Page 134 of Walking in Darkness
“Fuck,” Timothy breathed.
The sight confirmed everything we’d feared when we saw the Kruen broach the barrier of the realms, their tendrils lashing out as they’d fed their degeneracies into the men who’d come for me.
This would be a massacre.
An absolute, complete massacre that would spread out to infect every inch of the world.
Tortured screams cleaved through the air, carried on the wind to taunt our ears.
“I can’t believe this,” I finally whispered. Tears blurred my eyes as I succumbed to what the surety of this meant.
There was no way the four of us could defeat them. No way we could stop them. And I was sure, in that instant, that the cars that had raced to this town had been called here for a single purpose.
Their drivers were going to be used as vessels for the Kruen. I should have known it then, that night when I’d thought I’d seen the monsters rippling beneath the men’s flesh as they surrounded us.
“We can’t lose hope,” Dani murmured, trying to keep the trembling from her voice. She looked back at me, her big eyes wide and despairing. “We can’t.”
“I’m not giving up.” Just because our fate was likely sealed didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fight until my final breath.
Pax met my gaze from over the roof of the car. White flames glinted in the depths of his eyes. My chest expanded. And I remembered his words from when we’d first met in person. How he’d already believed in his purpose—that he’d been sent to give his life for mine.
And I wanted to save it.
His.
Ours.
Everyone’s.
From here to the next existence.
But how could we overcome this?
I shifted when I somehow felt the movement off to my left, and I scanned through the dim haze that coated the air, looking out into the dead, high grass that covered the field.
Alarm pitched through my body and adrenaline thudded through my veins in a convulsion of trepidation when I saw a man coming up through the pasture, pushing through the grass as he made his way toward the town in the distance beyond where we’d stopped.
Drawn that way.
There were more behind him. It appeared a ton of people had abandoned their vehicles in the gridlock that remained on the main road and were going on foot.
Emerging behind the cars and coming in our direction.
“Aria, get back in the car,” Pax growled. “You need to stay away from these bastards until we can figure out what’s going on.”
But I was frozen.
Stuck as the man got closer and I was finally able to make out his face. But it wasn’t his face that had me riveted to the spot.
No.
I’d never seen him before.
It was his eyes that burned through the chaos.
The palest gray eyes, which were wild and confused as he trudged across the damp ground.
“Oh my God.” It whimpered out of me when I came to recognition.
