Page 144 of Walking in Darkness

Fear gripped me by the throat when I realized I wasn’t going to get to him in time—until an arrow flew through the air.

Dani, striking him through the shoulder.

But we were surrounded.

The crowd surging. So thick it was nearly impossible to hold them back. The mayhem so fucking loud it was confounding. People everywhere, fucking flying and dropping. Ravaging and protecting.

“Aria, we need you,” I gritted out as I struggled to reload as quickly as I could.

“I know,” she wheezed, and I could feel her focus.

Could feel her gathering the strength required to garner another surge of that energy.

Another piece of shit slashed a knife as he came toward her.

“Aria,” I shouted, finally getting the mag loaded into the gun, but not before he was right there, two feet in front of her, when another shot rang out.

A bullet pierced him in the temple and sent him reeling sideways.

I looked in the direction of where the shot had come from, and Keith gave me a dip of his chin in acknowledgment before he took aim at others.

Ellis and Josephine pressed their backs up against Aria as they kept her shielded on the opposite side, and Aria ducked her head and pulled from their power as they poured what they had into her.

“Get down!” Aria suddenly shouted, and we all ducked when she released it. A blinding shock wave of light blistered out, cutting through the horde that amassed around us.

It sent every piece of shit surrounding us sailing backward.

Bodies flew high through the air, their shouts of rage climbing into the atmosphere and echoing through the false night before they were extinguished when they slammed into whatever surface they met. Walls crumbled and collapsed with the impact.

The road and sidewalks fractured into splinters.

A shuddering of vengeance against the depraved.

Aria slumped forward the second the energy left her, and we all moved to her.

Surrounding her.

Touching her.

Protecting her.

Doing everything we could to support her in this fight.

She inhaled a shattered breath and forced herself to straighten. Those pale eyes met mine, glints of devotion in the storm. My heart clutched with it, the connection roaring between us.

We had to do this. We had to push through.

She peeled her gaze from mine and shouted, “We have to find Ambrose. Now!”

We all started running up the middle of the road, keeping a barrier around Aria as we moved. Close enough that we were touching her while still fighting off any monster that came our way.

People surged. Streams that gathered in the street and flooded toward the epicenter of the destruction.

Both Laven and the possessed.

Battles raged through the chaos that seemed hooked on one destination.

We circled Aria as we fought, making a living hedge of protection around her as we moved deeper into the turmoil. Dani fired arrow after arrow, and once her supply had been spent, she pulled out the hunting knife.