Page 142 of Walking in Darkness
When they finally parted, Aria and Dani moved, hugging them both and whispering their love and belief in each other.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Aria wheezed, the love she felt for them clogging her throat.
“We dreamed, too,” Josephine told her. She didn’t even need confirmation from Ellis to know that it was true.
“Many have arrived.” Awe filed Ellis’s voice as he stepped back, his expression carved in the wisdom he’d forever carried.
“More than we can count,” Dani said. “And they’re still arriving.”
“Not only our family, but I would imagine from every family that can reach us,” Aria added.
Emotion washed through Ellis, his nearly white gaze both pallid and uplifted.
The amount of time he’d spent believing we should be apart.
Living these meager lives in solitude. Without the ones we’d been purposed for.
He turned to Josephine.
His Nol.
And he took her hand. “Valeen has summoned us. Come, we must fight.”
“It’s not safe for you and Josephine to be here,” I spat. “You need to take cover until this over.”
It was bad enough when they fought within the bowels of Faydor. But this? This was on the plane of humanity. Where their mortal bodies could be defeated. Just as easily as that woman two minutes ago.
Ellis turned to look at me. Devotion burned in his depths. “Pax. My sweet boy. My son. We were called for a purpose. First for Faydor and now for this. And together we will fight. I will not sit it out.”
“They’re slaughtering.” My teeth ground together as I said it.
“My life has been dedicated to humanity. To safeguarding the lives of the vulnerable. And that mission has never been more important than now.”
“Ellis ...” I pleaded, his name cracking as I said it.
“I know, Pax. I know.” His nod was slow; then he turned and took Josephine’s hand, and she shifted to slant a glance at me from over her shoulder.
Knowing.
Adoring.
Determined.
“We need to keep moving,” Timothy said, turning in a circle, his gun lifted but aimed toward the ground a few feet in front of him as he kept threats at bay.
Hesitation brimmed in me, but Aria reached out and threaded her fingers through mine, her touch both gentle and firm as she looked at me with those eyes. Eyes that shone with her own wisdom.
This was a call for all of us, and I had no right to try to sway Ellis and Josephine from heeding it.
I gulped around the impulse to argue and instead squeezed her hand.
My own surrender.
Together.
Timothy passed large hunting knives to both Ellis and Josephine. “You’re going to need a weapon.”
The dip of their heads was succinct.
