Page 99 of Rising Out of the Darkness (Divine Guardians Duology #1)

Elena

A ll at once a rush of warmth radiated through my body.

The overwhelming feeling of love wrapped itself around my soul and tugged on my heart.

It was so all-encompassing, that it felt like it ripped the air straight from my lungs.

I tried to keep my eyes open and locked onto Declan’s, but they slammed shut.

As soon as they did, I was blinded by a flash of light.

Slowly, my eyes began to adjust, and images and memories began to flash in front of my eyes.

I watched myself battling dark serpents in a world filled entirely made of water.

Nixie was there, and we were surrounded by several others of her kind, all with shimmering tails that moved swiftly through the water.

In another flash of light, I was now helping others hide from the enemy on the other side of a wall.

Blasts of metal ricocheted, sending pieces of the walls crumbling to the ground.

The people surrounding me had tattoos on their arms as well, but unlike ours they were just a lengthy list of numbers.

A blast broke through the walls, and I hurled myself over the frail bodies surrounding me, shielding them from the imminent attack.

The memories continued to flash over and over in front of my eyes.

Different worlds, different realms, but in each one we were all battling the same darkness, the same evil as the one we faced on Ehora.

Though they might not have been wearing dark hoods, or the sinister face of Alastor Grimshaw, every fiber of my being could feel the darkness radiating off the enemies we were battling.

There were no spoken words in these memories, only emotions. We knew each of the beings surrounding Declan and me. Together, we had all battled against evil in each of these different realms. It wasn’t just them I had a strong familiarity with, however.

Shadowing me at every turn on every world was the man who appeared to have stolen my heart more times than I could count. Declan had been by my side for every battle, every triumph and every loss. There wasn’t a memory I had that didn’t include him.

No matter where we were sent, we’d found each other time and time again.

Love warmed my soul. Our bond tugged me back towards him. Slowly, my awareness of my body became heavier as I fell back into it.

When I opened my eyes, his cheeks were stained with tears, and I could feel cool wetness across my own as well. However, that coolness warmed as I met his eyes once more. They flamed with heat and desire, but most of all an overwhelming amount of love. All of it directed towards me.

A grin spread across his face that made the bond thrum within me. “Well, Wildfire.” The deep timbre made me melt into the stone beneath me. “It appears our souls have been intertwined this entire time. We truly are soulmates?—”

Before he could say any more, I wrapped my hand around his neck and pulled him into my lips. We got lost in each other for a few moments before someone cleared their throat.

“Sorry.” I tossed a sheepish grin to the others. Even Declan’s cheeks had a rosy hue to them as he leaned backwards.

“It’s not the first time we’ve had to endure your displays of passion.” Alyth grinned.

Now my own cheeks flamed red.

“Alright, alright,” Arthur grumbled. “Let’s hurry this along. Time is running out before we send them back in.”

That was right—Ehora, the planet we were trying to save from evil trying to corrupt it.

“As you now know, our purpose is still the same—guarding worlds and realms as they ascend towards a higher dimension, making sure that evil doesn’t corrupt them.

Only when there is a threat of a shift of balance are we allowed to intervene.

We’re supposed to intervene only once as well.

” Alyth’s lashes fluttered downwards, and she fidgeted with the fold of her gown.

“You were the first Light Phoenix, weren’t you?” I didn’t remember seeing it in my flashbacks, but the more we spoke, the more my memory was returning.

Alyth nodded. “I was given another chance to return, but when I came back as the Light Phoenix, I was blinded by rage. So much hate and distrust had begun to corrupt Ehora, and the night I died, they slaughtered so many of the people I had come to love. In my anger, I wiped out the evil entirely, breaking the one rule we are never meant to overstep.”

“Choice,” Declan whispered next to me. “You didn’t allow them the chance to make a choice to change. To decide to walk towards the light, instead of being pulled under by the darkness.”

“Exactly,” Alyth breathed. “After I died and returned here, I wasn’t allowed to return. In fact, I will not be allowed to intervene at all in the future until I’ve fully learned from my mistakes.” Arthur placed his palm on Alyth’s shoulder as a few tears sprinkled down her cheeks.

“This is one of the reasons why you both were sent down in her place,” Arthur continued where Alyth had stopped.

“What was the other reason?” I asked.

He brushed his hand through his thick black hair. “We always incarnate in pairs. It’s a part of the balance we bring as Divine Guardians.”

“The balance between love and wisdom, right?” Declan asked.

“Yes,” Valdarin answered this time. “Thus, our outfit selection,” he smirked, motioning our clothing.

“Some of us are more prone to guidance and wisdom.” He pointed to Declan’s black outfit.

“Others resonate more with the emotions and feelings that bloom from love and peace.” This time he motioned towards me.

“Both are essential when uplifting others towards the light, and the reason we go together to maintain the balance between good and evil in each place we protect.”

Arthur began to speak as soon as Valdarin finished.

“I was with Alyth and fell when she fell. Alyth begged to be given a chance to return immediately, but I argued that we needed to wait and give it some time before we returned. I felt there was something bigger plaguing this planet than we had originally thought. However, before we could come to a consensus, Alyth returned to Ehora … and, well, you know what happened after that.”

Alyth’s cheeks flushed with embarrassment. When Declan and I had made the decision to use our combined power to wipe out the beasts, it had felt like it was necessary to save the ones that we loved. After hearing Alyth, I was beginning to question my choice.

As if reading my thoughts yet again, Declan asked a question to the group. “You said earlier that we’re expected to return to Ehora. Explain to me how what Alyth did is any different than what Elena and I just did.”

No one answered, so he kept speaking. “The beasts we killed were Elysians and humans. Souls that had been turned into soldiers of evil against their own will. How are we allowed to return, and Alyth cannot?”

“ You didn’t take away their choice.” Alyth spoke softly. “The evil one corrupting Ehora did. You both freed them from their suffering?—”

“We could have found a way.” I sniffled, suddenly overcome with emotion. “We should have found a way to change them back.”

Alyth gathered my hands within hers and pulled me into an embrace.

“There’s no cure for this kind of evil, Elena,” she whispered into my hair, pausing to let the words sink in.

“They would have been trapped in those beasts forever. You showed them mercy by unraveling their souls from the evil that held them in its clutches.” She gave me a squeeze before releasing me.

I opened my mouth to speak when Arthur interrupted my thoughts.

“They’ve found your bodies. We need to hurry this along before we miss our opportunity.”

Our bodies? I shivered at the thought. Gods, which one of our friends had had to endure that sight?

“Yes, Arthur’s right.” Alyth winced. “Alastor must be stopped, and I believe you two are the only ones who can stop him this time.”

“Why do you say that?” Declan queried, and from the look on his face, it appeared that this truly must have been something that we hadn’t discussed in our prior lives.

“While you were on Ehora, we all tried our best to make sense of why we kept seeing this same type of evil. It’s like it keeps following us from place to place. We narrowed it down to where we think it all began. Pyraxia.”

An audible hiss, along with a string of curses, fled from Declan’s mouth.

His reaction was no surprise, because I’d done the same as well.

Even though our friends had opened our minds to unveil our memories, it would still take a little time for us to fully remember it all.

However, at the mere mention of Pyraxia, memories of the world where I’d first met Declan came into clear view.

It was Declan’s original home, as well as our very first mission working together. It was also the first—and would be the last—time we had ever watched an entire world fall into the hands of evil. By fall, I meant everyone, the good and the evil.

Pyraxia no longer existed, and it was the main reason Declan and I fought to guard other worlds from falling under the same blight.

“There are several eerie similarities about the evil that was on Pyraxia.” Hairs on the back of my neck rose as memories of the evil on Ehora slid across my skin.

I could almost feel the icy touch of the hooded beings, the odor of rot and decay that spewed from them, the beasts and most of all Alastor.

The knot that gathered inside my stomach tightened, making me feel suddenly lightheaded.

“It’s more than similar. It’s exactly the same, and I was too careless to recognize it.” The muscles in Declan’s jaw ticked. He clawed his hands through his hair.

Placing a hand on his shoulder, I attempted to pull him back from his anxious thoughts. “I was there too, Declan. Hells, I dreamed about their evil, and apparently my past lives. Even I didn’t notice it.”

His shoulders sagged under my palm. He pulled his hands away from his now rumpled hair.

Suddenly, I remembered something of importance. My eyes roved over the bodies around us until they landed on the one person who I knew could answer my question. Alyth. “You were always there in my dreams, during my Ascension. I thought you couldn’t intervene?”

Alyth’s lips twisted into a playful smile. “Well, there are always loopholes. We noticed you’d started to dream about your past lives, which never happens.” Her smile fell. “All of us began to worry that maybe evil had possibly found a way to stay connected to you both.”

Wide-eyed, I turned to face Declan. “You dreamt about our past too?”

His head bobbed silently. “Not to the extent that you did, but still enough to make me feel a constant unease.” He frowned. “Maybe they do have some sort of connection to us? We might be the reason Ehora is about to battle one of our greatest evils.”

“I heard voices when I touched the gods’ tree, and when I bumped into Alastor one day, I heard terrified screams. Do you think maybe that’s the connection?”

“I’ve always felt that the gods’ trees had more importance in Ehora, something deeper. When you go back, you should spend more time researching this. Perhaps they’re the key to the darkness destroying the realm.” Alyth said.

“What about Alastor’s connection?”

“That we are still working on, but the fact that when you touched him you heard voices makes me curious just how deep his connection with the two of you goes.”

Declan’s hands clenched into fists. “It’s time, Elena, we need to go back. We need to stop Alastor once and for all. We vowed to never let what happened to Pyraxia happen again.”

I cupped the side of his cheek as my thumb gently brushed across it. The muscles in his face loosened and his fists unclenched when I replied. “You’re right, it’s time to go back and save the people we love. It’s time to get rid of him once and for all.”

Declan slid an arm around my back, pulling me into his side. “We’re ready. What do we need to do now?”

“As you’ve already figured out, Ehora has a powerful system of magic that derives from one’s emotions.

It’s unlike anything that we’ve ever witnessed before.

Both of you are Empaths, meaning you feel the weight of emotions to far greater extremes than most. Which makes you incredibly powerful”—Alyth paused— “but it also makes it extremely dangerous as well.”

“Alastor knows about the true origin of dynamis, doesn’t he?” Declan seethed.

“Yes, I’m afraid he does. Anger, fury and hate are incredibly strong emotions that can create an equally devastating dynamis if in the wrong hands.

My own display of rage was just a small glimpse of what could happen.

” Tears streamed down her face, as Nixie stepped next to her and pulled her into an embrace.

“You must work together to control the balance, not just of the world, but within yourselves as well. Together, you’ll need to learn how to control your emotions.” Arthur’s gaze bore into us both as we nodded our heads in a silent vow to do as he said.

Valdarin stepped forward, placing a hand on Declan’s shoulder. “You have the choice to go back with a veil over your memories or not. What shall be your decision?”

I was sure we’d done this several times, but the idea of forgetting our memories together all over again turned the contents of my stomach sour. “Forgetting you again is not an option.”

Declan’s eyes flickered with delight. “It’s not an option for me either, love.”

“Good, then that’s settled.” Valdarin snorted. “Now, let’s get you back before your grand entrance goes entirely up in flames.”

“In flames?” My brow rose.

“Wildfire, you of all people should know how a Phoenix is reborn.” Declan smirked.

Fire.

We didn’t bury our loved ones, we helped them rise to the gods in the form of ashes on the wind.

“I knew one day your fiery blaze would consume me.” He leaned down to give me a kiss. “This time, I’ll be coming back with a little fire of my own.” As he waggled his eyebrows up and down, the others’ laughter filled the air.

Once more they circled around us, hands warming our shoulders. All at once the weight of what we were about to do shifted my mood. With trembling fingers, I clung to the pillar of strength in front of me.

“ Time to spread those wings, love,” he whispered into my mind. Before I could respond, my vision flooded with a searing, golden light.