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 tremble rolled.
Pax’s or mine, I didn’t know.
Softly, I continued to speak. “I’d thought . . . I’d thought it wasn’t fair. That it was too much. That I couldn’t bear it, and I begged Ellis for an answer. For a way to take it away.” My tongue stroked across my dried lips. “But I know it’s my purpose, Pax. I could never change that. And in the end, I wouldn’t want to.”
For a moment, he looked like he wanted to argue. Refute my claim.
Instead, he sat higher on his knees, his beautiful, furious face an inch from mine. “I won’t let anyone hurt you.”
It was an oath. Shards of broken glass.
I didn’t know if I was brave or foolish for reaching out. But I trembled my fingertips over the scar that ran along the right side of his face.
His eyes squeezed closed, and his jaw clenched as if my touch caused him physical pain.
He remained there for a moment.
As if he were allowing himself to relish the connection before his powerful gaze opened to me. “My purpose is to take care of you, Aria. To protect you until we figure out how to keep you safe.”
There was a warning behind it.
A rejection I understood, but one that still slayed.
We couldn’t be together. Not the way I wanted us to be. This was temporary. And I had no idea about his life here.
Who he loved and who he held.
Here? He was all but a stranger to me.
Pain clutched my chest, this love I’d kept secreted away, throbbing from within and seeking a way out.
He began to tend to my feet, swiping an alcohol pad over the cuts before he applied an ointment.
“That should help,” he murmured as he pushed to standing, though he remained right there, an inch away, his presence rippling over me in waves.
“Thank you.” I could barely force it out.
His nod was slow. “You need to sleep. Rest so you can heal.”
“And what about you?”
“I’m going to keep watch. Once you wake up, I’ll sleep for a couple hours.”
“Are you—”
“Don’t worry about me, Aria,” he said as he turned away.
Did he think that was possible? That he didn’t count? That he didn’t matter to me?
But I couldn’t argue with him or make him see right then.
Exhaustion was setting in.
The lack of sleep and the weight of the fear catching up.
The adrenaline from earlier had drained, and it’d left my limbs heavy, my mind muddled with too many things.
Four days ago, I’d been a senior in high school, contemplating how I was going to leave my family once I graduated.
Heartbroken over leaving them behind but knowing it was the only way I might be able to live in any semblance of peace.
Now everything had changed.
The shaky facade of my normalcy rocked.
My foundation cracked.
Now on the run with a man I was never supposed to meet.
I shifted to pull the scratchy covers down and slid under them, facing away as I pressed my eyes closed.
I hovered there in the nothingness.
In that shimmery space between awake and asleep.
And the moment before my spirit detached, I heard Pax’s whisper somewhere in the distance. “Happy birthday, Aria.”
Chapter Nineteen
Pax
Light streamed through the cracks in the drapes, rays spearing into the dim light and covering her in glittering gold.
Her breaths were deep and long as she slept. As she found the peace that I so desperately wanted her to possess.
Rage threatened to close off my throat when I thought about not knowing how long that would last.
I scrubbed an agitated hand over my face. How the fuck would I ever be able to give that peace to her?
For hours, I’d watched her sleep, sitting on the side of the shitty twin bed, my stomach in knots as I contemplated what all this meant.
Finally, I’d started to pace the small room because I couldn’t remain sitting still. Thinking if I kept moving, I could find some clarity. An answer. A solution to get her out of this.
Anxiety tripped through my bloodstream.
I’d had one singular goal in mind when I’d left Las Vegas three days ago.
Get to Aria and get her out.
But there hadn’t been a whole lot of time to contemplate what we would do after.
Running seemed the only prudent answer.
The problem with that was, whatever you were running from always had a way of catching up to you. And no matter where we went, evil would lurk in every corner.
Wickedness covered this Earth in a shroud that humans were blind to.
But I saw it clearly.
Every night and every day.
I knew the sickness. Knew the depravity.
I didn’t only hunt it in Faydor. I hunted it while I was awake.
It’d been my sole purpose since I’d understood what this calling meant.
Now my gaze slanted to Aria. To the purpose I should have known would be mine all along.