Chapter Thirteen Aria

Chapter Thirteen

Aria

Tearsith

Aria arrived at Tearsith’s boundary.

The air was cool and warm, perfect where it breezed across her flesh in a bid to weave respite and relief and comfort into her soul.

But she found no solace in it tonight.

She needed only one thing.

She needed Pax.

She rushed to the meadow’s edge, frantic as she stumbled into the clearing, seeking her reason. Her eyes and heart scanned the grass-covered plain.

It welcomed her like an embrace, though for the first time in years, Pax did not.

Despairing, she staggered farther out into the meadow, lifting her arms to her sides and spinning in a circle as she shouted, “Pax! Pax! Where are you?”

Her spirit wept his name.

Didn’t he understand this might be their last chance?

Couldn’t he hear her calling?

“Pax, please, I need you,” she begged over the torment that threatened to consume.

It all became too much as the true reality of what was going to happen to her hit her full force.

She dropped to her knees.

A startled gasp tore from her throat when a hand gently curved around her shoulder from behind. She whirled around to find Ellis. The lines in his face were etched in empathy. “Oh, Aria, my sweet child, do not fear.”

How could she not?

He slowly moved around her and tipped up her chin. “You are safe.”

Tears clouded her eyes, which was so rare here, but she didn’t know if it was possible to stop them with the onslaught of emotions.

Gusts of wind whipped around her like strands of preservation, ribbons of warmth—ties to bind her with strength.

But she’d never felt so weak.

Stretching out his hand, Ellis helped her to stand. “Did Pax tell you?” she begged.

“Yes,” he answered.

He watched her with the love of a father, and she surged forward and clung to him as she begged for understanding.

“Why?” She wept against his chest. “Why me, Ellis? I don’t want to die.”

But she knew that was what this was, wasn’t it?

A death sentence?

Ellis lost his breath in a large gush, and he wrapped her in his frail arms, which somehow remained so strong. “No, Aria. No, it doesn’t have to be that way. It is not carved in stone. You have to find the strength inside yourself to fight it.”

“What am I fighting?” she begged.

His expression grew grim and he spoke with caution, as if he didn’t want to be the one to give her the horrible news. “Timothy and Dani witnessed a Ghorl. They believe it might have been speaking ill toward you. But you cannot let it win. Just like your life as a Laven, this special power you’ve been given can be both a blessing and a curse. You have to choose which it is going to be.”

Oh God. A Ghorl. No.

She’d believed them to be nothing more than a mystery. Tales of terror. How could she stand against this?

“But I’m only a girl.”

He rocked her, his voice hushed against the top of her head. “Yes, you are a girl. A woman who has been given a powerful gift. One few have ever known. You have always been more, sweet child. Since the moment you awoke in Tearsith, I knew there was something more in you. Something different.”

He untangled her from him so he could hold her by the sides of her shoulders and peer into her eyes.

“Isn’t this enough?”

The sacrifice she’d already made?

The life of a Laven was punctuated with pain and isolation.

With wounds and scars, both physical and the ones imprinted on her soul.

Fated to love a Nol that she could never have.

She understood the call. Respected it. And she was willing to give.

But this? It was too much.

An albatross.

The hands of that vile man a millstone wrapped around her neck.

“Come with me,” Ellis told her, taking her hand and leading her across the meadow to the stream. He swirled his fingers through the crystalline water and murmured, “Look, Aria. Look and listen.”

Through her torment, she got to her hands and knees and peered into the crystal-clear depths and turned her ear to the breeze that whispered through.

“Aria.” She heard her name like a breath. A murmuring from her soul.

Confusion bound her, and she glanced at Ellis, who knelt at her side. “What’s happening?”

“Valeen is alive. Present in this nature. If you listen hard enough, it is said you can hear her.”

“Can you?” Her voice was cragged, her disbelief thick.

His head barely shook. “No. But you can, Aria. Maybe there is something in you that goes beyond who I am.”

Nearly frantic, Aria turned back to the water, leaning forward to peer deeper. “Valeen,” she begged. “Do you hear me? Do you see me? What is happening to me?”

“Aria, do not be afraid.” The female voice was haunting, so quiet Aria wasn’t sure she was even hearing it.

“Why me?” she asked anyway, tears still blurring down her face.

A face passed by in the ripple of the water, a vapor that twisted through like a ghost, though Aria heard her words before she was gone. “Because you are the only one who has the power to defeat this evil.”

“Valeen,” she pleaded, and she reached into the water, stirring it the way Ellis had done. “Valeen.”

But she was gone, and Aria was no closer to understanding what was happening than when she’d come.

“Ellis.” His name was ragged on her tongue.

With both of them on their knees, he pulled her into his arms. “It’s going to be okay.”

“How do you know?” she choked out.

“I have faith in you. And we will do everything in our own power to understand how and why. To fight it alongside you. Every one of your Laven family is to search. To listen. To protect.”

He leaned closer to her ear. “And you have Valeen. I understand it now. It’s what I’ve always felt in you.”

His words were only more confounding, and she held tighter to him. “I want Pax.”

She knew the admission was a clear confession of her heart. She couldn’t bring herself to care or to hide it.

Ellis went rigid, his spine stiffening where he’d once been soft.

Aria jerked back. “Where is he?”

Worry passed through his features. “He has not come tonight.”

“What do you know?” she pleaded, seeing the torment in his eyes.

Ellis shook his head as he edged back to hold her hands. “Each of us has our choices, Aria. I just pray you both make the right ones.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means I pray that Pax will follow his duty and not do something that might put you both at a greater risk than you already are. But let’s not consider that now. You need to rest. You are weary, and you need to find your strength here.”

She clutched his shirt. “Ellis, please.”

What she was begging him for, she didn’t know.

Reaching out, he cupped her cheek. “Believe in yourself, brave girl. Do not let them steal that from you. Now, you must rest so you can fight while awake. I will seek The Book of Continuance and see if there is anything I can find. We will do everything we can to protect you.”

And for the second night in a row, Aria found rest within the safety of Tearsith.

During that time, she ached. Ached for her Nol.

Her Nol who never showed.