Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Then she moved into the en suite bathroom and returned with two warm washcloths. Together, we carefully cleaned up the blood that had dried all the way across Aria’s stomach and sides and down her legs, avoiding the large bandage where Jill had already cleaned her.
Then we re-dressed her in only a T-shirt, keeping her as still as we could, no words said as we worked together in a quiet, fluid understanding.
Aria moaned from the depths of her sleep. It might have been incoherent, dull and distant, but I thought it might have been the most beautiful thing I’d ever heard.
Dani stayed with Aria while I showered. I had to wash off the blood I was covered in.
Red-tinged water pooled at my feet, swirling as if it were trying to suck me down with it before it disappeared down the drain.
While I fought the dread that bound and festered.
The fear of what was coming.
A sense that buzzed at my spirit’s periphery.
The truth that it was coming, and it was coming fast.
I stepped out of the shower, dried off with the towel Dani had left for me, pulled on a fresh pair of underwear and a pair of jeans, then walked back out into the bedroom.
Dani was on the bed on her side, curled around Aria.
When she noticed me there, she pressed her lips to Aria’s temple and whispered her belief to her friend. Her sister. Their bond so great that I could feel it filling the room.
“You can do this, Aria. You are so strong. I’ve witnessed it my whole life. Have felt how special you are. But this? What happened tonight? You are extraordinary. You hold the answer, and you cannot let them win.”
Without saying anything else, she climbed down from the bed, walked out of the room, and quietly snapped the door shut behind her.
Then I crawled into the bed and curled myself around Aria the way Dani had done.
Breathed my faith into her.
My hope.
My need.
Praying the connection would keep her anchored.
That she’d know where she belonged.
With me.
Chapter Thirty-Three
Pax—Tearsith
Pax emerged in Tearsith with Aria in his arms. His bond so strong that he was sure when he’d fallen asleep, he had somehow carried her spirit there.
She was still limp, though her steady breaths filled him with the hope that he’d thought he’d lost.
He stumbled out into the meadow. None of their Laven family was there. All of them would have long descended to fight the battle in Faydor.
Pax sank down to the soft grass with Aria in the nest of his arms.
He rocked her there with her on his lap, his face tilted toward the placid sky that always welcomed them like an embrace.
His spirit moaned, begging for an answer.
How do we stop this? How can we win this when we don’t understand what we’re fighting against?
He didn’t expect an answer.
Valeen had always been a mystery to him. Maybe even a fable. Fabricated to give them answers for who they were. For the existence he had never understood.
But sitting there, rocking her in his arms, he thought he knew. He thought he might understand, even if it was obscured.
And within it, the softest voice tinkled in his ear. Somewhere at the edge of awareness.
A voice that whispered, “You must rise with her. Stand at her side and never let go.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
Aria
I woke up curled in the safety of Pax’s arms. Warmth radiated around me. A fire that burned at our connection, where he was pinned to my side.
A cover.
A shroud.
An embrace.
Groggy, I blinked my eyes open to find his right there. That pale, fiery gaze tacked on me in all its ferocity as he stared at me from where his head rested on a pillow.
I got the sense that he’d remained in that exact position for the entire night.
The man was a guard.
A sentry.
Wishing for a way to be my savior.
My chest constricted at the pain that also roiled in that gaze as he looked across at me.
Deep, dark, and haunted.
Though there was such relief mixed in it that I felt myself floating in the sanctuary of the murky depths.
Held there.
Uplifted.
A buoy and belief.
His palm was already on my cheek, and the pad of his thumb brushed along the curve of it before it wandered over my chapped lips.
“Hi,” he murmured. The single word was raw. Brittle and cracked.
I swallowed around the sticky thickness that nearly closed off my throat. The faintest hitch of a smile wobbled at the edge of my mouth, the amount of love I felt for him in that moment overwhelming. “Hi.”
He kept looking at me that way, unrelenting, drinking me in as if he’d been afraid he’d never get to see me again.
It’d been close.
Even though I felt disoriented—almost numb—I knew it. I remembered feeling myself drifting away into the nothingness.
He blinked. Studying. Adoring. Half grieving. “The way it feels to see those beautiful eyes staring back at me.”