Violet Eden Chapters 04 - Endless

well.’
    ‘Exactly. If you want to bring him back, you’ll have to find a way to bring him into you. He must be absorbed into your power, otherwise when you leave this place he won’t be able to hold onto you.’
    ‘How will I do that?’
    ‘His soul will be confused. You’ll have to show him what he wants most.’
    I knew what Lincoln wanted most. ‘My soul,’ I said, nodding.
    Phoenix reached forwards, surprising me by placing a warm, soft hand against the side of my face. His gentle eyes bored into mine. ‘Oh, Violet.’ His lips pressed together and I could see his utter sadness for me. ‘It’s much harder than that. It’s your heart.’
    I cast my eyes to the side. I couldn’t think about what he had just said, couldn’t think about what that would do to me.
    I gulped. ‘Okay. I’m ready.’
    Phoenix stood from where he’d been crouched beside me and nodded. ‘I can’t go with you. When you have him, I’ll know and I’ll send you back.’
    There was a partof me that didn’t want to have to walk away from him. ‘Will I see you again?’
    ‘That’ll be up to you. When you’re ready, call for me in your dreams. I’ll be there.’

    I walked into the unknown and the reflections that glowed ahead. They seemed to respond to my presence and started moving towards me, slowly at first and then faster and faster. I could sense their eagerness.
    I kept moving, knowing that I needed to go as far as possible. They swirled around me, vibrating with anticipation. I was what they craved, what they remembered in some far recesses of their minds. It was both haunting and distressing and I wanted to stop, to fall back into the nothingness and weep for them, but I did not.
    Instead, I ran into their midst.
    They whipped around me, becoming frenzied as more of them became aware of my presence. I felt them fighting and pushing to get closer to me until eventually I could no longer move, their combined pressure creating a prison that trapped me.
    I threw my head back, stared at the stars above and started the process of emptying myself. Just as Phoenix had told me, I pushed away my family, my friends. I cleared my mind of my joys, my passions, my sorrows, my hopes and my many regrets. I pushed away the exiles, the scars I carried from the wars I’d fought and those that were yet to come. I pushed away the angel guides, my maker. And finally I pushed away Phoenix so thatall that was left was Lincoln.
    I felt my body start to shudder under the sheer pressure of the lost souls as they tried to break me or, more accurately, to take my life force, as if they could somehow absorb it and claim back some of their own. I wanted to panic, but I pushed that away too.
    Then I saw it.
    It didn’t come from the sides, or push through the masses. It came hesitantly from above, almost as if it had been hiding up there, behind a star. A small cry fell from my lips.
    I knew it was Lincoln’s reflection – his soul. My body ached to reach out to him.
    It shone brightly as it floated down to me from above. I waited patiently, concentrating on keeping my focus on him and nothing else, making sure I continued to act as a homing beacon for him. And he came for me, sure and straight.
    My falling star.
    Eventually, he hovered right above me. My face tilted up towards his reflection – a mere disturbance in the air – and I closed my eyes briefly to draw in his presence. I felt it … the sun. Even in the darkness, the nothingness, he was still the sun.
    He waited, moving around the edges of my face as if trying to caress me, as if worried for me.
    I could barely take it. I had to bring him into me. I let go of everything that held me together. I cut the last thin ties that guarded what was left of my heart and I gave it to him.
    As I screamed in agony, Lincoln’s soul poured into me.
    The moment I had him, I was falling again.

    The next thingI knew, I was in Spence’s arms. He was carrying me through the woods.
    ‘You okay?’ he asked as I blinked.
    No. I wasn’t.
    ‘Vi?’
    He shifted me in his hold and I heard a beep. We were at the car.
    I swallowed through a dry throat. ‘How long?’
    ‘You’ve been out of it for about twenty minutes. I made it down the mountain and you were already there, where you told me to go. Fell with a thump, too.’
    He opened the passenger door and sat me in the car, then grabbed a bottle of water from the back seat and twisted the top, passing it to me.
    I took a sip. ‘We need to