Page 49 of Walking in Darkness

“We have to warn them. Do something to help them prepare,” Pax urged.

“And how do we do that?” Ellis turned his gaze on his flock, who waited. Clearly, he was not asking for an answer, since none of them possessed it.

Grimly, the old man ambled over to stand in front of their Laven family. Pax followed him, standing at his side while Josephine took up the opposite.

Dani looked down at Aria in worry.

“Go to Timothy,” Aria told her. “He needs you. I will be fine.”

“Are you sure?” Concern creased at the edges of Dani’s eyes.

“I’m sure. And I know your Nol needs you.”

Reluctantly, Dani nodded before she dipped down and pressed a kiss to Aria’s forehead, then murmured, “You amaze me, sweet friend. I am so thankful for you. For all these years. No matter what happens, I want you to know that.”

Aria wanted to tell her they had many more years to share together, but she couldn’t make the words form through her thickened throat.

She could only nod, gripping Dani’s hand for a beat of deep understanding before Dani brushed the tears from her face and stood.

She moved to Timothy’s side just as Ellis began to speak.

“My dear family, I stand before you tonight with more devastating news. It has been confirmed that Peter has been lost to us. He has gone on to eternity, and his own Nol has not come tonight. We also still have no word of Lisa, Ivan, Steven, Beverly, and Jakai, though it is our greatest fear that they have also been stolen from us.”

A bellow of grief rode on the breeze, and Aria squeezed her eyes against the agonizing sorrow that gripped her family.

Ellis wavered, searching for what to say. “We don’t know why this has begun, what has changed, but there is no other conclusion than we are being hunted in the day.”

“It’s because Aria and Pax came together. They knew the law. And they have broken it and cost us everything.” The wail of words rushed out of Emilia, Steven’s Nol, who wept in the middle of the family.

Her pain sharp and brutal.

Aria winced from where she lay on the grass, her heart faltering at the possibility. She couldn’t imagine having brought this calamity on her family.

Her spirit thrashed, a wild clanging against her ribs, refuting the idea.

“Together. Wholly,” a high-pitched voice murmured through her mind.

Chime-like.

Delicate and wispy.

A voice she hardly recognized but remembered in the very recesses of her consciousness. She tried to clutch on to it, but another of theirfamily, Katrina, called out, “I’m broken over your loss, Emilia, but I can’t believe that. I ... I have this feeling. Something is calling to me.”

“Maybe we’re supposed to go to our Nols like Pax and Aria did?” another said. “Maybe it is the only way we can be safe in the day?”

“And make it even worse?” another shouted, incredulity in their voice. “We know the rules, and look what’s happening now that that they have been broken. I agree with Emilia.”

Aria could feel the torment that rolled through Ellis, who stood before them and lifted his hands as if he could give them all peace. “I know we are afraid, but we must not fight amongst ourselves. We must be strong. United.”

His gaze drifted over the hundreds who remained. The hundreds who sat in trepidation.

“Yes, I understand the creed that has been issued, but I have to believe Pax and Aria’s circumstances are special. I believe she had drawn the attention of this Ambrose before Pax had gone to her, and she would also likely not be with us had he not.”

Silence washed over the crowd, and Ellis wavered in uncertainty before he pressed on. “I would suggest that we share our information with each other so we have a way to track and keep in touch. To warn if we find something during our hunt in Faydor.”

A ripple of agreement seemed to go up.

“Please be careful, my family. Stay in your homes if you can. Stay away from strangers and even watch for changes in your loved ones. We need you all to come back to us. Now, we must descend and fight.”