Page 54 of Walking in Darkness

The horror had only grown heavier when we found it extended around the world.

I could feel the sinking confirmation roll through Aria as she whispered, “‘I am the one who will put an end to your kind.’”

Sadness pulsed through her features as she turned her gaze on me. “We knew he was hunting us, but I thought it meantus. Our family. I can’t fathom the scope of this.”

“He wants to wipe all goodness from existence. Anything that would stand in evil’s way.” My chest tightened with dread as I uttered it.

We knew next to nothing about other Laven families, except for a mention in the great book that they existed. Neither Aria nor I had seen any other of our kind throughout our lives. Not until we’d come together.

Now there was evidence of us everywhere. The force greater than I’d imagined.

But I was worried the force we were fighting was even greater. The hope I kept trying to latch on to getting quashed every time we turned around.

Except sitting right next to me was maybe the greatest force of all.

Aria turned her attention away, that same dwindling hope cut deep into her words. “How can we defeat him? This is impossible, Pax. Look at all these people. These Laven ...” she trailed off.

Shifting toward her, I took her phone and set it aside so I could thread my fingers through hers. I lifted them between us. “I heard her, Aria. I heard Valeen when I touched you. I heard what she said. She said it is written in you.” I squeezed her fingers tight. “You have the strength.”

She blinked through the moisture that blurred her eyes. “And what if I fail? What if I fail our family? What if I fail the rest?”

She glanced at her phone, which sat face up on the bed. The screen was still open to a picture of what was clearly a Laven woman. Dead after a stabbing at a railway station in Italy.

“What if I’m not enough? And what happens if Laven no longer walk in Faydor? What happens when we’re obliterated?”

I grabbed her by both sides of her face, palms holding her tight as I drew her toward me. I brushed the pads of both thumbs under the hollows of her eyes as I urged, “You can’t lose faith.”

Aria let go of a tremorous sound. “It’s so much more than I ever imagined. For so long, our world was small. Our Laven family. And now ...”

“And now we know how important Laven truly are,” I stressed. “Now we know what is riding on stopping this monster.”

Uncertainty passed through her expression. Desperation and despondency. “I want to. I want to believe that I hold that kind of power—but God, Pax ...” She sucked in a shaky breath. “We know what it means if there are fewer Laven to stop the Kruen. More humans will die, too. It feels like too much.”

She hesitated, then whispered, “And I’m just ... me.”

Tightening my hold on her face, I pulled her closer. Breathing her in. The goodness and the light. “That’s right, Aria. You’re just you. Amazing and wonderful you. You are so fuckin’ powerful. I’ve seen it. Have felt it. And I think you know there is so much more inside you that remains untapped. We just have to figure out how to tap into it.”

Chapter Eighteen

Aria

It was unsettling, waiting for something to happen. For the tsunami I could feel building in the distance to finally hit land. A surging force that would eradicate everything in its path.

It was as if I could feel it lingering at the edges of this world. Trembling and vibrating as it gathered strength. And when it combusted, it would fracture everything this world knew.

That worry over my family had come back in full force, and I’d probably checked in with my mother too many times to make sure they were all safe.

They were.

Safe and still staying at my grandmother’s.

I’d warned them to be extra vigilant.

I glanced around the grocery store, where Pax and I roamed up and down the aisles, grabbing a few things to stock our room with.

I couldn’t help but peer at those surrounding us who went about their days without a clue. Some in torment, the voices so strong that it felt nearly impossible not to reach out and touch them as I passed by.

Others where their voices were only a slight drone.