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)
Confusion tossed his thoughts into mayhem. “What do you mean, you bound a Kruen?”
“I bound it, Pax. Crushed it.”
His chest tightened.
It was impossible.
A shudder rocked through her body before she rushed to explain. “I kept feeling something different. All afternoon. Like I could hear the evils that echoed through the halls of that place. I thought it was just the stress. That I was tired and vulnerable. But there was this girl . . . my roommate.”
Aria’s tongue stroked out to wet her dried lips, and her voice was hushed. “She started telling me why she had been admitted. And I could feel it, Pax.” She fisted both hands in the stomach of her shirt. “I could feel her turmoil. Her grief.”
Her hesitation was palpable, though a newfound ferocity lined her bones. “I had an overwhelming urge to touch her. And when I did, I saw it through her mind, the Kruen who was feeding her lies. I bound it.”
Words began to frantically tumble from her mouth. “I bound it. I saw it, and I bound it, and I destroyed it. It drained me. Drained me so badly that I could barely move, but I did it.”
She lurched forward and grabbed him by the forearms. “What does it mean? Tell me what it means.”
Pale eyes widened with the plea.
Alarm pounded through his bloodstream, and he warred with the urge to jump to his feet and rage. “I don’t know what it means,” he finally managed to say.
They were created to walk through the darkness of Faydor. Chosen before birth to fight for the good. To protect from the monsters that were bred to destroy.
A Laven’s spirit was amplified when they slept. Permitted to cross into the plane that ran over the surface of the Earth like a wicked, infected shroud. A world where demons peered into human minds and preyed on their weaknesses.
In the day, Laven were just as vulnerable as anyone else.
Human through and through.
But if Aria possessed this power? It would set her apart. Put her in greater danger.
A tremor ripped down his spine, and he ground his teeth. “I don’t know what it means, Aria, but I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
He would protect her till his last breath.
Aria looked into the distance, to the lush foliage that surrounded them. A haven that couldn’t be touched.
But Pax knew it was all a false sense of security. In one second, she could be gone, torn from this place and taken to one where he couldn’t protect her.
“Do you ever wish that we hadn’t been given this?” She whispered it out into the nothingness, letting the words ride on the soft breeze that forever blew through the meadow. “That we didn’t have this burden? That we were normal?”
“How could I, Aria? Not when it means I get to know you.”
He knew his love for her was greater than anything else. Greater than anything he would ever experience.
It was absolute.
Born of some twisted fate that would tie her to him forever.
Her eyes both dimmed and brightened, and he could feel the swell of her nerves crash through the air. “Pax . . . I—”
Suddenly, a blinding blanket of intensity burst in front of him. A radiating light as electricity sparked in the air.
Then she was gone.
No doubt, she’d been awakened in the human realm.
On a roar of frustration, he jumped to his feet. He wanted to reach out and drag her back, all while knowing he had no power to do it.
They’d only been in Tearsith for maybe five hours, and it was far too soon for her to normally wake in the day.
He hated that she was in that place and he had no way to find out if she was okay.
A prisoner held.
He’d never forget how terrified she had been the first time she was institutionalized. How she’d wept each time she arrived in Tearsith, so misunderstood and undefined.
But he understood her.
He swore he was the only one who really could.
“Fuck,” he spat, driving his fingers into his hair as he began to pace through the torment.
“Pax.”
Shocked, Pax whirled when he heard his name, sure he’d be alone for the rest of the night.
Ellis lingered in the distance. Concern was written in the lines of his face.
“What are you doing back?” he grated, unable to keep the harshness from his voice.
“I came to check on Aria.”
Pax scrubbed a palm over his face. “She was awakened.”
He started to pace again, agitation burning beneath his skin as his thoughts began to spiral.
Aria was locked in a facility.
She’d bound a Kruen while awake.
She was alone and vulnerable.
He yanked at fistfuls of his hair.
“I need to go to her.” It mumbled out in a desperation he’d never felt before.
Ellis was suddenly at his side, his hand on his arm. “What did you say?”