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)
Her.
Us.
The way we meshed.
The way we met.
The sound of it filled the air.
Our moans and pleas and the greed of our bodies as my hips slammed against hers.
It rose with each thrust. Driving us higher. Into that existence that had only ever belonged to us. One I’d been a fool to think we hadn’t been destined for.
“Pax,” she gasped.
I could feel the pleasure gather around her. A rising tide that swelled in the distance. As distinct as mine, which prowled up and down my spine.
“Do you have any idea what you do to me, Aria? The way it feels to have this sweet body hugging my cock? Let go. Let me feel you come around me.”
The moment I said it, I could feel her split. The splintering of bliss that spiraled through the middle of her, the clutch of her body as she rode me, taking me with her.
Pleasure cracked. Bursting through the fracture that opened up between us. Bright lights flashing as rapture streaked through our bodies.
Glimmering as it raced beneath our flesh.
And I wasn’t so sure that we remained here, on this plane. Wasn’t so sure that we weren’t elevated beyond it. Above it. Tossed to a place far beyond the reaches of reality.
To a place where there was joy and hope and a love unending.
I kept her hovered there, the two of us soaring for the longest time, before she finally sank down in my arms and sagged against me.
Both of us panted and shook.
With a heavy exhale, I pulled her closer and let my fingers flutter through her mussed hair as I buried my face in the side of her neck.
Holding on to her as I tried to process the magnitude of what being with her meant.
“Aria.” It was almost a question.
“I see it now,” she murmured, so low, still clinging to me. “We are stronger together, Pax. A force. Just like we are in Faydor.”
Chapter Twenty
Aria
“It was a lie.” I paced the small motel room from one end to the other. I’d dressed in a pair of sweats and a long tee, my feet covered in socks and my hair wet from the shower Pax and I had shared.
Beneath that hot spray of water, an understanding had swamped us.
But in it, there were so many questions.
“You think Valeen lied about wanting to keep us separated?” Pax asked as he ran a flustered hand through his damp white hair. He sat on the end of the bed, dressed only in jeans, his elbows propped on his thighs. There was no challenge to the question. He simply wanted to know if that was what I believed. “Misled us?”
“No. I think Ambrose bred that lie. I think it was passed through Abigail’s Laven family. Her demise was blamed on her and Ambrose coming together during the day, and I think it’s how the legend that Nols would turn against each other if they made contact outside of the otherworld came to be.”
“Except it didn’t have anything to do with them coming together. It was just that Ambrose was wicked through and through,” Pax surmised.
“Yes.” My brow pinched. “Do you think it’s true of all Laven families? That Ambrose somehow spread this lie to keep them apart? Or do you think we’re a part of Abigail’s family? That we’re the only ones who’ve been misguided?”
Pax sighed. “I don’t know, Aria. Wish that I did. But we don’t know enough about Laven to begin to understand it.”
I crossed my arms over my chest, rubbing my hands up and down them as I contemplated what we’d learned today, trying to process everything that monster had said.
“Ambrose was jealous, Pax. Jealous of Abigail’s powers. Kreed obviously pinpointed that weakness and used it against him.”
“Or maybe he was bad to begin with and welcomed it.” Spite filled Pax’s voice, rage still stark.
“Maybe. But I don’t think that’s what matters. I think what matters is that Kreed was able to turn a Laven in his favor. Use him. That he made him immortal.”
I blinked, trying to wrap my head around it.
Because Ambrose didn’t feel that way to me when I’d driven that blade into his stomach.
He’d been powerful. Extremely so.
But there was a vulnerability to him. Like that immortality hinged on something. Like it could be disrupted.
I wondered if Pax had a direct link into my thoughts, because he rumbled, “Asshole was shocked to find himself bleeding.”
“Yes. I think he was. I think he was . . . afraid.”
“Because of you,” Pax said.
I turned to him. “No, Pax. Because of us.”
“You’re the Valient, Aria. You’re the one who can reach through realms.”
“Maybe,” I said simply. Then the words turned profound. “But together, we’re stronger. You felt it. I know you did, and I think I felt a speck of it when I was losing strength trying to help the second girl the other night. When you reached out and touched my shoulder, a surge of strength rushed through me. You let go quickly, but I think it was enough for me to bind the Kruen. Then today . . . that difference was unquestionable. With the connection, that power gushed out of me. And you heard Valeen when you touched me. There is something there, Pax.”