came to us and made you—and only you—see that help wanted ad.”
“You didn’t even give me the job at first!”
“Because I knew you weren’t ready for it. I saw your reaction to baby Connor, and I knew you needed more time. I sent Buddy to watch over you in the meantime. Who do you think told Brock about the Camaro for sale?” Hope waited for an answer, but Asia only stared, eyes narrowed, nostrils flared. Hope sighed. “I ensured you two met this time. I knew it would be harder than normal for you since you didn’t find each other in your last cycle, so I’ve done everything I can to make sure you made it together. I protected you from the Lakari and even from the soul sickness. I gave you the best running start I could, holding off the consequences as long as possible. Until Kami came along and became a threat to your relationship.”
“It wasn’t me he was supposed to meet, though. It was her!”
Hope cocked her head to the side. “Do you really believe that?”
“It’s obvious, isn’t it? We don’t belong together. We never did.”
Hope crossed the five yards to Asia and put her hands on the girl’s shoulders. “Asia, love, you need to get out of your head and search your heart and ask yourself if that’s true.” She tapped Asia’s chest with a finger. “You know the truth right here, in this space within you that you call your soul. And search the Light part of it, not the Dark. The Dark will always say what it needs to feed itself.”
Asia stared at the older woman/angel/Union soul/Enyxa’s minion/whatever she was, but I saw no sign of her changing her mind. I cleared my throat, needing to move on.
“You’re serious about opening the Gates?” I asked. “All of them? And letting Enyxa in?”
Hope turned from Asia and gave me a sharp nod. “We have to use the Book to summon the others at the same time. As long as there are souls from the Original Seven on this world and together, Enyxa can’t take control. And as long as you and Jacquelena don’t become Dark, the rest of the Original Seven will survive.”
“I don’t trust her,” Asia muttered, as if that was news.
“And not all of the Gates,” Hope added, ignoring Asia’s declaration. “Just one. Gather as many warriors as you can because there will be a battle.”
“This is exactly what we did the other day,” I said.
“But now you know more,” Hope replied. “Now you have me on your side.”
“And if we go down?” Asia challenged. “The remainder of the Seven? If they don’t come back and Jeric and Leni go Dark?”
“You have to trust me and the Book,” Hope said, and she suddenly held the Book of Phoenix in her hands. The Book that had been in my room.
“How did you get that?” I demanded.
“It knows me,” Hope answered. “Because it belongs to me as much as it does to you. How do you think you and Brock first found it, Asia? When you both tried to get rid of it, why do you think it kept reappearing?”
Asia didn’t answer. Even if she was coming around to accepting Hope’s plan, she wouldn’t admit it now, so I looked around at the others in the room who had managed to stay out of the conversation.
“I think we should try it,” Uri said. “But in the end, it’s your call, Jeric.”
“The Phoenix will stand behind you no matter what,” Melinda added.
“We found her for a reason,” Mira said. “She’s a being of the Light.”
Theo took the longest to say anything, his old eyes narrowed in thought. “I’ll tell you what I tell Leni all the time. Follow your instinct. Listen to your soul. It knows best.” He looked over at Asia. “You, too, little lady. Hope is right. You’ll find what you need to know, what matters most, in that space within you and only you.”
I clasped my hand on the back of my neck and paced a couple more times. I glanced over at Asia. She looked away from me. Hope spoke up before Asia could say anything.
“I hope I’ll earn your trust again one of these days, Asia,” the older woman said. “And here’s what I pray is a step in the right direction.” She held the Book up in the air. “If I was really working on Enyxa’s side, if I was really just wanting to get her here, I could use this Book and open the Gates myself. All of them. I could let thousands of her Dark souls in all over the world, letting them destroy the Phoenix Guardians, and you with them. But I haven’t done that. I’m giving you a choice. And I’m trying to help you, giving you a chance to bring in an army and do this in the most strategic way possible with the least amount of risk.” Hope turned her gaze on me. “Jermicah, you must be able to see that. You must trust me, or the whole world is doomed.”
Asia gnawed on her lip behind Hope, twisted a finger in her blue hair, and then gave me the slightest nod. I couldn’t tell in her dark eyes if she’d actually changed her mind, or if she saw what we’d both wanted earlier today before Hope had arrived: the fastest route to Darkness to end our pain once and for all.
It was a shit-ass choice, though. Even if I did want the Darkness to take me when there was no hope of seeing Leni again, I didn’t want it consuming all of Earth’s souls. And we’d be taking that risk. On the other hand, this could be my chance to save my girl. To save her soul. Maybe even save the world.
I needed her here with me to light my way and show me the right decision. But, of course, that was the whole fucking problem. And I missed her more than ever.
Chapter 23
Brock glared at me with murder in his eyes. With hatred so pure and unadulterated, it could only come from Darkness. And I couldn’t blame him. If I’d been in his shoes, staring down the one person who’d been ultimately responsible for every tragedy I’d experienced in this life and past ones … the reason we were all here, losing our souls … I’d want to kill me, too. As expected, he flew at me.
Hayden jumped in front of him, pushing him backwards across the ice. “You don’t want to do this, mate.”
“The hell I don’t!”
“Just let him,” I said in misery from my seat on the floor. “I deserve it. I’m done anyway. I’m tired of figh
ting it all.”
“Don’t you give up,” Bex snapped as she dropped to my side.
“Leave me alone, Bex.” I lay down on my side with my knees pulled to my chest.
“No. You wouldn’t let me die. I’m not letting you.”
“Let me go,” Brock snarled.
“I’m not letting you do something you’ll regret,” Hayden said. He pinned Brock to the cavern wall.
I closed my eyes, unable to look at him any more. Any of them. How could Bex be trying to save me after all the heartache I caused in her lives? How could any of them stand to look at me?
A giggle sounded from somewhere in the distance, although it wasn’t really. Enyxa hadn’t left our cavern. She knew we were close to crossing to her side. But she’d sounded so far away because I’d been the one leaving. My soul had been anyway.
“Isn’t this working out perfectly?” she cooed. “Did you know the Phoenix could have saved you with the Book? But they won’t. They’re too afraid of me and my army. And now you’re so close to going Dark!” She’d nearly squealed it, if evil could squeal. “You will become my children, and what’s ironic but you know is true, Jacquelena, is that I’ll be a better mother than you’ve had in lifetimes. I take care of my children. And once you become one of mine, so will your other halves on Earth. Rebethannah and Nathayden, un-Forged and weak, will follow right behind. And then the Original Seven—what the Guardians had been stupid enough to call sacred—will be completely destroyed. And you know what that means, Jacquelena?”
I moaned in answer, not giving two fucks what it meant any more. There was nothing I could do about it anyway.
“It means the Gates will open to me, the last of the Original Seven. I’ll finally be able to take over Earth, and I’ll be a better leader than Ja’mai could ever be. As long as any of you are there, I can’t have it, but you’ll be gone! Earth will be mine. Not even Satan’s, but mine. All mine!”
It took me a long moment to process what she was saying because I’d already let myself go. I’d already been working on releasing my soul from this body so it could follow the Darkness to the peace of finality. But Enyxa had gone on and on, droning in the background of my mind, not letting me go completely.
And her meaning began to take form. We’d been shut out of our own world because they’d been so afraid of the Lakari and Enyxa. The Phoenix Guardians had been forced to choose between our souls and all of Earth’s. They’d obviously chosen the rest of humanity. I couldn’t blame them. We’d been the ones to mess up in the first place, way back in the beginning, causing this catastrophe. We deserved to go Dark. The rest of Earth did not.
But there was something else Enyxa had just said: As long as we, the Original Seven, were on Earth, she couldn’t enter. She couldn’t take it. But as soon as we’d all gone Dark, Earth was hers anyway.
There really was no choice.
I managed to summon every bit of feeling I still had, every drop of love left in my body, every thin thread of connection we might still have. I focused on the Book of Phoenix, praying like I’d never prayed before that it would receive my last ditch effort of communication, and I silently screamed:
JEEEEERRRRRRIIIIICCCCC!
Chapter 24
The healers, the Guides, Hope, and Asia stared at me expectantly, waiting for my decision. I rubbed my brow ring as I looked at each of their faces and saw for the first time how much trust they put into me. How much faith they had that I would make the right decision not only for all of us but for all of humanity. They looked to me as the leader of the Phoenix Guardians. Even Hope, who could have moved forward on her own, but left the ultimate decision to me. I’d never felt so much fucking pressure in my life. But I knew what I needed to do.
It was time to become that leader once and for all.
“The last time someone told me what was best for everyone, I couldn’t bring myself to trust them,” I started. “I’m—”
“Hope! The Book,” Melinda interrupted with a panic.
Asia sucked in her breath. “I’ve seen it do that before.”
Hope tossed the Book onto the conference table as black smoke poured out of it. She opened the cover with a swipe of her finger over the lock—a show of evidence she’d been telling the truth. She turned through the pages, and the smoke began to clear. She found the one where the words had been burned into, clearly in Leni’s handwriting:
“Jeric! Open the Gate and bring us home. It’s the only way to save Earth!”
My fingers skimmed over the words, and I could feel Leni reaching out to me. I could feel her soul looking for mine. A small smile twitched at the corners of my mouth. If I hadn’t been sure before that I was doing the right thing—as risky as it was—I knew now. I put my hands on the table to brace myself and looked up at the others again.
“As I was saying, I’m not making the same mistake again. Let’s do this.”
After a few minutes of planning, Melinda, Uri, Mira, and Theo left the room to begin spreading the word to the Guardians, not just at our Gate, but all over the world. We needed to bring as many here as possible without leaving the other Gates completely unmanned, just in case something went wrong. So there was much to be coordinated.
“You two come with me, and I’ll show you how to use the Book,” Hope said to Asia and me.
She picked the Book up and walked out of the meeting room. I began to follow, but Asia didn’t. I stopped in the doorway and turned, silently questioning her. Her gaze avoided my face.
“Asia,” Hope said from behind me, “if you want your proof that I’m here to help, you’re about to get it.”
Asia bit her bottom lip, then blew out a breath and finally strode toward the doorway. We followed Hope down the hall, into the mansion part of the manor, and out the wooden double doors that led to the lawn and the bay.
“Like the Gates, many of the Book’s powers are activated by water,” Hope explained as she walked to the water’s edge.
“Well, it came out of the bay the other day after soaking in it for two days,” Asia said, “and the water didn’t do anything except wash away what had been written inside.”
“Not permanently washed away,” Hope corrected. “And no, it wouldn’t react if it was water-logged. That would make it too easy for the wrong person to find it and accidentally activate its powers. The water has to be applied lightly and with purpose. Like this.”
She bent down and swished her fingers in the water, then held her hand above the Book and let it drip onto the corner of the cover. The symbols that had been etched into the leather at that spot glowed a silvery blue. Somehow, as I stared at them, I knew exactly what they meant: Jacquelena.
“These symbols are your souls’ imprints,” Hope explained as she lit up more symbols: Broderick. “Highlighting them like this creates a stronger connection. Wetting different parts of the cover provides different results, such as opening a portal to another place on Earth or even creating a Gate wherever you are to take you to different worlds.”
She pointed to the areas of the image embossed on the cover that contained the various powers, but she didn’t actually activate them.
“So that’s what Leni did when they disappeared?” Asia asked, her voice showing real interest.
Hope nodded. “And that’s what we’ll do to get them back. The intent and desire of the user determines the direction of travel. She must have been focusing on taking Rebethannah to Nathayden, rather than bringing Nathayden to Earth. The Gate will illuminate around the Book and take anyone within its walls. The problem with that, though, is that the Book is Earthbound. When you use a Gate created by the Book, you have to want to leave for good … or be sure there’s someone here who can bring you back. Like what we’re going to do.”
She opened the Book and flipped to the page that had been burned. “You can write
in it as a one-way record-keeper, as Jacey did, but you can also intend for your writing to be felt by one of your own. And messages can come from other worlds, so when you’re in the situation you are now, you can’t exactly talk back and forth, but you can communicate.”
As if the Book heard her—maybe it did, or Leni did, or whatever—new words appeared on the page. More from Leni:
“Enyxa’s here. We’ll try to fight her, but I don’t think we’re strong enough. We’re too Dark. She’ll try to come through the Gate as soon as you open it, so be ready, Jeric. Please, God, say this message is getting through.”
“Perfect,” Hope said. “Enyxa’s exactly where we want her.”
“With our Twin Flames?” I asked in disbelief. “Not exactly!”
“Yes, exactly. It is up to you and your Twin Flames to defeat Enyxa. This is part of who you are. But first, we need to get the rest of the Guardians here as quickly as possible. I’ll show you how to create those portals for them.”
Before she began, we confirmed with Uri and Melinda that the leaders at each of the other six Gates had been notified and Guardians were on standby. Then Hope plunged her hand in the water again and started tracing certain parts of the image with her fingertip, leaving a trail of water.