Page 45 of Walking in Darkness

The Kruen sensed my presence right before the bolt of light connected, and through my mind’s eye, I watched it rear up high in defense, its gnarled, gnashing mouth twisted in hate.

But it had noticed too late, and it was struck before it even had the chance to lash out.

It screamed, a piercing agony as it wailed.

And in a flicker of darkness, it disintegrated to dust.

“What the fuck did you just do?” the brunette rasped, gasping and choking as I released her and she stumbled back.

She wobbled on her heels, fumbling to the side before she sagged against the grungy brick wall.

As disoriented as I was.

Dizziness blurred my mind, the pain of the burn overwhelming.

My hands were singed and flaming red.

“Aria,” Pax attempted, but I forced it back, sucked down the exhaustion that threatened to bring me to my knees and instead hauled myself forward, my arms trembling as I reached for the second girl, grasping her face.

The girl shivered and shook in abject fear.

It was the only thing she’d ever known.

Her traumas were so great that bile rolled up my throat as I touched her.

So great that I felt as if a speeding truck had slammed into me.

Her memories nearly blew me off my feet and into the air.

Abuses so severe that I could hardly fathom them. This girl, who was only fourteen.

Her mother, selling her out to the sickest of society since she was a tiny child.

A girl who’d run away only to wind up here.

“You didn’t deserve this. You didn’t ask for it. You didn’t do anything wrong. Not one thing. You are good and wonderful, and you deserve to live. To find joy.” I said it as if I could counteract the voice of the Kruen that spilled its toxic deceptions into her heart and mind.

I searched inside myself for any strength left, through the reserves of my faltering spirit. Agony shot up my arms and flashed through my body as I struggled to hold on, as I begged her to look at me with those green eyes and see.

On the fringes of awareness, I could hear the siren. Could feel the anxiety that tore through Pax. But he only set his hand on my shoulder and murmured, “Hurry.”

It was as if his touch jolted a spark of it.

The light.

There was so little of it, but I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to magnify it the way I would in Faydor. To tap into the well.

I could only pray it would be enough.

“Please,” I said, not even sure who I was begging.

Valeen. Maybe myself.

Or maybe I was begging the girl, because she pushed herself forward and angled her face outward so I had better access to her cheeks.

Giving herself over, as if she were asking for the sickness to be purged.

And the spark glowed, a rising flicker that I turned all my focus to.