Page 24 of Phoenix Fated (The Phoenix Guardians #4)

AIROS

I t'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.