THE PHOENIX CODEX (Knights of Manus Sancti Book 1)

by Bryn Donovan

  “I don’t think so, either.” She pulled her sock on again. “What was that, a bear?” She peered up at the plateau.

  “Yeah, I shot him in the head. Then shot him again to be sure.” Jonathan picked her up to carry her back up the ledge.

  “He was coming right at me,” she said. “My animals never hurt me.” Her thoughts swirled. “The bad thoughts. I was angry at myself.”

  “Suicide by bear attack,” Jonathan grunted. “They could have warned us.” On the plateau, he said, “Okay, you can sit on the ground.” He set her down close to the large, flat stone. She stared at the huge bear carcass not too far away, pitying it.

  He was looking down at her foot. “Listen, Cassie, we’ve got to finish this. I’m sorry.”

  “Fuck yeah, we’ve got to finish this,” she agreed. “I’m not spraining my ankle for nothing.”

  He gave her a relieved nod. “How bad does it hurt?”

  “I’m okay if I don’t move it.” Adrenaline was coursing through her veins, which might have helped. He dug into the backpack, found a flashlight, and handed it to her. The wind picked up. “Shit. Where’s the booklet?”

  After searching around wildly, he spotted it bouncing along on the ground, retrieved it, and brought it to her. “When I start sprinkling blood on the sigils, you start the incantation. All right?”

  She flipped to the page that was helpfully titled SUMMONING INCANTATION. “Got it.” Jonathan gave her the spare gun, and her chest tightened as she stuck it in her belt holster. She asked, “You’re sure you can protect your mind and do this at the same time?”

  “Yeah. I’ve got my shields up.” His face was composed and controlled as he pulled the silver bottle out of the bag.

  He held his flashlight with one hand, and with a short brush, he painted complex symbols, one after another, from memory. Oddly, it soothed her to watch. The sigils formed an arc and then a circle on the stone. Another gust of wind made him put up the hood of his jacket. He retrieved two sticks of fatwood from the backpack and crossed them in the center of the stone. Cassie shivered where she sat.

  From another bottle, he sprinkled oil on each of the symbols in turn. The fragrance that rose up reminded her of Mass when she was little, a welcome counterpoint to the stink of the place. As though for good measure, he shook the bottle empty over the wood. He rolled up his left sleeve, got out the knife, and slashed a gash in his forearm. “Okay.”

  As he sprinkled the blood over each sigil, she read the incantation. Latin was easier than transliterated proto-Mayan. She glanced up when he stood and lit a match. The hood partially shadowed his calm features, and the flame danced over them. He looked like a beautiful monk. He set one after another of the symbols on fire and then the fat sticks in the middle as she pronounced the last word.

  A thick rope of blue lightning stabbed into the ground not far from them. Cassie let out a scream and dropped the flashlight as her hair flew against her cheeks. Bright blue clouds roiled into being over them, much lower than clouds could be.

  Jonathan stood tall beneath them. “Cassie, next page! Read!”

  With shaking hands, she picked up the flashlight and scrabbled to the next section, the banishing spell.

  A shadow like a man, but twice as tall, faced Jonathan. No, not a shadow, but nothingness, a black hole in a human shape. Dark, terrible laughter echoed in her ear. She froze and then pushed a thought against it: Fuck you, asshole. You can’t hurt me.

  Jonathan grabbed the burned bones and placed one along the edge of the stone. “Read!” Shit. If he had to keep yelling at her, his control would slip. She read as loudly as she could, because she wanted him to be able to hear her. The long arm of the human-shaped void reached out and rested a hand on Jonathan’s head. He stopped what he was doing.

  No! Keep going! she shouted in her mind. If she said anything aloud, she’d have to start the incantation all over again. His shields must be crumbling. But if she hurried… She read another line. He placed the rest of the bones at compass corners slowly.

  A boom and a flash of blinding blue lightning knocked her on her side on the ground. When she looked up, the hand of Dakos was sinking into Jonathan’s head.

  Fuck, fuck. What could she do? She dragged herself over to him and grabbed his hand. Her vision filled with light. She blinked. They were both standing, clinging to one another. She didn’t hurt, and she was warm. “What happened!”

  “We’re in me.” He laughed, a strange sound and sweet after so much terror. “It worked.”

  Cassie stared around them, dumbfounded. A golden aura surrounded his cathedral. It was difficult to tell which part of his church was bombed out and which was whole.

  “When you grabbed my hand, I brought you inside me. This is you,” he said, gesturing toward the light. “I have your immunity.”

  “Oh my God,” she breathed. “How did you know that would work?”

  “I didn’t.” He pointed as the dark, giant shadow swam and dived beyond the golden nimbus. “See? He can’t get in.”

  Cassie shook her head. “You did it so fast.”

  “My shields were already gone.” He took a deep breath and let it out. “I just needed a break.”

  The dark shadow swam closer, bumping against the shell of protective light.

  “What do we do now?” Cassie asked.

  “We finish it. The summoning spell doesn’t hold him there. As soon as he’s bored, he’ll move on.”

  “Are you going to be okay?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I feel stronger again already. I’ll bury the malachite. You finish reading.” She nodded, and he pulled her to him and kissed her hard. “Read fast.”

  They were on the cold ground. The demon’s hand hovered over Jonathan’s head, trying again to get inside it. Cassie scuttled on her hands and knees for the booklet, ignoring the pain in her ankle. Jonathan got a small shovel out of the backpack as she read as fast as she could. Two or three shovelfuls of dirt, that was all he needed.

  Two lightning bolts slashed down to the earth, making her jump, the electricity lifting the ends of her hair. She resumed reading, and Jonathan set the carving in the hole. He threw dirt back over it as she shouted the last word.

  The huge dark shadow screamed. It was cursing, but in one hundred voices and languages at once, impossible to understand, and the sound pierced through her. Cassie dropped the booklet and covered her ears.

  The portal sucked at the bottom of it like the world’s most powerful vacuum cleaner. The demon’s legs disappeared. It lashed around with alarming motions that, in her freaked-out state, reminded her of one of those tall, skinny blow-up figures dancing out in front of car dealerships. Come on. Let it be gone.

  An arm lengthened and flashed across the short distance to Jonathan. It captured his hand and dragged his body toward the small cave that led to the demon realm.

  “Jonathan!” Cassie shrieked and ran over on her bad ankle, excruciating pain jolting up her leg with every step. He was scrambling to pull free. She flung herself on the ground and grabbed his arm, trying with all of her strength to keep him in the world of the living. It wasn’t helping. Now they were both being dragged.

  Jonathan’s eyes locked on hers, visible in the sickening blue glow of the low clouds above. “Let go! I need my gun!”

  The demon had his right hand, and he couldn’t get at his holster with his left hand because she was hanging on to him. But what was he thinking? He couldn’t shoot a demon. They were close to the portal to the other dimension, a black maw eager to swallow Jonathan whole. Maybe if she got a better grip on him, pulled harder…

  His eyes blazed. “That’s an order!”

  Sobbing, she released him and scuttled backward.

  Jonathan drew the gun, pointed it above the portal, and fired.

  The rock at the bottom of the cairn exploded and the rest of them tumbled down, nearly blocking the entrance to the small gateway. One landed on the demon arm, and suddenly, nothing held on to Jonathan beca
use the arm was contained in the portal. A piercing, unholy scream faded to silence. The blue clouds above exploded in a loud sonic boom that shook the ground.

  Jonathan blinked. It’s finished.

  “Oh my God.” Sobs fractured Cassie’s voice. She half lay on her side, propped up on an elbow. “Did that work? Are you okay?”

  The poor thing. His love for her filled his whole being. He scrambled over to kneel next to her and pulled her up into his arms, hugging her hard against him. “I’m all right. It’s done.”

  She clung to him. “I didn’t want to let go. I thought you were going to get sucked in.” She sniffled. “I didn’t know what you were doing.”

  “I wasn’t sure, either, but I thought if I could block it…” He shook his head. “Glad it worked.” He’d been moments away from initiating the drop code rather than getting pulled into the demon realm. “How’s your ankle?” She’d been running on it. Just thinking of it made him feel sympathetic pain in his own body.

  “It hurts. That was a hell of a shot. With your left hand.” Her voice had become steadier. No doubt the terror of the last few minutes was burning away.

  He kissed the top of her head. “I’ve been practicing.”

  She frowned at the portal. “Do you want to stack those up again?”

  “No, it’s okay.” The humble memorial he’d made for his brother had saved him. “This is going to sound crazy… Never mind.”

  “What?”

  “I felt like…his spirit was there, just for a second. When the demon got sucked in.” He didn’t know how else to explain it. The presence had brought a deep, restorative peace to his heart. He didn’t care any more about the earthly marker.

  “I bet he was,” she said softly, and he could tell she wasn’t just humoring him. She pulled back to meet his gaze. “Everything’s done now, for sure?”

  “No question. That’s how it’s supposed to look.” Without the sickly blue clouds above, it was harder to see, but he could see her smile.

  “What the hell was that?” Nic demanded on speakerphone. Jonathan hadn’t heard him trying to call. “Tell me that was a demon sent back to wherever he came from.”

  “Yeah, it was.”

  “Cassie?”

  “She’s fine,” he said and then darted her a guilty look. Cassie had teased him before about using the word fine to mean not actively dying. “She’s got a sprained ankle, and she’s in a lot of pain.”

  “Ouch. Give her a Percoset. Front pocket of the backpack.”

  “Great. I’ll carry her out.”

  “I’ll meet you halfway,” Nic said.

  After Cassie washed down a pill with water, Jonathan picked her up. As he started down the trail, she leaned her head against his shoulder. Warmth spread through his chest. He kissed her on the temple, just a brush of the lips. “You were amazing. I was in awe.”

  “Sorry about my stupid animals, though.” Her body was lax in his arms, as though she were exhausted, and he wasn’t at all surprised. He carried her in silence so she could rest, and with every step, he exulted in the safety of his beautiful warrior, the one who owned his soul. She dozed until they met up with Nic on the trail.

  “I can take her,” he said, and Jonathan hesitated. “Don’t be stupid, you’re tired.” Nic gathered Cassie into his arms, and she didn’t appear to be embarrassed, probably because she was worn out, too. “How was the immunity spell?”

  “It was bad,” Cassie mumbled.

  Although Nic was a few inches shorter than Jonathan and leaner, he didn’t strain under the burden. Even though he’d given up his Knighthood years ago, Jonathan knew he still trained like one, at odd hours when almost no one was at the gym. Nic peppered him with questions about the banishing.

  Jonathan’s phone vibrated, and he took it out of his pocket, saw who was calling, and answered. “Salaam, Samir.”

  “Why wasn’t I told about this?” Samir didn’t even bother to greet him back. “What were they thinking? She hasn’t even started to train!”

  Jonathan smiled to hear his own sentiments echoed so perfectly. “Believe me, I know. But ready or not, she kicked its ass.”

  CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

  A change in the vehicle’s speed and direction jolted Cassie awake. As Nic pulled onto an exit ramp, Jonathan, in the back seat next to her, stirred and rubbed his face. “Hey, what are you doing?”

  “We’re not going far.” Nic pointed ahead on the left, at a small restaurant called Joey’s Tacos. “I ordered takeout.”

  Cassie laughed. “No way. You’re like the dad who takes the kids out for ice cream after the ball game whether they win or lose.”

  Nic pulled into the restaurant parking lot. “Well, if you’d lost, you’d be dead. And then I’d have way too many tacos.”

  The grubby little cinderblock building looked sketchy as hell, but like any Southwesterner, she knew great tacos often came from hole-in-the-wall places. She didn’t even care if they were great. She could probably eat about twelve of them.

  He parked and got out, saying, “Be right back.”

  “Hey, Nic,” Jonathan called after him. Nic stopped, looking over his shoulder. “Give us ten minutes.” Nic nodded.

  Jonathan wanted time alone with her. It made her smile. As Nic walked away, Cassie felt light and glowing inside, and not only because the painkiller had kicked in. “I hope I get to go on more missions with you. Do you think I will?”

  His forehead puckered. “Hopefully, you’ll do all your training before they send you out again.” She couldn’t disagree with him there. It would be nice to be better equipped. There was probably nothing like doing one mission to convince a person to work as hard as she could at her training. “But I don’t know why not. We’re obviously amazing together.” His rare look of cockiness made her smile. “How’s your ankle?”

  “It’s not bad now. Don’t you get tired of worrying about me?”

  “Never.” The affection in his eyes made her melt. He took both her hands in his. “Let me go into your psyche.”

  “What, now? Why?” He looked as though he didn’t know how to answer that, and she felt strangely reluctant to press the point. “Okay. Be careful, or I’ll wind up in you.”

  A smile ghosted across his lips and then he bowed his head to concentrate. She felt no pain, only a jolt. The welcome smell of creosote and ozone surrounded her. She opened her eyes.

  It was the same landscape as before, and yet not. The mountains stood in the same places. The wild herd of horses grazed, closer than before. But purple carpets of wild verbena and clouds of yellow brittlebush bloomed.

  Jonathan, holding her hand, stared around in frank wonder.

  “I’ve never seen a spring like this,” she told him. Scarlet stars bloomed at their feet. Indian paintbrush. “This is the high desert,” she realized aloud. The plant didn’t grow near Phoenix, except in carefully xeriscaped yards. “The elevation’s changed.” The air was cooler and softer. It rained more often here.

  “And I thought it was amazing before.” Jonathan’s low voice held awe. The trees near the mountains were no longer burned out, but a healthy forest that looked like it had been there forever. Their scent came to her on the breeze. Ponderosa pine.

  “It’s because of you,” she said. He gave her a gentle kiss that sent warmth all the way down to her toes. “Why did you want to come here?”

  “I wanted a minute alone with you in a beautiful place.”

  God, she always wanted to be with him. Would they get married? Have children, even? Maybe in a couple of years, once she was absolutely sure her powers were under control. Once, she’d imagined that kind of life, and maybe it could be hers after all. “We should… We should talk about the future.”

  “We will. I promise.” Steady commitment reverberated in his voice, and joy lit his eyes. “Not now. You’re tired, you’re hurt, and you’re on painkillers.” He traced her cheek with a light fingertip. “I want it to be perfect.”

  “I’m with
you. It’s already perfect.” Her voice quavered.

  He placed his palm flat on his heart, a gesture she hadn’t seen before, different from the salute to a superior. “Cor meum tibi offero.” Strangely, with him in her psyche, she understood the words with no trouble—my heart I offer—and their significance in Manus Sancti. It was a pledge of lasting love, a precursor to a proposal. “I’m yours as long as you want me.”

  Her eyes filled with tears. “That might be a while, almeris— Did I say that right?”

  “You did.” He pulled her close in his arms. The kiss started out light and sweet, but he deepened it, parting her lips under his. She’d never in her life felt so cherished or desired.

  She was luckier than any person on the planet deserved to be. At last she knew what she’d been called to do in this life, and she’d do it by the side of the Knight she loved. More than ever before, she knew she was home.

  THE END

  Thank you for reading THE PHOENIX CODEX. If you enjoyed the book, please support the author with a review.

  If you’d like to read a sneak preview of the second book in this series, THE EQUINOX STONE, read on! But beware: it contains spoilers and a cliffhanger.

  Sneak Preview

  THE EQUINOX STONE

  Book II, Knights of Manus Sancti

  He stood naked in the wilderness at night, shivering in the cold wind. How long had he been here? He started moving again. He must’ve been walking before, though he couldn’t remember it.

  Most likely, he’d staggered away from an accident that had left him dazed. That didn’t explain the lack of clothing, though. He felt over the surface of his head and found no soreness or injury. As far as he could tell, he wasn’t hurt in any way, although he might literally freeze his dick off if he didn’t find help or shelter soon. Rocks cut into the numbing soles of his feet, and he could barely distinguish the ridges of the short mountains on the horizon from the sky. There had to be a road, a house, something in this soulless landscape.