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)
Though I wasn’t sure that would remain true when his attention tracked the spot on my cheek and down to my throat, both of which I was sure burned a fiery red. A sound of wrath left him, yet his touch was gentle when he lifted his hand and caressed the spot where Ambrose had dragged a fingertip down my cheek. “Who is this monster?” Pax could barely grit out.
My mind spun through the things I’d learned, though most of it had only caused me more confusion. “He called himself Ambrose. He said he’d sent the Ghorl to end me. He . . . he called me a Valient, Pax.” I nearly begged it. “He called me what Maria Lewis called me. What she’d believed her husband had been . . . the only one with the power to defeat a Ghorl.”
Maria Lewis was the only person I’d ever heard use the title Valient. There had been no mention of it in our history, other than the vague intimation of a stronger type of Laven in the great book. Our teacher, Ellis, had only heard myths and tales of one.
“He said he’d ended my kind for generations. I think he meant Valients,” I continued. “He said there was nothing I could do because he was going to end me, too. Right then. At least, that’s what he thought he was going to do.”
Turbulence rolled through Pax’s being. “But you got away.”
He said it as a statement, though I could hear the question behind it.
How?
How was I here?
How did I survive?
Above all that, I knew he wanted to berate himself for not having been able to stop it.
Blame himself.
But this was so much bigger than just the two of us.
“He tried to choke me. So casually. Like he thought he could just reach out and snuff the life out of me. He thought he was going to end me there. I know he did. He believed he would kill me last night. He told me I had no power in that realm, and he approached me as if he was the one who held it all. He was shocked when I was able to fight back.”
Questions raced through Pax’s features, though he brushed his thumb over my cheek, his words a scuff of praise as he murmured, “Of course you fought back. You wouldn’t let that bastard win. You’re too strong for that.”
“I fought him off—physically, at first. I was basically just in a fight-or-flight mentality, and the only thing I could do because he was choking me was fight. But then I . . . kicked him, and he flew off me. Flew, Pax. I don’t know where it came from, but it was like I had this strength I had no idea I possessed. Born in that place. For that moment.”
As if that power had sprouted up through my vulnerabilities.
The corners of my eyes pinched as the memories flooded me. “It was the light. The energy that we have in Faydor. It was screaming inside me, urging me to use it against him. End him the way I would a Kruen.”
My tongue stroked out to wet my dried lips. “It only knocked him backward a small amount, though, and he immediately attacked me again. But that urge was there . . . burning inside me. To fight. To harness the light.”
I paused, then whispered, “And somehow, I amplified it—though I didn’t know how to use it or if there was any way to use it to defeat him.”
Air puffed from my mouth, and my head slowly shook. “It was all there, this ball of power that throbbed inside me. Then, all of a sudden, he shoved me from behind, and when he did, I was no longer able to hold on to the power. It flew out of me, pierced the barrier of his realm, and cut it wide open. When it did, I fell through, and I ended up here.”
I’d been shocked awake.
Coming to, right in this place.
I peered over at Pax, whose expression dredged through a thousand questions. Through the fear and the turmoil. The confusion and the relief.
I struggled to grasp the significance of what had happened. To understand this brand-new piece in what felt like an unsolvable puzzle.
Pax gripped me by both sides of the face. “But you did it. You got out. You got away from that bastard.”
I curled my hands around his wrists. “Yes.”
He dropped his forehead to mine, the anguish he’d felt bleeding out. “Fuck, Aria, I was so scared. So goddamn scared when I couldn’t find you.”
He inhaled me, his eyes squeezing closed before he brought his mouth to mine.
His lips pressed firm and solid, both torment and an apology bound in the action.
I exhaled, whispering, “I’m right here,” against his mouth.