Page 6 of Visions of Darkness

He sent a glance my way.

I wondered what he thought when he looked at me.

When he caught sight of my black hair and my eyes, which were the palest gray.

An unnatural gray that should never exist.

Ice cold and raging with fire.

When he contemplated the fact that I looked nothing like their other children—or like anyone else they had ever met, for that matter.

But it was more than just the strange color of my eyes. There was an energy I emitted, as if I’d brought a remnant of the supernatural with me into the human realm. Most got an unsettled sense whenever I came into the room. It was rare someone didn’t shy away from it when they met me, or at least try to take a closer look to discern what was different about me.

I so often wondered how my parents couldn’t see it. How they refused to believe.

I carried the toast to the table and set it in the middle.

“Thank you,” Mom said.

“No problem.” I glanced to my right as I took a seat. “Morning, Dad.”

His gaze appraised. Speculation and distrust.

Apprehension crawled down my spine. I wasn’t afraid of him, but I was afraid that he would find out. That he could see right through me to what I had hidden under my sweater.

“Aria,” he grunted as he tucked himself closer to the table.

Mom took her seat next to him, though she had her attention on me. “What would you like to do to celebrate on Saturday, Aria?”

Before I had the chance to respond, her gaze coasted to Dad, her words filled with love and support and the remnants of the fear I was sure she would forever feel for me. “Can you believe it? We have a child who will be eighteen. How did that even happen?”

Air huffed from his nose as he reached out and grabbed a slice of toast. Annoyance curled through his voice. “We’re celebrating her now?”

Mom winced, though she lifted her chin. “It’s your daughter’s birthday, Cal. And she’s been doing great.”

She looked at me in what could only be construed as a plea. Begging me to beokay.

Cured.

Or at least medicated enough that I was no longer a threat to myself.

“Whatever you want to do is fine with me,” I forced out, hoping to avoid what she’d just said and what my father had implied.

All while my love for her bound my heart in a fist.

Devotion and loyalty.

But it was also riddled with the grievous knowledge that I would never be understood.

My life as a Laven would be an isolated, lonely one.

Pax’s face flashed behind my eyes.

My balm. My comfort. My Nol.

Forbidden.

But I would sacrifice it all for the small pieces of him that I would forever possess.

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