Page 151 of Walking in Darkness

Violence skated through Pax on a palpable wave, fury and rage lighting him through as he saw Ambrose standing like some kind of twisted savior on the steps of the gazebo.

Ambrose, who himself was not the same human I’d faced over the last few weeks, even though his power had been greater than any other human I’d met before him during that time.

Now his own skin had become translucent. Veins of fire twisted and twined beneath his flesh. His eyes were the same blackened holes that led down into the eternal void as the Kruen.

Eyes that led into nothing but devastation and desolation.

The sky spun above him, the clouds revolving and agitating the air into a cyclone.

Ambrose lifted his arms, and the words he emitted pulsed through the frigid atmosphere. “I have spent many years waiting for this moment. For the moment when I would stand in front of you to give you each the freedom you have been searching for. For the moment when I would get to end the mindless cycle of those who seek to stop what has been coming all along.”

He stretched his arms out even wider.

“I’ve been waiting for this moment, when I would finally stand in front of you to lead you into a brand-new day. A brand-new life. One where we will rule together.”

Then I felt the force of his gaze land on me.

Evil crawled across my skin.

“But I know that you know ... know that you can feel it ... that we have Valeen’s chosen one in our way. She has come. Stand, my children, and bring her to me.”

There was a stir of the possessed, and every single one of them returned to their feet as the charge was issued.

Rise up; you must lead.

Valeen’s voice trickled through my mind again.

A prodding.

An urging.

You, you are Valient.

Valient. Power surged as I realized what it meant. The strength she’d given me to lead. I lifted my chin and shouted above the howl of the wicked, “We may fear, but we will not falter. We may be outnumbered, but we will not surrender. Look inside yourselves for strength because it is there. You possess so much more of it than you know. We are Laven, called for the good, to protect humankind, and together we will purge the wickedness that wants to consume. We will not relent or bow. Together, we will fight.”

There was suddenly a new roar that deafened all ears. A shout of survival.

And one second later, all Laven burst forward and ran headlong into the wall of wickedness that had risen up to devour them.

Chapter Forty-Five

Aria

Pax and I started running the same way we did in Faydor, hand in hand, directly into the war that had erupted.

In one instant, the thousands of people who’d gathered collided as they surged into battle.

Our boots pounded against the frozen ground as we launched ourselves into the mass of the depraved that rushed out to meet us.

A mix of humans who had completely lost their souls, their hearts calloused and cold, and the Kruen that had manifested in their full forms.

Metal bashed and clanged as each used whatever weapon they possessed. A riot of gunshots rang out, piercing the air as a toil of bodies swarmed and clashed.

It was chaos.

Pure, violent chaos.

Battle cries rang out, mixed with shouts and screams and pleas.