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)
“He called himself Ambrose. Have you ever heard his name before?” she begged.
Awareness nudged at her consciousness. She swore she should know. It was like the answer was right there, dangling in front of her but just out of reach.
Regret shook Ellis’s head. “No. Nor have I ever heard of anyone of his kind. Of another plane. And he said Kreed gave him this gift?”
He might as well have spat it.
Aria’s nod was withdrawn. “Yes.”
“Maybe he welcomed Kreed into his heart in some way? Allowed Kreed to strip him of his humanity to use him on Earth? I don’t know. This is . . .” He trailed off in horrified disbelief before he peered at her with sheer intensity, though his voice was soft with awe. “Sweet child, you are beyond anything we’ve ever known. I wish I had the answers, but I don’t. I’m afraid I no longer hold the wisdom to be your teacher, but it will be you who is teaching us.”
He gave a wary glance between her and Pax, worry seeded deep in his gaze.
Air puffed from Aria’s nose, and she let her eyes travel their sanctuary. It used to make her feel safe. Untouchable. But now that peace felt thin. She was sure these realms were so much greater than she’d fathomed, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much had been undiscovered.
“But the thing I do know is, you must figure out who this man is in the day,” Ellis urged. “He must be human if he is walking on that sphere. Maybe that is where you have to stop him.”
Uncertainty washed through Aria. It seemed unlikely that he would be vulnerable in the day. Susceptible to human weaknesses. His powers seemed far above that.
But if she was also vulnerable there . . .
She almost scoffed at herself.
Could she dare compare herself to him?
“Don’t worry, I have every intention of hunting that bastard down,” Pax growled from her side. “Every intention of ending him. Whatever it takes.”
Ellis shifted in disconcertment, and Aria watched as his attention dipped to where Pax had her fingers woven firmly through his.
Refusing to let go for a second.
The old man slowly lifted his gaze to theirs.
“And you remain together.”
He didn’t phrase it as a question. It was a statement knitted in distress.
Pax didn’t cower. He simply lifted his chin. “I’m not leaving her, Ellis. Know I made the promise to you that I would once we stopped the Ghorl, but I can’t, and I won’t. This thing isn’t over. But even if it was, I don’t believe that we don’t belong together. And even if we didn’t, it wouldn’t change anything. I won’t leave her side.”
“It’s a risk we’re both willing to take,” Aria told Ellis, her words twisting in a plea for him to understand.
Aria knew the mandate.
Nols were not to join in the flesh; Ellis had only given them a temporary blessing while they’d been trying to defeat that Ghorl.
But how could Valeen forbid this? This connection they’d been given?
She and Pax were so much more than temporary.
Another wail rose up from Margarethe, a mournful cry that echoed through their sanctuary.
Aria’s spirit throbbed and thrashed, and she held tight to Pax’s hand.
Praying that what they were was unbreakable.
Chapter Six
Aria
When my lids fluttered open, I found Pax staring at me from where his head rested on his pillow.
We faced each other, tangled in the middle of the bed.
Bare light flooded the room, but it was enough to cast him in a spotlight. Rays spearing through the drab atmosphere and glinting over the sharp edges of his face.
Cheeks cut like razors, his brow proud, and his jaw a blade.
But I was the one who felt lit up in the spotlight right then. The way he gazed at me through the space, those icy eyes the softest I’d ever seen them.
It was as if I had become a beacon. The only thing he could see.
He reached out tattooed fingers and brushed back the matted locks of hair from my face. A sorrowful smile touched his lips.
“Morning.” The word was rough as gravel.
“Good morning,” I murmured, eyes flitting back and forth as I took him in. Absorbing everything I could.
The sorrow from last night chasing me here. Knowing what Margarethe was waking up to.
A hole that I knew ached so horribly inside her.
Pax must have felt it, because he set his palm on my cheek, so big that it nearly covered the entire side of my face. “Nothing better in the world than waking up next to you. Getting to have you in my arms. Knowing you’re right here. This sweet body tucked right up against me.”
“It can’t be wrong,” I whispered.
“It can’t,” he agreed.
Wistfulness pulled through me, and Pax’s gaze tracked the motion as it pulsed through my expression. “You’re hurting for her.”