Chapter Twenty-Four Pax

Chapter Twenty-Four

Pax

Tearsith

Pax closed his eyes, and he hovered in the nothingness.

Weightless.

Boneless.

He floated higher, where lights flashed and flickered before he emerged at the boundary of Tearsith. A lush paradise that surrounded them.

Aria was already there, standing at the edge and peering out into the meadow like she no longer knew where she belonged.

He eased up behind her.

She shivered. The way she had at the hotel when he’d been a fool and had gotten too close to her.

How fucking gorgeous she’d looked, sitting on that bed. How he’d wanted to crawl over her and press her into the mattress. Unwrap her. Trace his fingers over every scar on her body.

It’d only made it worse when he’d gotten on his knees at her bedside and run his fingertips over her lips. He had nearly broken when she’d confessed what she wanted aloud.

But he couldn’t go there.

It would only make their situation worse.

Distort their purpose.

But he already felt a hazy film clouding his sight and mind. The way his stomach twisted when he looked at her and how he kept getting hit with a bolt of need whenever their skin brushed.

He had to wonder if maybe that was the true reason they were forbidden to find their Nol during the day. If their connection became too powerful and the objective was skewed.

Maybe it made him a piece of shit to question Valeen. But to him, Valeen was little more than a mystery. Removed. Never a tangible piece of them. Her words only spoken through Ellis, where he found her teachings in the great book.

If Pax were being honest, he’d always questioned everything.

He eased up to Aria’s side and looked out to see that most of their Laven family had already arrived and were gathered at Ellis’s feet.

“I don’t know how to face them,” she quietly admitted.

“You haven’t done anything wrong. I was the one who came for you. I’m the one who broke the decree, and I’m standing beside you without one regret.”

She let go of a shattered breath.

“We’re in this together,” he promised, his voice urgent, and she nodded as she stepped out from the fringe and edged across the soft grasses. He followed a foot behind. A shield that covered, ready to step in.

He knew when they felt them coming. The way Ellis’s words trailed off and a ripple of apprehension traveled through the crowd as everyone shifted to watch their approach.

Aria stumbled a step, and Pax placed a hand at the small of her back.

A soft encouragement that burned through him like a wildfire.

Singeing every nerve ending in his being.

“It’s nearing time to descend,” Ellis said, though his attention remained on them. “Everyone, prepare yourselves.”

Their Laven family stood, unsure, though they began to pair off.

For a moment, Ellis hesitated, in what appeared to be both dread and relief, before he started their way.

He met them midway in the field. Torment twisted through his expression. “We’ve been worried.”

He glanced between the two of them. Clearly Ellis already knew that Pax had gone for Aria. The measures he’d taken to protect his Nol.

Aria trembled. “They have already begun to hunt me.”

Ellis’s nod was knowing, tremoring with his age, his pale eyes dulled yet filled with compassion and fear. “Sweet child.”

Agony sliced through Aria.

Palpable.

Though she lifted her chin as if she’d already accepted her fate. “I will fight until the day I die.”

Pax couldn’t contain his growl. Couldn’t stop the hostility that rose from the depths of his soul.

Ellis felt the resonance, Pax was sure, the way apprehension filled his features.

The two stared at each other, though Pax stepped back when Dani cautiously approached the three of them. Her love for Aria was patent, her hands shaking when she reached out and pulled Aria into her arms. “Oh God, Aria, I’ve been so worried about you.”

Aria fell into her and allowed her to hold her up. “I’m okay. I’m okay.”

It sounded as if Aria was trying to convince herself.

“I need to speak with you.” Ellis’s voice was low and dire, and Pax glanced to Aria, not wanting to leave her side but also knowing this was inevitable.

He knew the choice he’d made would be met with condemnation.

Pax followed Ellis across the meadow until they stood beneath a massive, winding tree, its entwined, low-slung branches covered in moss and white flowers. Its canopy stretched over them like a sentry.

“You’ve gone to her.” Ellis said it the moment he turned around, the words craggy and grave.

Pax looked back to where Aria was surrounded by Dani, Josephine, and a handful of other Laven whom Aria had grown close to.

His jaw clenched. “Yes.”

Ellis emitted a sound of reproach, though it was pained and woven with alarm. “You’ve broken our greatest rule. The one I warned you of time and again.”

Pax’s attention snapped back to his guide. His teacher. A man he held in the highest regard. It was a regard he couldn’t heed. “And I’d break it a million times over if it gave her even one more day.”

“You put her in danger. Put yourself in danger.”

An incredulous laugh ripped from Pax. “I put her in danger? She would have died in that facility if I hadn’t gotten her out. The one Timothy had seen had already gotten to her. He was in her room when I arrived.”

Ellis’s pale face blanched. Stark white. Still, he said, “Your purpose is here. To fight here ... in Faydor. You’ve lost sight of your meaning. Of who you are supposed to be.”

Pax angled his head in his elder’s direction, his words jagged. “My purpose is to protect her.” He’d known it his entire life; he’d just finally figured out what that really meant. “Saving her is my meaning.”

“Have you forgotten the lessons of Valeen and Kreed?”

“And what exactly do you expect me to do? Turn my back on her? Leave her alone on the street? Take her back to her parents, who don’t understand her? The ones who put her in harm’s way to begin with? I won’t.” The promise grated from Pax’s tongue.

“Pax . . . you must—”

Their argument was cut off by Timothy, who was suddenly at their side. He roughed a hand through his shaggy brown hair, caution and care in his expression.

“Forgive me for interrupting,” he told Ellis, though his eyes were on Pax. “Dani and I ... We have been searching.”

Rage and hope stirred inside him.

“What have you found?” Pax demanded.

“We found the Ghorl. It is fast, and it is strong and terrifying. More powerful than anything I’ve ever witnessed. But I saw it, Pax. It has one single thought. One single goal. And that goal is Aria.”

Pax had already assumed that, but the confirmation pierced him like an arrow.

He swore, and Timothy’s nod was grim. “We couldn’t even get close enough to it to try to bind it. I’m sorry.”

“It must be stopped here.” Wisdom was carved into Ellis’s edict. “If it’s only this one ... then perhaps we can stop this.”

He didn’t say it, but Pax knew what he’d implied.

Stop the hunt for Aria.

Only you have the strength to destroy this evil. What Aria had told him about what she’d thought Valeen had conveyed to her spun through his mind. If it were true? If Valeen had actually shown herself to Aria? Then Aria might be the only one who could do it.

Pax grabbed on to the hope, and he silently promised she wouldn’t have to do it alone.

“I will speak with our family before we descend,” Ellis said.

“Thank you.” Pax’s words were thick as he spoke to Timothy.

“You know I would do anything for her. For both of you,” Timothy promised before he turned and headed back toward Dani, who still stood talking with Aria.

Pax started to turn, to go to Aria so they could descend. So they could fight this beast, crush it, pray it would be her threat’s end.

Only Ellis took him by the forearm before he had the chance to move. His instruction was hushed, though cut in emphasis. “I understand, Pax. I do. So protect her while awake. Stand at her side until we see this through. We will find it and destroy it here.”

Pax gulped as Ellis tightened his hold.

“But you must leave her then. Once this is finished. And you must never give in to what I see in your eyes. You cannot risk the aftermath of giving your heart that way. You might think you’re strong enough to resist it, but you will turn on her.”

Pax wanted to argue. To swear it could never happen. Not when she was everything. He restrained himself and gave Ellis the promise he knew he was duty bound to uphold. “I will.”

“Good. Then I say we go destroy this monster.” Ellis wound around Pax, walking toward the sea of Laven. “Family, gather around.”

Pax followed, moving to Aria’s side.

She glanced at him with those questioning, fathomless eyes. He took her hand as the voices trailed off and everyone gathered around Ellis, whose expression was both direct and grim.

Their elder turned to speak to the crowd. “As Laven, we each face special obstacles while awake. We are attacked in every direction, Kruen tossing thoughts in those who cross our paths. I know you understand this firsthand. You know the complexities of this life, even though they are difficult to understand. And Aria’s ...”

Everyone’s attention slanted to her as he continued to speak. “Aria’s situation appears to be even more complex than any of us here have ever known. She has ... bound a Kruen while awake.”

Shock rippled through the mass, rumbles of perplexity, the impossibility of who she was and what she had done, and Pax clutched her hand tighter when she trembled as a flock of pale eyes swept over her.

In sympathy.

In support.

In confusion.

None of them could comprehend what was being said. None of them had an answer.

Pax was hell-bent on finding it.

“And as such,” Ellis continued, “it seems she has become the target of a single Ghorl.”

Gasps went up all around.

“Timothy and Dani have witnessed its thoughts, and those thoughts have one purpose: seeking Aria’s demise. We must stop it. For our sister. Listen as you hunt for the one who seeks her. Together, we must find it and snuff it out.”

Agreement rolled through the crush, and their family began to descend, two by two, edging up to the invisible gateway, to the force that drew them toward darkness.

Each flashed in a brilliant light before they disappeared.

Pax and Aria waited at the back, and he squeezed her hand even tighter. “However many nights we have to spend searching, we will find it and we will destroy it. Do not forget what Valeen told you. You have the power, Aria. It’s you.”

Surprise gusted through her before she gave him a small nod. “I will give everything to try to find it within myself.”

They stepped forward together.

A searing cold blistered across his flesh, and he clung to her hand as they fell for what seemed an eternity.

Darkness reigned on all sides, disorienting and confusing as they tumbled and spun and hurtled through the desolation.

Violence filled their ears, the call for wickedness, the beckoning for desolation.

He never let go of her hand.

They hit the frozen ground, and the barren expanse of Faydor opened in front of them.

Their Laven family raced headlong into the roiling chaos. Into the mist and shadows that howled with depravity.

The instinct was to fight. To engage. To chase down the foul and end it.

It felt nearly impossible to keep moving, to ignore the innate reflex to battle the disgusting thoughts as they passed.

But they couldn’t stop.

They couldn’t slow.

Aria was at his side as they tracked over the rough, barren terrain, through the heavy vapor that concealed and camouflaged. The barest light glowed at the edge of Faydor, the darkness so thick it was noxious.

Ice-cold poison that they inhaled into their lungs.

Aria kept stumbling at the wickedness that was intoned. Her need to intervene was almost too powerful for her to ignore. The pain she emitted was overwhelming.

Unbearable.

Pax gritted his teeth. “We have to find it, Aria. Right now, our only job is saving you. You can’t protect the blameless if you’re not here to do it.”

The words raked up his throat, low and desperate, and Aria pushed herself harder. They increased their pace, racing through stricken darkness, twisting around the boulders and lifeless elms.

They inclined their ears, listening in on the screams and taunts, the wickedness that oozed, the evils that possessed.

They ran for hours.

Hunting.

Searching.

Lost in the bowels of nothingness. A wasteland of greed.

He’d begun to lose hope when he got the barest inclination. When he picked up on a sound. A tone that reverberated through the frigid air and flamed at his soul.

The Ghorl.

“ Climb the stairs. Break the lock. She’s waiting. You get to fuck her if you do. She’s never been touched. She’s yours. Then let her blood spill over your fingers. ”

Catching a glimpse of the Ghorl’s mind, Pax saw his car parked in the lot, two spaces down from the set of stairs that led to the upper level of the hotel where they were staying.

Where they were asleep inside.

Aria saw it at the same time, and she gasped. Her knees went weak, her feet close to failing as she stumbled over the rocky, rutted ground.

Pax tightened his hold on her hand.

“I won’t let him touch you. I promise you. We have to remain strong. Fight.”

Resolve rushed through her on a palpable wave. Bottled strength that rose from the depths, where it had been dormant and hidden away.

Pax was sure Aria didn’t have the first clue of how powerful she really was.

What remained untapped.

But he knew exactly why she was such a threat.

They drove themselves toward the voice, hurtling across the ground.

“ Do it. Go up the stairs. Move. You have nothing to lose. Everything you want is on the other side of that door. ”

Running through vapor and mist, they rounded a boulder, and the Ghorl came into sight. It writhed in a bubbling, black mess on the pitted, desolate ground.

Both liquid and shadow.

Different from a normal Kruen. It throbbed with untapped power.

With a wickedness so great it bleared their eyes and distorted their senses.

Together, Pax and Aria found the light within themselves, the power to crush the iniquity, and they projected it toward the Ghorl. They needed to surround it before it could realize they were there.

Only it sensed their approach, and it flailed, gathering to take new shape as it reared up to stare back at them.

Its flesh was pitch-blackened char, though you could see the evil pump through its veins. Its face a gnarled mesh of depravity, its mouth deformed and twisted as it bared its jagged teeth. A flash of a second later, it had transformed into shadow, and it broke into two fragments as it raced away.

Curling and twisting in a bid to disorient them.

“Follow the largest fragment.” Aria rushed, her breaths ragged as they chased. They struggled not to lose it, trying to track it to the place where it would come back together so they could bind it as one.

Their only hope was to eradicate it when it was whole.

Only the thoughts the Ghorl had been feeding into the man had already been seeded.

Had already taken hold.

Pax suddenly lurched, and his hand slipped from Aria’s as he was shocked awake.