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)
Silence washed over the crowd, and Ellis wavered in uncertainty before he pressed on. “I would suggest that we share our information with each other so we have a way to track and keep in touch. To warn if we find something during our hunt in Faydor.”
A ripple of agreement seemed to go up.
“Please be careful, my family. Stay in your homes if you can. Stay away from strangers and even watch for changes in your loved ones. We need you all to come back to us. Now, we must descend and fight.”
A solemn understanding fell over them, and they all rose and began to pair off, though their voices were hushed as they each shared their contact information with those around them.
Aria wanted to get up and join them. Fight at their sides. But she didn’t have the strength to even get to her feet.
Affliction assaulted her as she watched them go. She felt aggrieved at the thought that she could have done this. That her love for her Nol might have caused this.
Those stolen moments.
Their kisses.
Their touches.
Had she been that selfish?
A moan bottled in her chest, and that sense was on her again. The whisper of that tinkling, melodic voice.
“Together. Wholly.”
It was a call that echoed through her middle.
Her family disappeared into the nothingness while Pax hugged Josephine, offering her his hope.
That voice whispered again, nudging in the deepest spot inside her. A call.
She had no choice but to heed it. To follow it.
Slowly, she rolled in the grass until she was on her stomach, then fought to bring herself to her hands and knees.
She gasped as she crawled in the direction she was led.
To the spring that rippled through the meadow.
The exhaustion was excruciating. Her joints felt as if they’d been pulled apart, her muscles sundered and riven.
She winced as she moved, grinding her molars against the agony of pressing her palms to the grass after they’d been completely scorched.
But she couldn’t resist the lure.
The innate need to get to the stream.
To listen.
To see.
“Aria,” the haunting voice whispered when she made it to the brook.
Barely able to keep herself propped up on one hand, she stirred the fingers of the other hand through the cool, placid water.
“Together. Wholly.” It was faint, nagging at the edge of her ear.
“Valeen?” she begged. Not for herself. For the others who had to be saved.
“Rise up, dear Valient.” The words wisped through the air just as the hint of a face passed through the rippling water. “You are the chosen. You must lead.”
“How? Show me how,” she implored, hand diving deeper into the water as if she could hold on to the vapor that whisked by.
“You hold the power inside you,” the voice intoned, drifting farther away. Farther away into the nothingness.
On a frustrated cry, Aria slumped forward, practically sliding into the stream as her hand frantically swished beneath the water. “Please. How?”
“Aria, it’s okay. It’s okay.” Pax rushed up behind her and dragged her into his arms as he sank back to sitting on the grass.
“The answer is already written inside of you,” the voice wisped before it fully drifted away.
Legs spread out in front of him, Pax tucked her onto his lap. Rocked her as he kissed her temple.
“Did you hear her?” she asked in desperation, wondering if she was hallucinating.
He curled his arms tighter around her, and he seemed to hesitate before he exhaled the admission near her ear.
“Only the last, when I was touching you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Aria
“I think this was the best idea you’ve ever had,” I told Pax before I took a sip from my hot caffé mocha, then a bite from the gooey doughnut piled high with strawberry icing and sprinkles.
Pax let go of a rough chuckle from where he sat across from me in the small booth at the local doughnut shop. We were tucked in the corner, mostly out of sight of the rest of the lobby, though Pax had a direct view of the door so he could keep tabs on who came in and out.
It was midmorning, so it was fairly quiet, just a few patrons dotted about, and we’d felt somewhat at ease when we stepped inside.
People’s voices were there, hovering at the fringes of my mind, but they were subdued. No true distress in the handful of people inside the shop.
“You’re awful easy to please for a princess,” he teased. “Besides, I think I picked up early on you preferring dessert for breakfast.”
Pax tilted his head as he blatantly stared at me. Flames licked in the depths of his icy gray eyes as he made a slow pass over my face and down my neck.
Redness rushed in its wake. I wondered if I’d ever get used to it. Him looking at me that way. With unfettered desire. I’d longed for it forever and thought I’d never feel the full severity of it.