Page 16 of Visions of Darkness

Pax held tight as he pulled her to the gateway.

“This is it.” He stepped forward and took her with him into the unseen.

A searing cold blistered through her being, and Aria realized in a flash she was not ready.

Not even close.

There was no comprehension or understanding or preparation for this.

A scream tore up her throat as they fell for what seemed forever.

Falling.

Falling.

Falling.

Darkness on all sides.

Disorienting and confusing.

Wails stung her ears, cries that called for violence and atrocities, the wickedness unlike anything she’d ever known.

Their fingers still entwined, Pax and Aria hit the bottom with a thud. The ground below them was hard and frozen.

Their Laven family raced out ahead of them and into the toiling mess of shadows and mist that screamed and howled with misery.

The Kruen that Aria had been taught of were more horrific than she could have imagined.

Pax helped her get to her feet, and she struggled to stand, to find solid ground, to see through the haze of depravity.

A heavy, black night surrounded her in a blanket of evil.

So heavy and oppressive she didn’t know how to stand beneath its weight.

Voices clawed at her conscience, vile and depraved, the language of the Kruen only recognizable because, as a Laven, she recognized it in her soul.

Pax steadied her, taking her by the outside of both arms and angling in. His voice was firm, though it was cut with his own agony that she was witnessing this. “You can do this, Aria. You can. I know you can. You are strong. Listen to your heart, the way Ellis prepared you to do.”

He took her hand again, and she stumbled forward over the uneven, lifeless ground. Cold pierced her like tiny darts that impaled her skin. She tried to run. To begin the hunt. Wisps of vapor and shadows raced at her feet, confounding her thoughts, their screams for violence infiltrating her heart and mind.

“Hit her, the bitch deserves it. Did you see the way she looked at you?”

“Take it. No one will notice. You deserve it more than he does, don’t you?”

“Take the gun and drive to their house. How good it will feel to watch them bleed.”

Aria stumbled to the right, no strength in her knees, as the cruel voices intoned into any willing soul that listened below.

“Make them pay for their insolence. You are in control. They will bow to you. Raze the rest. Set their homes ablaze, feed on the scent of their burning flesh.”

She canted to the side, her feet slipping from beneath her. Pax held on to her, keeping her upright when she wanted to fall beneath the weight.

“Aria, you cannot stop now. You have to fight.”

“I can’t,” she whimpered, the cry ripped from the anguish that writhed in her spirit.

She’d thought she was prepared. She’d thought she understood the extent of the wickedness that abounded.

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