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The tentacles erupt out again, and zip toward us like Sidewinder missiles. Airos has no choice but to pull more evasive maneuvers, rolling right and left to dodge the oncoming attacks. The Gs are insane, and it's nearly impossible to keep track of our target. It feels like either I'm going to puke or my neck is going to snap.

There they are—but our window is narrowing fast, and Airos is slowing down. I feel his power draining, and there's not much left in the tank.

He whips around and around, pulling the chasing tentacles into knots, but they keep coming. It's endless. Then he makes a hard turn and lines us up with a gap in the narrowing wave tube. And then we enter the tunnel, and I see Azin and Onar, but they seem to be getting further away, growing smaller in the blackness.

"Jackson," I hear Airos say. "I?—"

His wing tips drag against the walls of the tube, and black veins quickly spread across his feathers.

"Fuck! Airos!" I shout.

I have to give him my powers. I have to channel whatever phoenix power I have left into him.

Why isn't it working?! Why can't I feel it?

It's like a massive wall is suddenly blocking him from me. And then I look down and see the corruption is on me now too, and as the last of Airos's phoenix energy dissipates, his feathers disintegrate and vanish into a flurry of sparks and embers. He's in his human form, and together, we plunge toward the blackness.

18

AIROS

It's cold. Cold like death.

The chill spreads through my body, radiating from my chest, and I float along through nothingness—just the black depths of oblivion.

Let go...

The voice rasps into my ear and fills my mind.

Do not fight it. Let go.

Fight what? I'm confused; I don't know what it's talking about. If I'm dead, then this must be the River Theoheles, and I must be on my way to the realm of the gods. But something tells me I'm not. Not yet, at least.

And then the voice is replaced with a thought, or a piece of consciousness, or maybe a memory.

Jackson. I see Jackson drifting in the darkness. He doesn't look at me. He just disappears.

I've failed him.

Yes... You should never have been a Guardian.

Then, I'm standing in a wide-open field, the grasses around me furrowed and flattened from the power of the flyer vanishing into the sky above me.

I failed then, too. I couldn't stop them from taking him.

Let go,the voice urges.Do not continue to fight.

I want to. If I let go, then I'll be free of my destiny and the shame crushing down on my heart. Will the underworld release me of these burdens?

Yes. Do it.

I can't. Something is keeping me here. I feel it, like a tether wrapped around my body.

I feel Jackson.

Jackson

I'm just drifting like a boat on a dark ocean. No rudder, no sail. It feels like something is trying to drag me below the surface, but it isn't strong enough. At least, not yet. And then something that looks like a tiny window appears out of the void, like a TV screen flickering in a dark room. I move toward it—or maybe it's moving toward me. It's impossible to know. It gets bigger and bigger, and soon I'm able to step through it.