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)
Ferocity filled his spirit, and he turned to her, his words emphasized. “No, Aria . . . I think you’re here because this was going to happen. Because Ambrose was going to try to merge the worlds. End our kind and likely every person on the planet. I think you’ve been sent—purposed for this time—because you’re the only one who can stop it.”
She inhaled a shaky breath, and Pax ran his thumb over the object tied to her left ring finger.
Another impossibility.
Because they never crossed realms with any human properties. Not clothing, or jewelry, or even their scars and tattoos. They emerged in Laven’s uniforms, clad in brown pants and jackets and boots.
And there his promise remained on her finger.
The ribbon.
She exhaled before she tipped him a timorous smile, and the two of them slowly moved across the meadow to where the rest had settled. Dani and Timothy were already there, Dani tucked beneath Timothy’s arm and pressed to his chest.
“. . . of the utmost care . . .” Ellis’s instructions trailed off when his regard landed on the two of them. His eyes were now nearly completely gray, as if the irises had spread out to stain the sclera, yet his gaze remained impossibly warm. An embrace from afar, though there was torment written in it.
Josephine hovered near him. Strands of stringy gray hair hung limp around her aged, weathered face.
“Aria . . .” Ellis said with an exhalation of relief. “Dani and Timothy told us what happened last night. It’s all so much to handle and believe. I’m so sorry this burden has befallen you.”
His expression went grim. “And the Kruen . . .”
“It was terrifying,” she whispered. “But we made it out, and I am well and whole.”
By the time they’d curled up together in bed, she’d nearly been healed, the wound resembling a scar more than anything else.
“Thank Valeen,” Ellis murmured on the breeze.
Aria’s nod was slow, though Pax could feel the gravity behind it. “Yes, thank Valeen. She was near.”
“Then she has not abandoned us.” Ellis’s whisper held the weight of a prayer of deliverance.
“No, she has not. And I’ve come to believe that she is urging us toward one another. To stand together. More than here and in Faydor, but in the day. I believe we are not just stronger with our Nols, but together as a whole.”
A ripple of surprise wound through the throng of Laven, their chattering held in uncertainty. But a current rode through it. One that struck a chord in their spirits.
As if they’d all become attuned to one another. As if their spirits recognized what Aria was saying.
A middle-aged woman named Stephanie climbed to standing in the middle of the crowd, her hair as black as Aria’s, her skin just as pale.
She blinked with the severity of her confession.
“I had a dream. The same one two nights in a row. A dream telling me I’m supposed to leave. It’s as if I’m being called somewhere else but I’m lost in the middle of it, not sure of where I’m supposed to go.” Her voice waffled with uncertainty. “And I never have dreamed before. Not once in my life. Not until now. When I close my eyes, I always come here.”
Two more asserted the same.
The confused certainty that they felt they were supposed to be somewhere else, though they had no indication of where they were supposed to be. Riddled with a feeling of being misplaced.
It left them all unsettled and unsure.
“Maybe it’s calling us toward our Nols?” another speculated.
Stephanie’s response shot down that theory. “But I was already with mine.”
Hundreds of eyes turned to Aria, seeking guidance.
Pax could feel the anxiety roll through her. Her wish to be able to give something real. To be able to protect each of them. To provide a solution. A miracle.
“We all feel it . . .” Aria said. “Something inside us urging us to do something or a change is about to happen. And I wish I knew exactly what that was. That I could tell you exactly what to do. I can’t, but I do get the sense we’re supposed to wait for clarity. That we will know when the time comes.”
Aria fisted her hand over her heart. “The one thing I can say with certainty is, I’ve been called to end Ambrose. How? I don’t know. But I have faith that it will be revealed to me. That Valeen wouldn’t bring me to this time and place only to leave us helpless.”
Her chest shuddered as she inhaled. “And I promise you that I will go where she calls me. Do whatever she asks. Whatever it takes. I won’t surrender or submit. In the meantime, I think you need to find whatever Laven live closest to you and go to them. Stick together. Not just with your Nols, but with anyone else that you can.”