Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
A blade of torment pierced through Pax’s chest.
No.
He wouldn’t allow it.
He would die before he let anything happen to Aria.
Seeing Pax’s intentions, Ellis grasped Pax by the wrist. “Pax, you cannot—”
He was cut off when frantic shouts suddenly pelted through the air. “Pax! Pax!”
Pax spun around as Timothy burst through the edge of the dense foliage. Bending over, he rested his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath, haggard and panting through his exertion.
Dani flashed in behind him. Tears streamed down her face.
“What is happening?” Pax yelled across their sanctuary.
“It’s Aria,” Timothy wheezed. “A Ghorl. I saw.”
Alarm battered through his insides, and Pax flew across the meadow until he was standing in front of them.
“What did you say?”
“A Ghorl.”
Pax only knew of Ghorls in Ellis’s teachings. The most powerful of Kruen. Those that were so aged and mature they were nearly indestructible. He’d never come upon one himself. Had even believed them mythical.
Timothy sucked for air and grabbed on to Pax’s shoulder as he stood upright. Grimness cut into his expression. “It was speaking wickedness into a man. A man who was near Aria. The Ghorl only planted the first thoughts, but they will grow. He will harm her, Pax. Snuff out her life. I tried to bind it. I fought so hard. I promise. But it was too strong. It broke apart and I lost it.”
No.
Dani whimpered. “I’m so sorry, Pax. We tried.”
“Where?” Pax was already running toward the boundary. To the hazy ripple in the air that would lead to depravity.
They raced to catch up.
He didn’t hesitate. He jumped through the threshold.
Searing cold sliced through his being.
Holding his breath, he fell for what seemed like forever, the wails of the evil stinging his ears and sickening his stomach.
Then he collided with the darkness, landing in a crouch on the frozen ground. Light throbbed and crashed as three of his Laven family flashed in beside him.
Shadows sluiced along the ground, twisted and gnarled, seeking out the minds of their prey.
His attention darted over the dead terrain. All around, Kruen thrashed and wisped as shadows over the barren expanse.
Pax searched through the desolation and chaos, through the constant barrage of wickedness overwhelming and pressing on his spirit.
He couldn’t heed his calling right then. He only had one intent in mind.
Timothy touched his shoulder. “This way!”
They tracked, each despairing as they ignored the vileness that rose up around them as they went.
“Beat it out of him. He’s going to grow up rotten if you don’t.”
“One more drink isn’t going to kill you. Get in the car, you’ll be fine.”
“How beautiful would her blood be, spilling out on your fingers?”
In a blur of rage, Pax sped past the calls of the depraved. He pushed himself harder. “We have to find it.”
Timothy careened through the darkness, leading the way, racing in the direction where he and Dani had seen it.
It was then that a disgusting voice hit their ears, but it wasn’t the one Pax was searching for.
“Take him now. His mother is distracted. You are ready for this. You need this.”
Through the Kruen’s mind, they could see the little boy standing on the street, a foot away from a woman who was looking at something on her phone.
Agony cut through Timothy’s spirit, and he slid to a stop. Dani nearly bowled over with the weight of the voice.
Regret filled Timothy’s expression when he whipped around, the voice still echoing over the desolate ground. “I’m sorry, Pax. We have to stop this.”
Pax understood. “Go.”
Timothy dipped his head before he and Dani changed direction and chased the Kruen into the shadows.
Pax pushed forward in the direction they’d been traveling, and Ellis ran at his side.
They tracked through the wisps and trails of shadow that swarmed and slithered, peering into each as they passed, searching for a glimmer of Aria being watched through the eyes of a man.
Ellis fought to keep up, and a pang of guilt struck Pax in the chest that he was pushing the man so hard, but he couldn’t give up.
Not until he’d trampled the evil. Crushed the foulness of the Ghorl that dared to breathe her harm.
Ellis rasped through ragged breaths, exhausted, beginning to lag.
Pax drove forward.
Finally, he saw it.
A Ghorl. Twice the size of any normal Kruen. And in its mind, he caught a glimpse of the blackest hair, the sweetest soul, the grayest eyes that swam with goodness.
Aria.
She lay completely still, buried beneath a blanket.
But her breathing was too controlled, too labored, too shallow. Pax had seen enough people through the vantage of Kruens’ minds, the cowering in fear and the feigning of sleep, to know intuitively that she was awake.
The Ghorl was feeding thoughts into a man’s mind.
Provoking him.
Tempting him.
A man who was in her room, who Pax knew in an instant shouldn’t be.
“She won’t know if you touch her. She’s asleep.”