Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

be returned to her so she could kill you herself. I got you out of there, but this is only temporary and we don’t have much time. Violet, you need to help me.’
    I was confused, trying to process all I had just heard. And the banging was getting more insistent. ‘Banging?’ I asked.
    Phoenix shook his head urgently. ‘Don’t worry about that. We need to do this now!’
    ‘Do … what?’
    I still couldn’t believe I was alive.
    How did I survive seventy-one arrows?
    Just the thought brought the pain back – pain I never believed I would have to remember.
    ‘Concentrate,’ Phoenix demanded. ‘You need to heal your wounds. I need you as strong as possible otherwise I can’t help.’
    ‘I don’t … understand,’ I said, struggling to speak.
    He put a hand on my shoulder. ‘I’ll explain everything later. You have to trust me.’
    The banging persistedand I realised now that there were other sounds too. There were people shouting from far away – people who I knew.
    I remembered Lincoln’s request. I felt him through our bond despite my weakness, and his. He was still alive. I felt the small flare through our connection – he knew I was thinking of him. He was willing me on. I remembered the promise I’d made to him that I would trust Phoenix.
    I nodded and closed my eyes, concentrating on my abilities, calling them up. They were sluggish and tired, but my power slowly built and started to work its way through my body, healing the worst of the injuries. I could feel Lincoln adding his own power and I tried to block him so that he kept what I knew he would need, but it took a while before I was strong enough to effectively push him away.
    Finally, I opened my eyes again. ‘It’s okay,’ I said. ‘I’m starting to feel better.’
    Phoenix nodded, his expression now closed off.
    ‘What next?’ I asked, looking around. We were back at Evelyn’s cabin, in the basement. ‘Where’s Lincoln?’
    ‘He’s still there.’
    ‘And Evelyn?’
    Phoenix just nodded.
    I sighed. ‘What about the kids?’
    ‘She let Onyx take the seventy-one, but she still has almost thirty locked up and she’s already planning to go after more.’
    ‘Who else is here?’ I asked, things becoming clearer. The banging I’d heard was coming from the other side of the basement door.
    Heshrugged. ‘The whole damn gang by now. We don’t have long before they figure a way through.’
    Why is he keeping them out?
    ‘So we’re going back, right? We have to get the rest of those kids out of there,’ I said.
    Phoenix shook his head slowly. ‘There’s something else we have to do first.’
    ‘What?’
    What could possibly be more important?
    ‘It’s better if you don’t ask.’
    On his last word, Phoenix was on top of me, straddling and holding me down. I was helpless to stop him, my strength no match for his. My eyes went wide when his hand closed over my mouth and nose.
    I kicked out and bucked beneath him, but it was useless. He was too strong. Every movement of mine was easily counteracted and I couldn’t breathe as Phoenix suffocated me.
    The solid door blocked my way to help. They would not break through in time.
    I felt Phoenix shaking on top of me and his haunting eyes penetrated mine, a million words within them, yet I couldn’t pluck out one.
    Was this the way I was always meant to go?
    The way that had been intended for me?
    I had thought for so long it would be Phoenix who would kill me. Had he only lured me back for this final, most awful, betrayal? He must have planned this. He’d wanted me dead for so long.
    This is his revenge.
    I stopped struggling.
    This is my time. I’ve done what I could and now I will end.
    I staredat him. He was crying. I didn’t understand.
    The colour in my vision and the life in me began to fade away. As the last pixel of light disappeared, I was suddenly standing before my angel maker.
    This time, I knew beyond all doubt – I was dead.
    There was no desert. No art studio.
    I was in a field. Long, air-light grass, sun shining, its heat going all the way to my bones. The pain was gone. And this was not my world.
    If felt strangely like a dream, though it was not. This was something else – for starters, it almost always rained in my dreams. But just as the thought crossed my mind, the sky crackled loudly and rain began to pour.
    My angel maker stood before me. He was perfectly dry, not one drop of rain touching him. His face was clearer than ever before. More human