Page 152 of Visions of Darkness

Deeper and deeper.

The pit bottomless.

Fathomless.

Frantic, Aria propelled herself, and she stretched out to grab the child’s wrist. She nearly wept in relief when she wrapped her hand around the fragile arm.

Only the second she did, the child’s eyes flashed open.

And those eyes ... The palest gray eyes had turned a blinding white. Shafts of light that cut through the disorienting water, and her lips twisted in a demented grin before they opened wide, and a storm of shadows rushed from her mouth.

The child’s features began to morph.

Her face flashed between the child’s and a man’s.

The same man Aria had seen earlier outside the fast-food restaurant. The one she’d seen days before at the diner.

It was him.

It was him.

But she could no longer focus on the blipping facade.

Because she was surrounded by the shadows.

A hundred.

A thousand.

Wisps that curled and twisted and took new shape, transforming into screaming, horrific faces.

The faces of Faydor.

Kruen whirled and whirled, a blur that spun around her as they dragged her deeper into the depths of the chasm.

Aria fought, thrashing and flailing as she tried to break away, to get loose of the tendrils that wrapped around her limbs.

She fought.

She fought.

Yanking and kicking and trying to get free. She struggled against the burning in her lungs that begged her to breathe.

She couldn’t.

She couldn’t succumb. She couldn’t give in.

She thrashed more, but there was no give.

No break.

No relief.

That pain in her chest became overwhelming, and it hurt so much—agonizing—the feeling that she was suffocating, as if a thousand-pound boulder sat on her chest.

And there was nothing Aria could do.

She opened her mouth in search of the oxygen that wasn’t there.

---