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)
“We have not all the answers, my children. We are given what is important—and that is the truth that Kreed birthed Kruen to destroy humanity, and we have been charged as humanity’s guard. Aria has developed the extraordinary ability to wield this power in both places, and I believe Ghorls were bred as a direct counter to that power. The only thing we can do is continue to hunt this Ghorl,” Ellis said. “Fight it. Pray we can put it to its end, and when we do, this critical danger Aria is in will be resolved.”
Stepping forward, Ellis gathered Aria’s trembling form into his arms, hugged her as a father would as he whispered, “Fight with everything you have. You are strong. Gifted. I saw it from the beginning, and I see it even stronger now. I never understood it, and I still don’t, but the one thing I do know is, it floods from you on a current of power.”
Aria lifted her chin to him. A promise that she would. She would give it all.
Then Ellis turned, his voice lifted, the words carried on the breeze. “It is time, my family, to descend on Faydor. Together we fight for Aria. For our sister. Bind the Kruens you come across, but listen, search, seek. If you hear or see anything pertaining to Aria, make it your priority.”
A rumble of agreement rippled through the crowd. Mournful yet determined eyes washed over her, and they came to her, two by two, their fingertips brushing across the backs of her hands and the sides of her shoulders as they passed and headed across the meadow toward the dark energy that pulsed before they flashed through the threshold.
She and Pax slowly trailed behind.
With each step, she could feel chains that yanked at her spirit grow in intensity. The horrors that howled. It grew louder with each step they took, so loud that it screamed in her ears.
“We find it. We end it.” Pax squeezed her hand in a firm grip. She nodded; then they took the last step forward.
Blistering cold streaked over her flesh, and she clung to Pax’s hand as they fell through the consuming darkness. The vast desolation that slayed. Horrors screamed louder.
Aria and Pax slammed to the barren floor, making impact with Faydor.
They didn’t hesitate, rushing headlong into the voices.
Struck by the instinct to fight. To hunt down the wicked and end them at their source. Ignoring that it was excruciating. Pain licked across her flesh as the voices howled.
Lightning cracked across the darkened sky, so close above that Aria felt the electricity quicken and the hairs rise across her flesh. They ran beneath it, over the barren plane toward the evils that intoned.
They ran through the abyss, through the disorienting maze of depravation, in the direction of where they’d tracked the Ghorl the night before. Their ears keen, their hearts manic.
Nothing.
Nothing.
They ran farther and deeper than they ever had before, twisting through the gnarled desolation and into the nothingness that went on to eternity. Darkness somehow both crackled and glowed as they raced.
Aria suddenly fumbled to a stop, unsure of what it was that had halted her. Pax threw a glance at her from over his shoulder, urging her forward. “This way, Aria.”
She blinked, confused.
“What is it?” he asked.
Her head shook, uncertainty pulling through her consciousness as she searched for what she’d felt. A disorder amid the depravity. Something bigger than she’d ever felt.
A gravity that tugged at every organ inside her body.
Turning to her left, she stretched out a palm as if she were reaching for it.
The air shifted where she dragged her fingertips through the vapor. It felt as if she could step through the rippling air and disappear into the haze.
So similar to the way it felt when descending into Faydor from Tearsith. An energy calling to her.
“Aria?” Pax moved to try to peer at her face.
Confusion clutched her in a vise.
Then she froze when she heard it.
It was the faintest intonation in the distance. On the opposite side of where she’d been turned. It was a Ghorl’s thoughts, echoing from far away. The one demanding her demise.
It was farther away than they could ever travel in a night.
The intonation was vague.
So obscure she wondered if she were making it up.
“It’s her fault that Aria escaped. She’s weak. Pathetic. Punish her.”
Her father’s face flashed through Aria’s mind, one moment before the back of his hand struck her mother’s face.
The image was smoke. Mist. Gone in an instant.
A shiver rolled down her spine.
A second later, Pax had her by both shoulders. “Aria? What is it? What’s going on? You’re scaring me.”
“Did you hear it?”
Uncertainty slashed across his fierce brow. “Did I hear what?” Blinking, she shook her head as if she could clear the image. Pax hadn’t heard it. She had to be making it up. Hearing things that weren’t there.