Chapter Two Aria #2
“I don’t want you to be afraid for me,” I murmured.
She turned back toward me. Sheer adoration and devastation burned through her expression. “I could never not worry about you. You’re my daughter. My beautiful, talented, amazing daughter.”
She choked on the last word.
Mom paused for a minute before she seemed to gather up the courage to step into territory she was afraid to traverse. “It’s real? The things you told me when you were a little girl? About that place where you would go to play, and your best friend you’d meet there? Pax?”
His name left her on a whisper of reverence, and her gaze drifted behind me to where he waited in the car.
My heart squeezed in a fist. “Yes. He’s real. It’s all real.”
More tears streamed down her face. “The wounds . . . they came from that place. How?”
She nearly begged that.
“There’s still so much about it that I don’t understand myself.
How I was chosen to go there. To fight there.
But what I know is, there are things beyond us that most cannot see.
Battles for our spirits. Battles for our souls.
There are beings who seek to protect and those who seek to destroy.
And somehow my soul was called to protect.
I go there every night . . . since the day I turned sixteen. ”
She sniffled, and the rock of her head was filled with remorse as she came to an understanding. “The first time I thought you’d hurt yourself.”
“Yes.”
She shuddered. “And when you fight there . . . they . . . hurt you?”
I kept squeezing her hand, wanting to give her encouragement. Solace. For her to understand I was okay.
At least for now. I ignored the voice that echoed through me.
“Yes. They can burn me, but they can’t kill me.”
She hesitated, then whispered, “Are they, like . . . demons?”
My shoulder barely hitched. “I guess that’s what they could be called.
They’re spirits, and their only purpose is to bring calamity to the world.
And somehow . . . someway . . . those like me have been given the power to fight them in our sleep.
To take some of the burden off the world. Without us . . .”
I trailed off, not even wanting to consider how horrible the world would be if there weren’t Laven there to intervene.
She breathed around a soft cry. “I wish . . . I wish I could understand. I wish I could see.”
“I would never want you to.”
Silence stretched between us before she forced out, “Please help me understand what happened to your father. He just . . .”
Her eyes squeezed closed for a beat before she said quickly, “All of a sudden, he wasn’t the same person.
One moment he was worried about you, terrified and pacing the floor the same way I had been .
. . And the next, he was this cruel, vicious person.
Wicked. It was like the man I knew was no longer there. ”
A shiver rolled through her. Without a doubt, she was tormented by the memories.
“One of the evil ones took his mind hostage. Used him against me to lure me back here. They want me dead.”
The words felt harsh.
Blows that hit the frosty air.
I wanted to shield her from them, but I also needed her to understand the severity of what we were facing. After what had happened last night in Faydor, the terrifying thought that the Kruen could use my family again still held fast.
Revulsion rolled through my mother, and a soft sob hitched in her throat. “I can’t—” She inhaled a shaky breath, her grief palpable. “Is he still a danger to us?”
“I don’t think so.” Hope heaved out with the words as I thought of what I’d felt last night. When I no longer could hear or feel the wicked voices that had captured my father’s heart and mind.
“I don’t know how I can ever trust him again.” She swiped the tears from her cheek with the back of her free hand.
“I don’t know, either—and it’s up to you if you ever do decide to trust him again. But at least I believe you’re safe from him.”
“So it’s over. We’re safe? You’re safe?”
Apprehension gathered at the base of my throat. “I believe you’re safe.”
I felt the weight of her gaze on my cheek. “But you are not.”
My head slowly shook. “We’re trying to find a way to be. To stop the one who’s after me.”
Another wave of grief and pain rolled through her. “Oh God, Aria . . .”
“I know. But I promise we’re doing everything we can.
We’ll find a way, but until then, I need you to know what is happening so you can look out for any signs.
If you feel anything strange. If any thoughts infiltrate your mind or if anyone in the family starts acting strange. I need you all to be prepared.”
She choked on her disbelief. “I don’t know how to be prepared for any of this, Aria. Don’t know how to stop it. I’m . . . not as strong as you.”
I fully turned to her. “You are. Just be vigilant. Be careful. And if something happens, call me. You have my new number, and I need you to use it.”
Her head bounced in understanding, though she whispered, “You’re leaving.”
“We can’t stay here. Not right now.”
She hesitated before she asked, “He came for you? When you were in trouble?”
She peeked over her shoulder at Pax’s car.
“I know it’s hard to understand, but Pax and I are tied. Bound in a way that others are not. We will always be together.”
Tenderness filled her expression. “You love him.”
“I always have.”
Her hand tightened on mine. “If one good thing came from this, then I’m thankful for that. That he found you and you found him. That you were not alone.” Her head tipped to the side as she studied me. “Is he good to you?”
Emotion pulled at my lips. “He’s more than good—he’s everything.”
Her warm brown eyes brimmed with moisture, and she turned and wrapped me in her arms. Her mouth was at my temple as she murmured, “I love you so much. Please know that. Please take that with you everywhere you go. And I pray one day . . . one day that you see the fullness of it.”
I held her close, nodding my head against hers. “I do. I already do.”
Sniffling, she pulled away, and she squeezed both my hands before she wiped her tears, then waved over my brothers and sister.
Mitch and Keaton immediately stopped what they were doing and came sprinting in our direction, and Brianna slowly slipped off the table.
Wariness slowed her steps as she followed.
“Aria! Aria!” Mitch and Keaton shouted.
I stood, and they slammed into me. A flood of affection pummeled me as I curled my arms around them.
“I missed you!” Keaton said.
“I missed you even more,” Mitch said, trying to one-up him the way he always did.
A soggy laugh left me as I hugged them to me. “I missed both of you. So much,” I murmured.
With eyes the color of our mother’s, Mitch peered up at me. A beaming smile lit his face. “Are you home forever now?”
Sorrow swam through me, and I brushed my fingers through his hair. “Not yet. I have to go away for a little while longer, but I promise I will come back to visit soon.”
“You’d better hurry up, because it’s going to be my birthday in six weeks!” Mitch said.
My spirit pinched, and I prayed it wasn’t a lie when I told him, “I definitely can’t miss that, can I?”
“You better not. It’s gonna be extra fun because Mom said I get an ice cream cake.”
“Wow, then I definitely have to be here.”
I could feel Brianna approaching from behind.
Filled with caution.
My brothers released me as I straightened, and there was no missing the fear in Brianna’s eyes. She was obviously old enough to recognize the trauma that had befallen our family in the last two weeks. No way to keep her from the pain and distress.
Her steps were slow, but the second I murmured her name, she broke. She ran to me in pure desperation, slamming against me in a tidal wave of relief. I hugged her tight as she sobbed. “I was so scared, Aria. I was so scared.”
My heart groaned. “I know. I was scared, too. But it’s all going to be okay.”
It had to be.
She clung to me. “I want you to stay.”
“I wish I could, but I have to go away for a while longer.”
Last night, Pax and I had contemplated finding a place to settle. A place to make our home. But now . . . it felt dangerous to remain in one spot. Running was the only thing we knew.
Maybe one day I could return. Settle close. Become a constant in their lives. But not when so many questions remained around us.
Nodding, she peeled herself away. “I understand.”
“I expect to see an amazing performance from your dance troupe as soon as I get back,” I tried to tease, though it came out thick.
She fumbled over an uncertain laugh, her brown eyes shining as she looked at me. “I’ll be practicing every day.”
“I can’t wait to see it.”
“Would you mind taking your brothers back to your grandmother’s house?” our mother asked her.
Brianna also seemed to have matured a decade since I’d been gone, and without argument, she took the boys’ hands. “Come on. Let’s go get warmed up. I think my toes are going to fall off.”
She stalled and lifted her chin. “Come back to us.”
My nod was jerky. “I will.”
Without saying anything else, she turned to lead them away, though both my brothers were shouting, “Bye, Aria! We’ll see you soon!”
Brianna glanced back once, her sweet face full of grief and belief, before she hurried across the street and down the sidewalk.
Once they’d disappeared, my mother stood, in disquiet, shifting from foot to foot. “How long will you be away?”
“I don’t know. Until it’s safe.”
“Please be that, Aria—safe. We need you here. In our lives. We all love and miss you so much.”
“I know,” I promised, “and I’m so thankful.”
She pulled me into the tightest hug as she whispered in my ear, “My beautiful, brave, awe-inspiring girl. Take care. I will be thinking about you every second.”
We stayed that way for the longest time; then she was swiping at her tears as she forced herself to step away. She turned on her heel and took the same path my siblings had taken as she headed to my grandmother’s house.
Though my mother . . . she never looked back.
I had a feeling it was too painful for her.
I stood there until she disappeared around the corner; then I turned, still hugging the blanket around me as I started for where Pax waited in the distance.
I was halfway across the field when I felt it—a shift in the atmosphere. The way ice crystals seemed to form in the gloomy air.
With it, evil crackled across the open space.
The hairs on the nape of my neck lifted in awareness.
I whirled toward the direction that I’d sensed it. A hundred feet away, a man had cut through the field, riding toward me on a bicycle.
It wouldn’t have been all that strange a sight except for the expression on his face.
Pure, unmitigated hate.
That, and the piece of metal that glinted from his hand beneath the bright rays of winter sunlight, protruding from the handlebars like a sadistic appendage.
A knife.
Fear streaked through my being.
Then I turned, and I ran.