Page 3 of Walking in Darkness

It was there right then, burning bright.

Pleading with her to use it.

She didn’t take the time to question if it would work. She tossed her free hand out and projected the energy.

A shock wave of it rushed from her hand.

On a roar, he blew back, though this time, he landed on his feet.

Oh God, it wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough to stop him. Panic rolled through her as she watched rage color him an ungodly red. It was as if he were consumed in fire and brimstone.

“You will die—die like the rest. You will not stand in my way. I will reign.”

Aria had no option but to turn and run, but there was no place to run to.

He was right behind her, a frigid blaze that scalded her back. Sickness clawed through the air, which had become dense. Suffocating. She pushed with all her might, though she only ran in a circle.

No way to break beyond the bounds of this nefarious place.

That sensation rose in her again. The light building within her, demanding that she do something.

She held it tight, a glowing orb in the center of her chest.

She kept running as she tried to increase it.

Multiply it.

Searching for a power she’d never before possessed.

One she prayed might be enough to defeat this monster in this unfathomable place.

Hands slammed into her back, pushing her from behind. She stumbled forward, and with it, she could no longer contain the energy, and it blistered from her hands.

It pierced the black, rippling wall in front of her and sheared through the barrier. A gaping hole that writhed.

Aria couldn’t stop the trajectory of her momentum.

And she fell through.

Chapter One

Aria

Disoriented and gasping for breath, I jolted upright in bed, terror clutching my spirit. I blinked as I was blinded by the bright rays of sunlight that seared in through the gap in the long drapes.

It took me a moment to process. To understand that I was safe.

I was here ... surrounded by morning light in the same hotel Pax and I had checked into last night.

One second later, Pax shot up from where he had been asleep beside me.

Those pale-gray eyes were wide with panic. With the torment of what he’d suffered while we’d been separated.

For one second, he stared at me, like he had to process that I was there, too, before he threw himself forward, gripping me in his arms, and holding me against the strength of his chest.

Heat burned through the cold that had held me hostage in that place.

“Aria,” he rasped. “Fuck, I couldn’t find you. I couldn’t find you. And you’re here. You’re here.”