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)
“What are you doing?” I whispered.
“I don’t want to take my eyes off you.”
Affection crawled into my cheeks on a bout of redness. “You’re ridiculous.”
“Nah, baby—I’m enamored.”
That flush only deepened, a sheet of warmth that slipped around me like an embrace.
Then Pax clicked open the door, and he shifted around to face ahead as he led me down the hall, though he kept glancing back at me from over his shoulder as if he meant exactly what he’d said.
We slowed as we made it to the end of the hall, and we peeked out to find Dani and Timothy on the couch. Timothy sat on one end, while Dani lay across it, her head resting on his thigh and her cat curled into her belly.
She ran her finger through its fur as she and Timothy quietly chatted, the man’s arm draped over the top of her waist to keep her close.
There was a peace that radiated around them.
A glow that kept them contained.
Another affirmation that what I’d come to believe was true.
When Dani noticed me standing there, her head popped up from Timothy’s lap. “Oh my God, you’re awake.” She untangled herself from him and the cat, then hopped off the couch and came fumbling toward me.
Then she slowed, her actions pulling up short. “Wait. What are you doing out of bed? How are you even standing?”
A frown twisted her brow, and her tone slipped into disbelief. “And did you shower?”
Appalled, she looked at Pax, clearly asking for an explanation. Or maybe silently demanding that he sweep me into his arms to carry me back to her room.
“I’m fine,” I answered before Pax could say anything.
“You’re fine?” She basically screeched it as she flung a hand at me, her pink hair sticking up all over the place. “You were nearly ki—”
She stopped, as if she couldn’t bear to say it, before her voice turned to a whisper. A fluttering of the residual of her fear. “We nearly lost you last night.”
Stepping forward, I took both of her hands. “And I’m almost completely healed.”
Doubt raced through her expression, so I hurried to speak. “It’s us, together, Dani. All of us. Pax and I had thought being together as Nols made us safer. But it’s more than that. You all gave me the strength to end those men last night, and I think you gave me the strength to heal as well. I think being together gives us all that power.”
Her pale eyes widened behind her wire-rimmed glasses, and three long seconds passed as she seemed to work toward understanding. Then a stunned puff of air left her as she pressed her fingertips to her lips, awe bleeding out. “Last night, Jill said your heart beat stronger when Pax touched you.”
My nod was shaky. “It’s the key. The key to us. To who we are. And I think that Ambrose twisted it. Used it against us to keep us weak. To defeat us.”
Timothy stood. “So that means we can beat this motherfucker.”
My nod was frantic. “I think we can. We have to.”
But after what happened last night . . .
Horror weaved in with hope.
A violent clashing of doubt and relief.
There were only five men last night, and it had already been close. How many more of them could he send against us? An army? A legion?
And where was he? Why wasn’t he here, trying to take me down himself? He’d been tracking me for weeks. Showing up in random places.
“We have to find him,” I said.
Uncertainty pulled deep into Dani’s brow. “I thought he would come to you?”
Thoughts spun through my mind. “I thought so, too, but . . .”
“But you defeated him when he thought you couldn’t.” Pax’s voice was low, his words speeding darts.
He angled forward to come up to my side, and the four of us were drawn together to create a circle. Hovering close.
The energy shifted. Grew in the intensity that we possessed.
Pax looked between Dani and Timothy before he set his full attention on me.
“He thought he would end you when he dragged you to that other plane when you had been in Faydor. Then he thought he would again behind that grocery store. He was afraid, Aria. You saw that he was afraid—shocked—that your demise wouldn’t be simple. I saw it, too, that afternoon.”
“Is he running?” Dani asked.
“That, or he’s keeping us distracted with all the rest of this bullshit while he’s working toward something that will make him unstoppable.” Spite filled Pax’s voice.
“He is somehow allowing the Kruen to break through the barriers of the otherworld and into this reality . . .” A heave of air pressed out from my lungs as the weight of the consequences fell over me.
“Which means he’s about to take control of this world,” Timothy surmised. “Fully.”
“He told me he would rule it.” I hadn’t understood the fallout of what that’d really meant when he’d declared it. Had never deigned to imagine it might come to this.