by Kristie Cook
Within a few minutes, Guardians from around the world began dropping into the water and onto the lawn around us as though falling from the sky. Yoshi and Tasha came, along with several Tokyo Guardians. They all took one look at Hope and bowed deeply. What did they know that we didn’t? Asia and I exchanged a look.
“The Darkness within you blinds you from the truth,” Hope said, as though reading our minds.
It took an absurd amount of time for all of the Guardians to arrive. Or maybe it wasn’t that long, but my patience was quickly dissolving. If all went well, I’d be holding my girl by the end of the night. If it didn’t go well, we’d all be dead and Earth would belong to Enyxa. Both possibilities sent shot after shot of adrenaline rushing through my veins. I couldn’t stand still and went from leader to leader to check on the status of their Guardians, discuss our plans, and alter them when someone provided a new idea. Eventually, they all told me to chill the hell out, and I was diminished to pacing.
Asia, on the other hand, became more and more withdrawn.
She sat on the beach near the water’s edge with her knees pulled up to her chin. She absent-mindedly traced designs in the sand next to her as she stared out over the water and the sun hanging low in the afternoon sky.
I strode over to her. “Are you up for this?”
She didn’t look up at me. “Of course.”
“For real? Because I can’t have you doing something stupid. I need you to overcome the Darkness.”
“I can do it, Jeric. I will be the warrior you need me to be.”
If only she’d sounded more convincing. I began to wonder if she should be inside, protecting the bodies of those Guardians who projected. She didn’t seem to have the proper awareness to be out here in the middle of the action.
“Stop worrying about me,” Asia said. “You’ve been there for me this week. I’ll be there for you. I’ll fight for you until my last breath.”
I cocked my head at this last statement. Maybe lack of alertness wasn’t the problem. Maybe suicidal tendencies were. I was about to ask when Mat and Kel came jogging up to us.
“Everyone who’s coming is here,” Kel said.
“We’re ready then,” Hope said, suddenly appearing by my side.
All of the Guardians—hundreds of dyad pairs—had gathered on the lawn, once again looking to me to lead them. I blew out a heavy breath before addressing them.
“My comrades, my friends, my fellow warriors,” I began and immediately felt like a dumbass for how stupid that sounded. Like I was some military leader in a scripted movie about to give a powerful speech to motivate the troops. Then again, I supposed that was precisely what I was about to do. “We have no choice but to do exactly the opposite of what the Phoenix Guardians of the Gates are supposed to do—we’re going to invite evil into our world rather than keep it out.”
A quiet murmur floated through the crowd.
“I know it sounds messed up,” I continued over the din. “But it’s the only way to defeat Enyxa and rid Earth of her Dark souls. Imagine what that would mean.”
The crowd became louder, now with excitement.
“It would mean Earth’s souls have a better chance of staying Light. It would mean our jobs as Phoenix Guardians would become less risky. It could even mean we’d have a chance to live a full life and grow old with our Twin Flames.”
Some whoops and hollers sounded from the audience now. We may have not been able to remember much else, but we could all recall how short our life cycles on Earth had always been, all because of the Lakari. Just because we were warriors shouldn’t have had to mean we could never have a future—a real future—with our other halves, but that was how it had always been for us. My biggest fear since rejoining the Phoenix had been the fact that I could lose Leni at any time. That possibility existed anyway, I knew, but as long as Enyxa and the Lakari were around, it wasn’t a possibility. It was a sure thing. We could change that with this battle.
I looked out across the crowd. “So I’m asking you to join me in the battle that’s about to start. It’s the biggest battle in our history, and I know it’s a big risk. I’m sure we’ll lose some of our friends. We may even lose the battle completely, which would mean losing the war and Earth itself. But if we don’t fight, if we don’t do this, we lose anyway.”
“Let’s do this!” someone yelled from the crowd. Several people cheered and wolf-whistled in support.
“We can do it because we have Hope on our side!” Yoshi said with a fist pump into the air. The crowd cheered loudly as Hope took my hand and gave it a squeeze. She really was our last hope.
“It’s time to rise up, Phoenix Guardians,” she said, raising her voice to be heard. “It’s time to do what you’re supposed to do: protect Earth’s souls.”
I was pumped up more than ever and shot my fist into the air. “Let’s show Enyxa that her Darkness doesn’t belong here! Evil does not win on Earth!”
The Guardians erupted into battle cries and war chants. The whole thing was on the cheesy side, straight from Hollywood, but it worked. A good pep talk had always invigorated me before a fight, and this one had done the same.
The Phoenix began dividing up into who would fight physically, who would project their souls for the battle, and who would be inside with the healers to protect the bodies of those who projected. I had no choice but to be out here on the lawn, fighting physically.
“Asia, go inside and help the healers,” I said to her, noticing how uninvolved she’d been in everything.
“No. I told you I’d fight.”
“You’re not in the right frame of mind. The last thing I need is for Brock to come back and find you dead.”
“I’ll fight my hardest, I promise you that. You don’t need to worry about me.”
I studied her face, the despair that filled her eyes. She moved closer to me and wrapped a hand around my arm.
“Please, Jeric,” she begged. “Don’t send me inside. I need to be out here. I need to fight. And … I need to be here—right here—when he comes back. It’s the only way I’ll know.”
I didn’t know what she meant by that. Surely she’d feel the presence of Brock’s soul the moment he returned to our world even if she was inside the manor. But the pleading look in her sorrow-filled eyes made me give in.
“Don’t make me regret it,” I growled.
“Don’t worry about me so much. I promised you I’d fight, and I will. I’ll do whatever it takes, remember?”
I stared at her for another moment, and then nodded. “Whatever it takes.”
“Everyone’s in place,” Hope said from the edge of the water. “Time to open the Gate.”
I called out the order, and all of us in physical forms on the lawn tensed up and braced for the battle that was about to begin. The Dark souls above us immediately grew excited, swirling into a cloud that expanded by the second as more flew from all corners of the world to join them. A rumbling sound came from the bay. The water rippled toward us, and then grew into larger waves. A steady stream of Darkness rose from the water where the Gate was and merged into the black cloud overhead.
Then physical figures burst out of the water and more fell from the air above. Some four-legged and monstrous, and others two-legged but just as beastly. All of them angry and hell-bent on attacking us, running and stomping through the water toward land. All of them sending out wave after wave of Darkness. The Lakari from above began dropping onto the lawn in human form, ready to fight.
The Darkness that blasted me disintegrated the hope I’d had only moments ago. Asia and I may have been too Dark already to put up much of a fight. And if it was too late for us, it was too late for everyone else.
So I couldn’t think that way. Asia and I had promised each other to do whatever it took, and I wouldn’t break that promise. Not to her, n
ot to my Leni.
I fought the beasts and Shadowmen as hard as I could, punching and kicking and using my sword. But for every one I slayed, three more came. Enyxa’s Dark souls must have been pouring out of all of her worlds and invading ours. She’d been planning for this for millennia. She’d had them all at the ready. Hundreds of thousands of souls she’d made go Dark, maybe millions. We had barely a thousand Guardians.
We may have had Hope, who fought as hard as the rest of us, trying to protect our world, but the only way to win was for Leni, Brock, Bex, and Nathayden to join us.
But even as Dark souls continued pouring out of the Gate, they never came.
“We have to use the Book to summon them,” Hope called out to me. “Asia! Jeric! Hurry!”
I sliced off the head of an alien beast I’d been fighting and ran toward the water’s edge. Asia met us there. Following Hope’s lead, we each scooped water into our hands and poured it over the area of the cover image that depicted the Gate under the island with the tree. The water in the image glowed.
“Now press your fingers to it,” Hope said, “and call them back by their souls’ names.”
Hope and I both pressed two fingers to the silvery-blue part of the image. Asia’s small hand, however, paused in midair above ours.
“Hope,” she said, her voice quiet and desperate, “are they going to remember us when they come back? Or will their memories be stripped away again?”
My eyes flew up to her face. I’d forgotten about the theories we’d exchanged that explained why we all lost our memories after a Separation. Yoshi and Tasha had speculated that the Space Between or the Gate did it, or it simply had something to do with returning to Earth. I’d suggested it had been Enyxa. However it happened, that would really fucking suck. I couldn’t imagine Leni not remembering me or everything we’d been through together. We’d be okay, but it would suck. But for the others … Brock and Bex … would losing their memories be a good thing? Would Brock be better off if he had no memory of having and losing his son? Would Bex, too, if she didn’t remember being beaten to near death by someone who claimed to love her? Was that what Asia wanted? Did she want Brock to remember her and their life together, or did she hope he’d forget the horrible memories? This must have been what had her so quiet the last few hours. Hope looked at me with the same questions in her eyes, before softening her gaze as she turned to Asia.
“I can’t make any guarantees,” she replied, “but it had been Satan who had originally stolen your memories the first time, in a simple act of evil. It worked effectively, though, so Enyxa mimicked the curse every time she Separated you, so you wouldn’t remember the rest of the Seven and how to save them.”
“So it’s not the Gate or the Space Between that’s been stripping our memories?” I clarified.
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.”