by Eden Maguire
Beside us, Ezra sprawled face tip, one arm locked crossways across his
chest, the live wire stil sparking through his body.
Phoenix had risked everything, and so did Hunter and Dean.
They cane to us in the death booth, materializing in that suffocating 164
space. Their light blazed as Phoenix faded.
Hunter bent over and lifted Phoenix. He stood tal , bearing his weight without effort. I saw he was strong where Phoenix was weak.
I took Dean's hand. He made me tear my gaze away from Phoenix and fold myself into his arms, ready for the journey.
I was hurting again and the wings were beating, the light blazing al around. I had my arms locked tight around Dean's neck.
Donna held open the barn door to let us in.
Outside in the stil , silent yard, a late-afternoon sun cast long shadows.
'Where's Phoenix?' Donna asked, her eyes shaded with dread.
'With Hunter.' It was time for Dean to unlock my arms and sit me down on the worn and splintered steps. He surveyed the gloomy interior of the barn. 'What about Summer?'
'Upstairs, sitting in the last rays of the sun.'
I closed my eyes and held my breath, prayed that Hunter's light would soon lift the gloom and that Phoenix would open his eyes and grow strong again.
An age passed. The door opened and Hunter walked in. Alone.
A shock went through my heart. It stopped. I wanted it never to start
again.
Hunter's frame was outlined against the daylight, his features lost in shadow.
As I tried to stand and run towards him, he raised his hand. 'There's hardly any time only minutes,' he warned.
'What happened to Phoenix? I need to know.'
Hunter looked beyond me, up towards the top of the steps and my heart flooded with joy as I saw my Beautiful Dead saviour with his arm around Summer. She leaned against him. He was strong again.
'Thank you,' I breathed into the dark, dust-laden space. Hunter lowered his head in acknowledgement.
Phoenix led Summer down the steps. 'Hunter and I came past your house,' he was tel ing her, wil ing her to gather her wandering thoughts.
'Your dad was in the garden. Your mom was in her studio.' 165
'Painting?' Summer whispered. She stumbled on the bottom step and would have sunk to the ground if Phoenix hadn't supported her.
'And playing a soundtrack.'
'Which one?'
"'Time to Go" - the song you said Darina should give her.'
Summer raised her head to look at me. She held out her hand and I
took it. 'And it is,' she murmured. 'Time for me to go.'
We walked her slowly out of the barn, Phoenix and I, past the rusting truck in the yard, past the weed-strewn corral, out towards a meadow speckled with blue flowers.
'Phoenix told me about Ezra,' she sighed, and she squeezed my fingers.
I squeezed back. 'How do you feel?'
'Sad,' she breathed. 'And glad too. Thank you, Darina.'
Her face was so fine and delicate as she left us, walking alone across the meadow, glancing over her shoulder towards the barn. A breeze blew strands of golden hair across her cheeks. She smiled and turned towards the mountains.
There was a wilderness beyond, where eagles soared and snow stayed on the peaks until summer, where footsteps didn't tread. Summer walked barefoot, looking straight ahead, into the shimmering haze.
Phoenix and I stood hand in hand, at peace. He turned to me and studied my face, soaking up what he saw. ' I have to make this last,' he whispered.
'For how long?' I wanted to know. 'Until.'
'Until it's your turn.' I already knew the answer. Phoenix and the
Beautiful Dead would leave now and go back to limbo. The barn and the
house would sink into silence, I would miss him so much it would half kil me.
Then, when Hunter was ready, they would return.
'Stay safe,' Phoenix murmured as he brushed my cheek with the side of his thumb.
I nodded, sighed and let go of his cold hand.
In a week or two, maybe a month, he would come back to me one last time.
Read on for a sneak peak of Book 4: Phoenix 166
Maybe none of it is true.
I reach the end and I wimp out 'I woke up and it was al a dream!'
Imagine that; I made up the Beautiful Dead, the whole thing. Jonas, Arizona, Summer and Phoenix out at Foxton Ridge. I did it because I wanted them back in my life so bad.
But there real y is no such being as Hunter the overlord, no zombies stepping out of limbo back to the far side - nothing except me and my crazy, grief-fuel ed brain.
I play Summer Madison's song as I drive a winding road, late spring aspens rising silver and green to either side. 'I love you so, But it was time to go. You spoke my name, I never came, 'Cos it was time for me to go.'
He's dead, I tel myself. Beautiful Phoenix, every day you break my heart. Your eyes stare into mine, but not real y. You hold my hand and it's cold as death. ' You spoke my name, I never came, 'Cos it was time for me to go.'
I drive into the mountains. The roof is down, I feel the wind in my hair.
Mid-May and the aspen leaves shake and shimmer in the breeze. Hot sun
bakes my face and the sandy soil. The dirt track crunches under my tyres.
I hit a sudden hol ow, the Summer CD jumps and sticks - ' t-t-time for m-167
me to go ...' I press the OFF button. Where am I heading? Who do I
hope to see? Half a mile from Foxton Ridge I brake suddenly. The engine stal s.
I'm half a mile from Angel Rock and the steep dip into the hidden
val ey, where the spring meadow surrounds the empty barn and the old
ranch house. Scarlet poppies sing and zing there in the fresh green grass, a wave of wind rol s through and sighs up the dust in the deserted yard.
In the silence after the engine cuts out I'm unable to act. I sit trapped by invisible threads of memory and hope.
We never needed to talk, Phoenix and me. I would look into those grey-blue eyes and know just know what he was thinking. I remember the way he would push his dark hair clear of his forehead, once, twice, three times, without knowing he was doing it. And I would lift my hand to do it for him, then he would smile. That smile - raised higher on the
right side, uneven, quirky. The love light in his eyes. Inside my silver memory cocoon I sit.
Should I reach out and turn on the engine? I see myself coming to the end of the track, getting out of the car, walking into the shade of the rusting water tower and pausing to gaze down at the barn.
The barn wil cast a long shadow across the yard. The door wil hang open. Nailed above the door wil be the moose antlers. Beside it and in the old corral beyond, pure blue columbines wil stand out amongst 168
straggly thorn bushes. No footsteps wil disturb decades of untrodden dirt, no movement, no sound.
I know I've done this many times.
Once, twice, three times I walk down to the barn and peer inside. 'Be here!' I breathe.
My heart batters my rib-cage.
Four, five, six times I make out spiky farm tools stacked in a corner,
horse halters hanging like nooses, an avalanche of decaying straw.
Seven, eight times I turn away. Maybe in the ranch house? 'Be here!' I cross the yard and step «p on to the porch. The old boards creak, I press my face to the window pane. 'Be here!'
Nine, ten times the stove is there, the table and the rocking-chair, the
plates on the rack. And undisturbed dust. I don't even try the door - I know it's bolted.
Twenty times I've gone through this ritual of hope.
Now - today - the rocking-chair wil rock, today the plates wil be taken down from the rack, a fire wil heat the stove. Someone wil come down the stairs and into the tiny kitchen stern, serious Hunter who built this place a hundred years ago and who died here, wil throw another log on
the fire, he wil turn to speak to someone in the shadows. A tal figure wil step out. I know every inch of this person - the broad shoulders, the thick, dark hair, high forehead and lop-sided smile. Today I wil whisper his name.
I:(liticros .%ailahlc:
Paperback:
Book 1 Jonas
Book 2 Arizona
Book 3 Summer
Book 4 Phoenix
eBooks:
Book I Jong.
Book 2 Arizona
Book 3 Summer
!', j 1 ICI ,i%'
Not alive. Not dead. Somewhere in between lie the Beautiful Dead ...
Something strange is happening at El erton High.
Wil love conquer death? And if it does,
can Darina set it free?
r ,01
Editions ANailabic:
Paperback:
Book 1 Secret Lives
Book 2 Blocxl l ies
Book 3 Divided Souls
DARKS
ACADEMY
eBooks:
Book I Secret Lives
Book 2 Blood Ties
Book 3 Divided Souls
SECRET LIVES
NDL I I I DYINIS TO JOIN THE CI OS) I
'You'l be dyin
g to join the chosen few'
The l)arke Academy is a school like no other. An elite
establishment that moves to an exotic new city every
term, its students are impossibly beautiful, sophisticated and rich. And the more new scholarship girl Cassie Bel learns about the Academy, the more curious she becomes.
story of Scarlett and Rosin March, two highly-skil ed sisters who have been hunting Fenris (werewolves) who prey on teen girls since Scarlett lost her eve years ago while defending Rosie in an attack. Scarlett lives to destroy the Fenris, and she and Rosie lure them in with
reel cloaks (a colour the wolves can't resist), though Rosie hunts more out of debt to her sister than drive.
rM
I'.(litiol s :\' ail able:
Paperback:
Volume I
Secret Vanipire
I )autihters of I )arkncss
Enchantress
Volume 2 I )ark :ngcl The Chosen
Soulniate
Volume 3
Iluntress
Black Dawn
Vitchligt
SECRET VAMPIRE h
DAUGHTERS OF DARKNESS
ENCHANTRESS
L. J. SMITH
THE NI W YORK TIMES BISISELLER
The Night World is a secret society of vampires, \were\•olves, witches and creatures ofdarkness
- a place too dangerous to fal in love...
1;9
VarnpiRe
Diaiue$
s/he 2&drmbV t re Or&V?le
L. J. SMITH
f:lena Gilbert is used to gettin g
what she wants and she wants
mysterious new boy, Stefan.
But Stefan is hiding a deadly
secret a secret that wil change
Elena's life for ever ...
Classics:
-iiiinr 1 13cx,k 1 -2
I'he Awakening
Ih' ,: ; _'
luni I ; 1 . I
I he Furs
The Reunion
The Return: Nightfal
i ,. ,l, t, The Return:
TV Tie-ins:
IduiIR I Book 1-2
I he A%%akening
& The Struggle
( .liimc 2 Books 3-4
I he Fury
I he Reunion
Book 5 The Return:
Nightfal
Book 6 The Return:
Shadow Souls
r ,01
I 1ditictns :N ailalnlr:
TV Tie-ins:
•OIuntr I Book 1-2
I he Awakening
he Struti Ie
i)lunu• 2 B4x)k. 1 -1
The I•urv
I•he Reunion
B0 4)k 5 The Return:
Nightfal
li,x,k 6 The Return:
sIiulm% Hnil'
Classics:
•OIunte I Book 1-2
The Awakening & The Struggle
i)lume 2 R xtks 3-4
The Furv
. I hr Reunion
Elena Gilbert is used to getting
what she wants and she wants
mysterious new boy, Stefan.
But Stefan is hiding a deadly
secret - a secret that xvil change
Elena's life for ever ...
119
B(x)k i i he Return:
Nightfal
Book 6 The Return:
Shadow Soul.
Table of Contents
Book 3 Summer
Book 4 Phoenix
Book 3 Summer
Book 3 Divided Souls
Book 3 Divided Souls
Book 5 The Return:
Book 6 The Return:
Book 6 The Return:
