Page 75 of Walking in Darkness

I acted like I was going to drag the door open while the driver drove away. The second he disappeared down the street, Aria was moving, her breaths going haggard as she jogged toward the neighborhood road that was on the opposite side of the parking lot. Our path already plotted out, as we’d searched the navigation during the ride over.

Heavy clouds hung low. So low it felt like you could reach out and drag your fingers through them. Stir them up. Or maybe it was the frenetic energy that roiled in Aria as she took to the sidewalk.

“Hurry,” she pleaded as she looked at me from across the sidewalk, and she began to run, her tennis shoes slapping against the sidewalk.

I was right behind her, searching the area as we moved.

It was quiet.

Still.

Tree limbs stretched out over the road to make an arch, some bare but others still green in the winter.

The houses were older, and each was on at least an acre of land, if not more. Set back from the road and fronted by lawns and more of those abundant trees.

“This is it,” Aria rasped when we made it to the address about halfway up the street. It was a small white house with a porch out front. Potted plants overflowing with colorful flowers sat at the top of the steps on either side, and a huge barren oak grew proudly in the middle of the yard.

Aria didn’t hesitate. She ran up the walkway and bounded up the stairs. One second later, she was pounding on the door. Her palm smacked against the wood while I shifted, letting my gaze rove over the area, searching for anything amiss.

Silence echoed back from every direction.

The area almost too calm for my comfort.

Aria banged again. The wood clattered against the force. “Dani! Dani! Are you in there? It’s Aria. Open the door. Please.”

A flutter of movement suddenly whispered behind the drapes that covered the window to the left side of the door. In it, a wave of intensity rushed through the atmosphere, and a second later, metal ground as the person on the other side worked through the locks.

The door flew open.

Big, pale eyes rounded with shock stared back.

Dani.

She staggered where she stood, completely bewildered at finding us there.

“You’re alive,” Aria seemed to beg before she threw herself at her friend.

Chapter Twenty-Four

Aria

Relief blew through me on a gale force as I hugged Dani to me.

Fiercely.

So fiercely I thought I would break her in half. My tiny slip of a friend who was alive and breathing in my arms.

Whole and real and unharmed.

“Oh God, I was so worried.” It poured out of me as I struggled to get her closer.

Relishing the slosh of the blood that beat through her veins.

Her cropped, short hair, which was normally a shock of white in Tearsith and Faydor, was dyed a bright pink, and the ends stuck up and poked me in the face. I had to suppress the urge to weep into them.

“Aria?” Dani wheezed into my embrace, squeezing me back just as tight. “You came? I can’t believe this. I didn’t think to hope ...”

Clutching her, I breathed out the terror I’d been holding in since I woke this morning. “I thought I was going to be too late. We tried to call, but it just kept ringing. I was so afraid.”