Page 147 of Visions of Darkness

“Well, at least it seems you have someone with you who might also be of help. I wish you both safety. Take care, Aria the Laven. If you ever have need of me again, do not hesitate to call.”

With that, the line went dead, and in an instant, I was in Pax’s arms. The man holding me so tight he was the only thing I could breathe, his heartbeats one with mine.

“I’m so scared, Pax. All the other Laven who were like me were—”

“Don’t say it.” The words raked at the top of my head before he leaned back, set a palm on the side of my face, and his voice went soft. “Don’t say it. Because the same fate will not befall you.”

Chapter Thirty-Six

Aria

After we left the park, we headed west with no real destination in mind. The scenery blurred as we traveled, nothing but dashed rows of crops in the rambling fields and a terrain that had turned barren with sparsely dotted trees.

Tiny towns passed by in a blip.

I barely noticed anything at all since I’d been lost to turmoil and determination and a looming sense of doom.

I could feel it. Rising all around. As if each end of the Earth had gathered to see through my demise while the good was fighting to keep me here.

My mind had been tossed into a brand-new chaos that defied the logic we had found.

Fear slithered in with it, and the heaviness sitting on my chest was so close to suffocating that I felt it with every jagged inhale.

The visions of my family.

My mother’s desperation and the vacancy in my father’s voice.

My love for them called me back. Urged me to return. I had to find a way to protect them and also to destroy this Ghorl. Protect myself. Fight it the way I’d promised.

All while the information we’d gleaned from Maria Lewis confounded it all.

There had been more like me, and each time, they’d been hunted. I did my best to remain hopeful beneath the weight of it, but it was difficult to cling to that when all the evidence ripped it away.

Night had fallen, and our headlights cut across the gravel lot in front of the tiny motel Pax pulled into. We were somewhere in Texas, and we’d stopped to eat about two hours before, thankfully, for once, without incident.

Here, the area was desolate, the town barely more than a sporadic gathering of houses, a gas station, and a small convenience store across the road from the motel. The motel itself was two stories, with exterior doors facing out to the road. There were five units on each level, and only three cars were parked in the lot.

The office was a small jut-out on the far end, and an old vacancy light flashed, though the first two letters had burned out.

Pax stopped in front of it.

Tension bound. So thick we inhaled it as if it were poison that coated our lungs. There was something in the air here. Pax blew out through the heavy strain. “Maybe we should keep moving.”

“No. You’re exhausted. We should rest, and we need to get back to Tearsith to see if anyone found anything last night.”

He wavered before he nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.” Then he glanced around, peering into the nothingness that surrounded us to ensure it was clear.

When he was satisfied, he murmured, “I’ll be right back.”

“Okay.”

He hopped out, leaving the car running and locking the doors behind him the way he always did before he strode to the glass lobby door and swung it open. It was bright inside, and his hair struck like white flashes of lightning as he moved to the counter.

Vicious and powerful.

God, he was beautiful. Beautiful in that dark, dangerous way that twisted my stomach in greed. Greed that made me want to push further into the boundaries that he believed were his duty to set.

He was in and out in less than ten minutes, and I watched as he strode back out the door.

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