Page 129 of Visions of Darkness

“Oh God,” I begged, wanting more. Wanting it all. “Pax, please. Take me.”

Need vibrated through him, and he pulled me so close against him I was sure that we could become one, though he groaned and broke the kiss.

He dropped his forehead to mine, and heavy pants ripped from his chest.

“Fuck,” he cursed. “Fuck.”

He started to scramble away, but I grabbed for him, my arms looped around his neck as I murmured, “Stay. Just stay.”

Every muscle in his body was coiled in restraint. In shame. A sigh toppled from him as he shifted to bring us both to our sides, face-to-face and breath-to-breath.

My entire being was still shimmering, a fluttery need burning in my belly.

“I’m so sorry,” he rumbled.

My head barely shook as I reached out and touched his cheek. “I’m not. You’re the only person I’ve ever wanted to kiss me. I’ve imagined it so many times, but this? This is something I will carry with me for my entire life.”

He exhaled and wrapped me up again, pulling me close. So close that I could feel every jagged beat of his heart.

He pressed his lips to my forehead and urged, “Go to sleep, Aria, and tomorrow we’ll forget I was the bastard who touched you like this.”

The night pressed in around us, and the exhaustion sucked me under, the safety of his hold lulling me toward the respite I could no longer resist.

With Pax’s aura holding me fast, I drifted and floated.

Then lights flashed before I flew.

Chapter Thirty-One

Aria

Tearsith

Aria appeared at the edge of the meadow. Peace had followed her, as if the way she’d fallen asleep had carried her here on a cloud of serenity. She inhaled, drawing the sweet floral scent of the vingas into her lungs, and she opened herself to fill her senses full of Tearsith.

The gentlest breeze whispered with the perfect temperature, and she inclined her ear to the babbling of the stream and the murmur of her Laven family, who had already gathered at their great teacher’s feet.

Her spirit jolted, already sensing the presence of her Nol a second before he flashed in at her side. It was the brightest light that shivered through the air and ricocheted through her body.

Energy.

Electricity.

A magnetism not held by the rules and bounds of the mortal world, but something else entirely.

Something all their own.

She thought the entire fabrication of her being might have been altered by the kiss.

Aria saw Dani jump to her feet the second they appeared. Anxiety radiated from her aura as she hurried their way, concern in her gaze as she approached.

It felt disorienting to know it had only been the night before when they’d all begun hunting the single Ghorl in the recesses of Faydor before she and Pax had been jolted awake by the intruder.

Dani immediately reached for Aria, her tiny hand on Aria’s arm. A frown pulled through Dani’s expression, and she cocked her head, her face so pale and thin with the shock of cropped-blond hair surrounding it that there was no chance those in the day couldn’t sense that she was otherworldly.

“What happened last night? I was so worried about you.” Her eyes jumped between Aria and Pax. “For both of you.”

Timothy was suddenly there, too, taking them in. Dread clear in his gaze.

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