Page 153 of Walking in Darkness

Annihilated.

Pax raced up to my side and grabbed my hand. A flash of warmth streaked up my arm. It rushed through me.

A stark rekindling of my strength.

“Do you see it?” I muttered in disbelief as we ran, diving toward a seething knot of people to our left. “The Laven. They’re binding the Kruen in the day. While awake. Together. They just needed their Nols to be able to do it.”

Because that was what we were when we joined.

Powerful.

Unstoppable.

Pax’s hand tightened on mine as he exhaled a rasping breath. “You were right, Aria. You were right.”

“But it’s so much more than I had ever thought or imagined.”

“It’s why Ambrose was afraid. Why he tried to end you all those times. Why he sought to distract us and keep us from coming here,” he said, voice grating from his ragged breaths. “He knew what would happen if we came together.”

“But we were all drawn here anyway.” It was awe. A blustering of hope swelled from the deepest parts within me.

The despair that had riddled me when I’d first seen the number of mutants drawn here was eradicated in a burst of belief.

An echo of Valeen’s voice whispered in my ear, a reminder of what we’d been sent here to do.

A Kruen suddenly surged out from the mob and thundered our way.

This time, Pax just held my hand as we gathered the strength.

The light.

We released it at the same time, and the Kruen roared when it was struck before it combusted to dust.

A disbelieving laugh ripped out of me, and Pax almost smiled as we shared a look.

An understanding.

Pure awe that rippled through us before we threw ourselves back into the riot.

To my left, a man burst through the crush, a screech flying off his tongue as he drove a knife into a Laven who battled with another beast. On a shock of pain, the Laven woman fell, trampled underfoot.

I felt torn, rent in two, the one second of levity we’d found now extinguished in the dismay of what this battle would cost.

Those who had already fallen.

My spirit ached as I watched the woman meet her death. I wanted to lean down. Pick her up and hold her as she breathed her last breath.

But there was no time. Nothing I could do.

I could only drive deeper, searching through the disorder for the one I had to bring to his end.

Internally, I begged for my family to be safe.

Josephine and Ellis.

Timothy and Dani.

The four of them swept into the tumult.