Free The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3) by Kristie Cook Page A

Brock took turns helping Bex, but eventually she must have realized they were moving too slow, because she began to use her broken arm to swim.
    We swam for what felt like hours but had probably been only minutes. Then finally an island with a tree, permanently bent over from the wind like all of the trees on Erde, came into view. Brock turned back to me and gave me a thumbs-up. My pounding heart slowed minutely. But just because we’d found the Gate didn’t mean we could open it. Big splashes and waves behind us meant the monsters had followed us in. Part of the black sky above fell toward us—Dark souls. I pointed my knife downward. We needed to dive.
    As soon as we were all under the water, a light emerged from the depths. The Gate! It recognized us as Guardians! I could have squealed with joy. But Darkness pressed down from above. The Dark souls were funneling into the water, and their physical counterparts were right behind us.
    “Hurry!” I yelled at the others, although I didn’t know if they could hear me through the helmets.
    Right before the light reached us, everything around me changed. We fell into more painful memories, reliving them as if we were there, in the past again. Except not mine. Bex’s, Hayden’s, and Brock’s memories enveloped me. Their heartbreak engulfed me. I didn’t know how much real time passed, but Brock and I relived several weeks, from the moment he met Asia and through the rocky beginnings of their relationship. Although we both knew that wasn’t the end of their story, the emotional agony Brock felt and poured into me meant that wasn’t the worst of it.
    As the bright light of the Gate returned, and we entered into it, I was able to pull one full, lucid thought through the pain:
    Enyxa was near. She was going to follow us through the Gate, along with all of her minions.
    We could not bring them to Earth.

Chapter 6

    I awoke with a gasp, my fists gripping the sheet and my head still in the dream I’d been having. Except whatever I’d been dreaming about had ended with a memory—a very clear, very real one. One I preferred not to relive again, but there it was. Still playing in my mind even as I came fully awake.
    I lay on my stomach, my face buried in the pillow. I pressed my hands into the mattress and pushed myself up to roll over. Only when I blinked and my lashes stuck together did I realize I’d been crying.
    The dream—the memory—had been too real.
    And like that day, when Brock had said I couldn’t be in his life, I was again completely alone. My heart and soul ached, I couldn’t help but wonder if it ached for him or … for something else.
    With a shake of my head—I didn’t need to be thinking those thoughts—I swiped my hands over my face, and then reached over and tugged the chain for the bedside lamp. There was no point in trying to sleep after that. My mind wouldn’t clear those images so easily, and even if I could fall back to sleep, I was afraid I’d be right back in that memory again. A glance at the clock on the nightstand told me I shouldn’t be in bed anyway. The blackout curtains hid the daylight, but it was surely another beautiful fall day in Tampa, Florida. Another day I didn’t want to face. Not alone.
    Only the thought of the Book of Phoenix was able to drag me out of bed. After a quick stop in the bathroom, I padded over to the in-wall air conditioning unit under the window and picked up the Book. I’d set it on end over the vents before going to bed, hoping the air would blow up through the pages and dry them out. Jeric had left it with me to try to discover any clues, but it had been too wet last night, and I was afraid I’d ruin the pages by trying to peel them apart from each other. My fingers gripped the leather cover, which was now dry. I picked up the Book and carried it over to the bed, snuggled under the covers again, and opened the lock. As I flipped through the pages, my heart sank.
    Everything had been washed