Page 121 of Visions of Darkness

At the contact, agony splintered through my body, but it was different from when asleep because I was already awake. And I held on, focusing with everything I possessed.

An orb of light swelled.

Glowing from the depths of me.

From a place that shouldn’t exist.

I pushed it out, through my middle, where the energy raced down my arms and to my hands.

Propelling it, urging it toward the Kruen that lashed against the chains.

The bindings that surrounded it.

It screamed and screamed, as loud as the infant who wailed.

But I didn’t let go.

I poured everything I had into destroying the beast.

An electric current rushed.

A bolt of lightning that lashed.

I felt it streak from my hands, and it struck the Kruen in its abdomen. It wailed in torment, the demon thrashing on the lifeless ground.

And in a flash of glowing darkness, it disintegrated into dust.

Gasps raked from the woman as the voice was silenced, and I knew the only thing she felt in its place was a hollow ache. She slumped back, still clinging to her son, who now only whimpered.

The two shackled by their shared spirit that the Kruen had tormented.

They are freed. They are freed.

Dizziness blurred my mind, the pain so great I couldn’t see. Wheezing around it, I tried to stand. To climb onto my feet. But I had no strength left. Everything I possessed had been given to them.

They were worth it. They were worth it.

I stumbled backward, and somewhere in the back of my head, I heard a scream as I crumpled to the ground.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Pax

I tossed the bags into the trunk of the car, all while I warred with the need to turn around and march back inside. I fought for the respect that Aria deserved, but I was also unable to shake the cold dread that chugged through my veins.

My spirit screamed, the call inside that bonded me to Aria refusing to let go.

It didn’t just shout.

It gripped me by the motherfucking throat.

Something was wrong.

I could sense it, the way the energy had become cloudy and dark.

Scanning the lot, my attention returned to the door, praying to find Aria walking out of it. But another moment passed, then two, and there was nothing I could do but give in to the bands I could feel stretching between us.

Fierce and unrelenting.

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