Page 26 of Walking in Darkness

“That’s not going to happen,” Aria promised. Praying it was true. “We will defeat him.”

“I know you will,” Dani murmured as she pulled back. “You are so strong. Stronger than anyone I’ve ever met.”

Affection pulled, and Aria squeezed her tightly for one more second before she stepped away and readied herself.

Pax and Timothy shared a look. Their own resolution.

“Be safe, brother,” Pax told him.

“Always,” Timothy returned; then he took Dani’s hand, and the two of them stepped across the threshold in front of them.

Pax felt the shaky breath Aria inhaled as they stepped up to the rippling energy that lured them forward.

“Don’t let go of me, Aria. No matter what you feel. You can’t allow it to drag you away from me. We can’t give him that control.”

“I won’t.” The words were resolute, an oath she made herself, and they stepped forward, drawn into Faydor.

In an instant, they were consumed by the shearing cold as they fell through the darkness. Howls of the wicked intoned in their ears. The calls for the heinous that battered their souls.

They hit the barren ground with a thud, both crouching low as they adjusted to their surroundings.

Darkness spread over the wasteland, and a bare glow hung on the horizon. Wiry, leafless elms grew out of the frozen ground, and lightning cracked across the low-hung canopy.

Their Laven family darted off in every direction, and Pax and Aria did the same, their feet pounding over the depleted earth.

Kruen slipped as vapors around them, intoning the corrupt and debased. Feeding all forms of wickedness into the minds of the humans who were unaware of the manipulation they were under where they walked the Earth below. Oblivious to the sins that were being whispered into their minds.

Aria and Pax slayed the Kruen they passed, right after they’d tapped into their thoughts, searching through the visions they could see in their minds.

Searching for any sign that Kruen were targeting their family.

They pushed themselves hard, and their breaths were salient in the frigid, ice-slick air as they ran headlong into the chaos.

They fought for hours, hope in their hearts and despondency in their spirits as they failed to catch even a glimpse of any Kruen feeding thoughts that would cause injury to their Laven family members.

Until they rounded a massive boulder, and they stumbled in their tracks.

It was a Ghorl. The most powerful of Kruen. Something they’d believed mythical until one had been sent to end Aria.

They were nearly impossible to crush. It’d taken Ellis, Josephine, Dani, Timothy, and Pax to extinguish it, though he knew it had been Aria’s strength—her ability to use her energy while awake—that had truly given them the power to end it. There was no chance they could have done it without her.

And now there was another.

It toiled in a mess of liquid and shadow. A writhing, pitch-black puddle.

Through it, Pax could see someone asleep in their bed.

Peter.

Peter, who was here in Faydor, on the hunt.

They could see him in the eyes of a man who watched him through a window, jealousy and bloodlust rushing through his veins as the Ghorl fed the wicked thoughts into his mind.

“This is the bastard who stole your wife. He’s the one she was sneaking off with. He’s the one who seduced that slut. He told her you were beneath her. Fed her lies. He’s the reason she packed her bags and left. He’s responsible for all of your pain. Open the window and slip inside. Do you feel the weight of the gun? How good it will feel to lift it and pull the trigger? All sins have consequences. Death is his.”

“It’s Peter.” His name wheezed out of Aria.

“Do you think you can bind it?” Pax’s question was barely a breath.