The Space Within (The Book of Phoenix #3) by Kristie Cook Read Free Book Online Page B

lightly, and I’m not making it on my own.” I stood up and leaned my hands on the table. “We’re taking a vote.”
    All of the others in the room looked at each other and back at me.
    “Who’s voting?” Tasha asked.
    “If there were a way to get the whole world to, all of Earth’s souls since they’re all affected,” I said. “But since that’s impossible and illogical, all of the Guardians.”
    Nobody argued. They only stared at me for another long moment. Then they dove into conversation about how to make a vote happen, which meant calling all Guardians in from their missions. They seemed to be on board with this idea.
    Some might call me a coward for failing to make the decision myself, but that was their problem. Maybe I wasn’t the leader they expected me to be, but I wasn’t stupid and power-hungry. They all had a right to weigh in because collapsing the Gates permanently could mean an end to the Phoenix Guardians.
    “What do we do if they vote to collapse them?” Asia asked me later that day as we ate dinner. Or, more accurately, pushed the food around our plates, unable to actually eat it.
    “I don’t know yet, but I’m thinking we go through before they do it.”
    “We won’t be able to come back,” Asia said.
    “True. But neither will Brock and Leni. So hopefully we can find them through the Gate.”
    “But what if they do? What if they use the Book to come back? Then we’re the ones trapped in the Beyond, and they’re here.”
    * * *

    The next day, while the Guardian leaders worked on setting up a vote, Asia and I stood outside at our usual places by the water’s edge. A brown, rectangular object tumbling at the crest of a wave caught our attention. When it washed ashore, Asia ran for it and brought it back to me. Her eyes had grown wide and watery, and her chin trembled. I opened my mouth to ask what it was, but when my gaze dropped to her hands, my jaw snapped shut.
    She held the Book of Phoenix.
    My heart skipped a beat as the thought that Leni and Brock must have made it back jumped into my mind. But then it sank to my feet with the realization that we would have felt their return. The brown leather and paper were waterlogged, dripping all over Asia’s feet. The Book hadn’t recently arrived, bringing our other halves with it. It had obviously been in the bay for a while. Which meant Leni had never taken it with them. And that meant she couldn’t use it to bring them back.
    I sank into a squatting position, and then fell backwards on my ass. I dropped my head into my hands with defeat.
    “Fuck,” I muttered under my breath. The Book had been my last hope. If the Guardians voted to collapse the Gates, I’d been banking on Leni using the Book to bring her and Brock back. Now that hope was crushed, along with my soul.
    “Stop it, Jeric,” Asia said sharply. I looked up at her questioningly. “You’re not going to feel sorry for yourself. We’ll figure this out.”
    “Figure out what? It’s not up to us anymore. The Guardians are going to vote, and Leni and Brock can’t use the Book to return. There’s not a whole hell of a lot we can do.”
    “Sure there is,” she said as she jerked the old journal in the air, shaking the water out of it. “We need to figure out how to use the Book like Leni did. Surely she can’t be the only one who can make it do whatever she made it do.”
    I arched a brow. “She used it to get from place to place on Earth. That’s not going to help us.”
    She returned my skeptical expression. “Who says? Maybe the Gate didn’t move like we thought it had that night, but Leni used the Book to open up a different portal. One to another world.”
    I stared at Asia for a long moment, then out over the water while rubbing my brow ring. “She did have it with her,” I murmured. “I guess she could have triggered something …”
    “Exactly,” Asia said, plopping down next to me. “We just have to figure out what.”
    She handed the journal