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Chapter Forty-One

Aria

Tearsith

She and Pax ran through the bowels of Faydor, their feet pounding across the lifeless desolation. Cruelties moaned and wept, and they slowed only to slay the Kruen they passed, quick and succinct as they tracked.

Their ears were tuned. Listening for the one who would seek to extinguish the life force that beat frantically through her veins.

Pax had begged her to stay in Tearsith after what had happened, but her heart understood its call, and she knew they had no time to waste.

Refusing, she had stepped through the threshold and fallen into the depths.

They might try to pretend, but she was no princess, and she couldn’t afford to be pampered.

Now they raced into the abyss.

Deeper and deeper.

Winding through the craggy plane, dodging the wiry elms and enormous boulders as they cut down as many Kruen as they could.

Voices echoing from her right slowed her.

Familiar voices that called their names. “Aria! Pax!”

“Timothy and Dani,” Pax rushed, glancing back at Aria in surprise. It was rare to find another during the hunt with the way they spread out, their speed so much faster than anything they could match during the day, covering miles and miles of decay-rotted eternity.

Aria ran in their direction with Pax’s hand held firmly in hers. Only they skidded to a stop when they came to where Timothy panted and Dani wept. Torment blazed in Timothy’s pale, pale eyes. “I’m so sorry, Aria. We found it again, but we couldn’t bind it. It’s so strong. Stronger than anything we’ve ever encountered before. I’m afraid it might be greater than our abilities.”

She heard what he said without him fully issuing the words.

It couldn’t be stopped.

It couldn’t be smashed.

Despair wound through her consciousness, making her knees sag with the weight of what he was saying. But more so, it was the gutting sympathy that coated Dani’s gaze that made the ground tremble beneath Aria’s feet.

It felt as if she were standing in a war zone beneath the barrage of a thousand bombs that fell from the sky.

Tumultuous waves slammed into her again and again.

“What are you not saying?” she demanded.

Dani glanced at Timothy once before she spoke. “It had shifted gears tonight and was seeking to prey on your family.”

Horror spiraled through Aria. Hopelessness taking seed, though she wasn’t surprised. She’d known from the visions it was using her father.

Dani gulped, her delicate throat thick as she wavered before she continued with the confession. “We saw what it has planned. Your father ...”

She trailed off like she couldn’t bring herself to say it.

Aria reached out and snatched her hand, the cruciality whipping from her tongue. “Tell me.”

A tear streaked down Dani’s cheek, and she sniffled around what she believed could not be stopped. “Your brothers. Your sister. Your mom. It will be a massacre.”

It was the blow that dropped Aria to her knees.

A guttural wail broke from her chest. “No!”

No.

She would stop it.

She had to.

She had to.

Pax knelt in front of her, taking her by the face. “Aria, it’s okay. It’s okay.”

Only they both knew that was a lie.

It wasn’t okay.

And she wondered if it was the grief that carried her, what catapulted her from one realm to the next.

Because the next second, she woke up gasping on her back, gazing toward the ceiling of the dank motel room with one of Pax’s arms belted across her chest.