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)
Pax angled his head in his elder’s direction, his words jagged. “My purpose is to protect her.” He’d known it his entire life; he’d just finally figured out what that really meant. “Saving her is my meaning.”
“Have you forgotten the lessons of Valeen and Kreed?”
“And what exactly do you expect me to do? Turn my back on her? Leave her alone on the street? Take her back to her parents, who don’t understand her? The ones who put her in harm’s way to begin with? I won’t.” The promise grated from Pax’s tongue.
“Pax . . . you must—”
Their argument was cut off by Timothy, who was suddenly at their side. He roughed a hand through his shaggy brown hair, caution and care in his expression.
“Forgive me for interrupting,” he told Ellis, though his eyes were on Pax. “Dani and I . . . We have been searching.”
Rage and hope stirred inside him.
“What have you found?” Pax demanded.
“We found the Ghorl. It is fast, and it is strong and terrifying. More powerful than anything I’ve ever witnessed. But I saw it, Pax. It has one single thought. One single goal. And that goal is Aria.”
Pax had already assumed that, but the confirmation pierced him like an arrow.
He swore, and Timothy’s nod was grim. “We couldn’t even get close enough to it to try to bind it. I’m sorry.”
“It must be stopped here.” Wisdom was carved into Ellis’s edict. “If it’s only this one . . . then perhaps we can stop this.”
He didn’t say it, but Pax knew what he’d implied.
Stop the hunt for Aria.
Only you have the strength to destroy this evil. What Aria had told him about what she’d thought Valeen had conveyed to her spun through his mind. If it were true? If Valeen had actually shown herself to Aria? Then Aria might be the only one who could do it.
Pax grabbed on to the hope, and he silently promised she wouldn’t have to do it alone.
“I will speak with our family before we descend,” Ellis said.
“Thank you.” Pax’s words were thick as he spoke to Timothy.
“You know I would do anything for her. For both of you,” Timothy promised before he turned and headed back toward Dani, who still stood talking with Aria.
Pax started to turn, to go to Aria so they could descend. So they could fight this beast, crush it, pray it would be her threat’s end.
Only Ellis took him by the forearm before he had the chance to move. His instruction was hushed, though cut in emphasis. “I understand, Pax. I do. So protect her while awake. Stand at her side until we see this through. We will find it and destroy it here.”
Pax gulped as Ellis tightened his hold.
“But you must leave her then. Once this is finished. And you must never give in to what I see in your eyes. You cannot risk the aftermath of giving your heart that way. You might think you’re strong enough to resist it, but you will turn on her.”
Pax wanted to argue. To swear it could never happen. Not when she was everything. He restrained himself and gave Ellis the promise he knew he was duty bound to uphold. “I will.”
“Good. Then I say we go destroy this monster.” Ellis wound around Pax, walking toward the sea of Laven. “Family, gather around.”
Pax followed, moving to Aria’s side.
She glanced at him with those questioning, fathomless eyes. He took her hand as the voices trailed off and everyone gathered around Ellis, whose expression was both direct and grim.
Their elder turned to speak to the crowd. “As Laven, we each face special obstacles while awake. We are attacked in every direction, Kruen tossing thoughts in those who cross our paths. I know you understand this firsthand. You know the complexities of this life, even though they are difficult to understand. And Aria’s . . .”
Everyone’s attention slanted to her as he continued to speak. “Aria’s situation appears to be even more complex than any of us here have ever known. She has . . . bound a Kruen while awake.”
Shock rippled through the mass, rumbles of perplexity, the impossibility of who she was and what she had done, and Pax clutched her hand tighter when she trembled as a flock of pale eyes swept over her.
In sympathy.
In support.
In confusion.
None of them could comprehend what was being said. None of them had an answer.
Pax was hell-bent on finding it.
“And as such,” Ellis continued, “it seems she has become the target of a single Ghorl.”
Gasps went up all around.
“Timothy and Dani have witnessed its thoughts, and those thoughts have one purpose: seeking Aria’s demise. We must stop it. For our sister. Listen as you hunt for the one who seeks her. Together, we must find it and snuff it out.”
Agreement rolled through the crush, and their family began to descend, two by two, edging up to the invisible gateway, to the force that drew them toward darkness.