Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
“I dreamed of it . . . of you loving me that way. Back in my room when I felt so alone.”
I hugged her to me. “You’re not alone anymore, Aria. And as long as I’m still breathing, you’re never going to be.”
We washed each other then, letting our hands drift and explore.
It felt like with each caress, the stigma of what we’d believed was washed away, giving way to a new understanding.
Our understanding.
We were in this thing together, in every fucking way we could possibly be.
When the water began to cool, I shut off the faucet and scooped her up again, and I grabbed the two thin white towels from the rack and wrapped them around us as best as I could. Then I carried her back out to the dull glow in the dingy room.
“I’m capable of walking, you know.” She whispered the affected, soggy words as she peered up at me.
I pressed my lips to her temple. “I know, but I don’t want to let you go.”
So, rather than doing that, I climbed down onto the floor with her, laid her out on the white sheet, and grabbed the blanket that had slipped off the bed when she’d been trapped. It was only damp on one edge, so I tossed it out, unfurling it so it coasted down to cover us.
Then I took her in my arms again.
Our naked bodies plastered together.
No barriers left.
“You should try to sleep,” I murmured where my lips were pressed to her forehead. “I’ll be awake, watching over you.”
Aria barely shook her head, and she took my hand and wove our fingers together. She pressed our hands tight between us. “Come with me, Pax. If you hold me like this? I’ll be with you wherever you are. I can feel it.”
Anxiety had that ball of razors taking a tumble down my throat again. “I’m terrified of losing you there.”
“You won’t,” she promised, and she lifted our hands and kissed across my knuckles. “You won’t. Just hold on to me.”
Somehow, I managed to pull her even closer, and I dipped down and kissed her, my fingers threaded in her hair and my spirit tangled in her soul.
I inhaled her, took her into my lungs.
Coconut and the girl.
And I whispered, “I won’t. You are what my heart knows.”
Chapter Forty-One
Aria
Tearsith
She and Pax ran through the bowels of Faydor, their feet pounding across the lifeless desolation. Cruelties moaned and wept, and they slowed only to slay the Kruen they passed, quick and succinct as they tracked.
Their ears were tuned. Listening for the one who would seek to extinguish the life force that beat frantically through her veins.
Pax had begged her to stay in Tearsith after what had happened, but her heart understood its call, and she knew they had no time to waste.
Refusing, she had stepped through the threshold and fallen into the depths.
They might try to pretend, but she was no princess, and she couldn’t afford to be pampered.
Now they raced into the abyss.
Deeper and deeper.
Winding through the craggy plane, dodging the wiry elms and enormous boulders as they cut down as many Kruen as they could.
Voices echoing from her right slowed her.
Familiar voices that called their names. “Aria! Pax!”
“Timothy and Dani,” Pax rushed, glancing back at Aria in surprise. It was rare to find another during the hunt with the way they spread out, their speed so much faster than anything they could match during the day, covering miles and miles of decay-rotted eternity.
Aria ran in their direction with Pax’s hand held firmly in hers. Only they skidded to a stop when they came to where Timothy panted and Dani wept. Torment blazed in Timothy’s pale, pale eyes. “I’m so sorry, Aria. We found it again, but we couldn’t bind it. It’s so strong. Stronger than anything we’ve ever encountered before. I’m afraid it might be greater than our abilities.”
She heard what he said without him fully issuing the words.
It couldn’t be stopped.
It couldn’t be smashed.
Despair wound through her consciousness, making her knees sag with the weight of what he was saying. But more so, it was the gutting sympathy that coated Dani’s gaze that made the ground tremble beneath Aria’s feet.
It felt as if she were standing in a war zone beneath the barrage of a thousand bombs that fell from the sky.
Tumultuous waves slammed into her again and again.
“What are you not saying?” she demanded.
Dani glanced at Timothy once before she spoke. “It had shifted gears tonight and was seeking to prey on your family.”
Horror spiraled through Aria. Hopelessness taking seed, though she wasn’t surprised. She’d known from the visions it was using her father.
Dani gulped, her delicate throat thick as she wavered before she continued with the confession. “We saw what it has planned. Your father . . .”
She trailed off like she couldn’t bring herself to say it.