Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

first.’
    With the last of whatever strength Phoenix had, he pulled me roughly towards him. ‘I need to tell you something,’ he pleaded, pulling me close.
    He whispered.
    I listened.
    And trembled with his words.
    ‘It’s too late!’ I cried.
    ‘I thought that once, too. But it’s never too late. You taught me that. Love can make us eternal.’ Phoenix’s eyes closed, haunted to the end. ‘I’m sorry,’ were his last words.
    ‘I forgive you,’ I sobbed, gripping onto him desperately. ‘I forgive you.’
    It was too late.
    All. Too. Late.



CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
    ‘Angel, my little angel … I am small, you make me big, I am weak, you make me strong …’
    Orthodox children’s prayer
    T hedouble doors to the ballroom exploded in a mass of flying debris and smoke, black-clad troops armed with Grigori blades storming the hall to be met by a throng of waiting exiles.
    I kept staring at Phoenix’s inert body.
    Why hasn’t he disappeared?
    It took me a while to realise it was because he was part-human, too. Unlike other exiles, this was his true body. Perhaps that was why it had taken longer for him to die.
    Within seconds of his last breath, all of the emotions from which he’d spared me rushed back into me. It took everything I had to endure the onslaught, but I couldn’t let myself succumb to them yet.
    I cried as I crawled over and retrieved my katanas, still lying where Lilith had dropped them. I struggled to my feet just as I saw a pair of exiles coming towards me.
    Spence appeared from nowhere, leaping in front of me and taking the exiles’ attention. While he took care of them, I pushed mypower out one more time as more Grigori entered the fray, to hold back as many exiles as I could.
    Digging deep, I found something new tucked well within my power. It was part of Phoenix that had come to me in his essence. While the rest of me was dominated by my soul’s pain, burning with an icy coldness, in this new part of me, there was … nothing.
    I travelled down a long dark corridor in my mind, searching for its meaning. When I reached the end, an understanding dawned on me. Phoenix had had the abilities of an empath and could both give and take emotions, but when he’d transferred his essence to me, it had mutated.
    I could neither feel the emotions of others, nor give them away.
    Instead, I could lock everything – every emotion – down. All of them. It was as simple as flicking a switch.
    And so I did.
    Everything melted away.
    Numbness spread through me quickly. I could think more clearly, move more easily. The pain in my soul was still there, lurking, but it was no longer attacking me. I was … nothing.
    I started to move again, controlling as many exiles as I could, even as I headed away from them towards the basement.
    This will not all have been in vain.
    I was weak. I staggered and lost my hold on the exiles.
    The Grigori will have to deal with them now.
    I looked back at Spence. He was in the middle of the battlefield.
    ‘Spence!’ I screamed.
    He turned.I must have looked a sight – covered in blood and no emotion to show for it.
    Spence screamed back at me even as he fought off oncoming exiles. He pushed one down and when another Grigori jumped in to take the next off his hands he started to run towards me, pulling out something from his waist.
    He’d done it.
    He had the Grigori Scripture.
    I put up a hand. ‘No! Get Lincoln!’
    Spence skidded to a halt. He was close to Phoenix and I caught him register his lifeless body. Spence’s eyes quickly moved to Lincoln, still chained and lying motionless on the sofa.
    He shook his head. ‘I’m coming to help you!’
    ‘No, Spence! Swear to me you’ll get him out. Swear it!’ I yelled.
    Spence’s eyes darted between Lincoln and me. ‘I’ll get him!’ he yelled back. ‘I promise, Vi. I’ll get him out.’
    He held my eyes. Spence would do as he promised.
    I turned back to the basement as total war broke out around me. I gripped my katanas and slashed at exiles that got in my way. I didn’t stop.
    I fell into the doorframe, using it to hold myself up. Before I’d righted myself completely, a hand grabbed my bleeding wrist from behind, squeezed tight and spun me around.
    He pushed me against the wall. The back of my head hit the sandstone hard and I felt fresh blood run towards my neck. His strength was surprising, but I wasn’t at my best. The small man, whose presence had troubled me earlier, restrained me as he placed