Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
The child at the counter in a dirty kitchen, dishes piled high in the sink, standing on a chair as she poured herself a bowl of cereal. The sour milk that she forced down anyway since it would be the only thing she would get to eat.
Sleeping on the couch while she listened for her mother’s return.
How those nights grew longer and sometimes turned into days.
The loneliness.
The fear.
The isolation.
The hunger.
How she’d had to learn to survive on her own. But that survival had come at a great cost. Her dreams and confidence slowly chipped away, every opportunity tarnished and bashed.
“These streets are your destiny. They’re in your bones and in your blood.”
Venom dripped from the Kruen’s voice, already twisting the circumstance in its favor. Driving her toward her ultimate demise.
“Thadeo is gone. You can take that control and make his world your own. You always wanted to be better. To achieve something great. Now is the time to step up and take his place. There are plenty of girls you could guide. Become their master. Look at Sophie, shaking behind you. So pliable to mold. Make her yours. It’s time.”
Confusion bound her, her thoughts a whirl, the hope she’d had to escape this life flickering to life by the greed that was offered.
Yet her conscience fought against it. She thrashed as I tried to keep hold of her, and I focused on gathering the light.
Magnified it within me. That power that came from the ethereal. From a place I was sure I’d never truly understand.
It grew and grew while the Kruen continued its assault.
I let it go, and it flashed down my arms and through my hands. Her dark eyes widened in shock as she felt it pass into her.
The Kruen sensed my presence right before the bolt of light connected, and through my mind’s eye, I watched it rear up high in defense, its gnarled, gnashing mouth twisted in hate.
But it had noticed too late, and it was struck before it even had the chance to lash out.
It screamed, a piercing agony as it wailed.
And in a flicker of darkness, it disintegrated to dust.
“What the fuck did you just do?” the brunette rasped, gasping and choking as I released her and she stumbled back.
She wobbled on her heels, fumbling to the side before she sagged against the grungy brick wall.
As disoriented as I was.
Dizziness blurred my mind, the pain of the burn overwhelming.
My hands were singed and flaming red.
“Aria,” Pax attempted, but I forced it back, sucked down the exhaustion that threatened to bring me to my knees and instead hauled myself forward, my arms trembling as I reached for the second girl, grasping her face.
The girl shivered and shook in abject fear.
It was the only thing she’d ever known.
Her traumas were so great that bile rolled up my throat as I touched her.
So great that I felt as if a speeding truck had slammed into me.
Her memories nearly blew me off my feet and into the air.
Abuses so severe that I could hardly fathom them. This girl, who was only fourteen.
Her mother, selling her out to the sickest of society since she was a tiny child.
A girl who’d run away only to wind up here.
“You didn’t deserve this. You didn’t ask for it. You didn’t do anything wrong. Not one thing. You are good and wonderful, and you deserve to live. To find joy.” I said it as if I could counteract the voice of the Kruen that spilled its toxic deceptions into her heart and mind.
I searched inside myself for any strength left, through the reserves of my faltering spirit. Agony shot up my arms and flashed through my body as I struggled to hold on, as I begged her to look at me with those green eyes and see.
On the fringes of awareness, I could hear the siren. Could feel the anxiety that tore through Pax. But he only set his hand on my shoulder and murmured, “Hurry.”
It was as if his touch jolted a spark of it.
The light.
There was so little of it, but I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to magnify it the way I would in Faydor. To tap into the well.
I could only pray it would be enough.
“Please,” I said, not even sure who I was begging.
Valeen. Maybe myself.
Or maybe I was begging the girl, because she pushed herself forward and angled her face outward so I had better access to her cheeks.
Giving herself over, as if she were asking for the sickness to be purged.
And the spark glowed, a rising flicker that I turned all my focus to.
Building it and building it.
Before I turned it on the Kruen that writhed in a shapeless pool on the barren ground in Faydor.
And I wondered if, in my exhaustion, it didn’t feel the threat coming. Because it didn’t have time to take form when I expelled the energy in a blinding flash of light.