Chapter Five Aria—Tearsith
Chapter Five
Aria—Tearsith
She lay wrapped in Pax’s arms, and her Nol held her close as they drifted to sleep, curled on the motel bed.
Their souls hovered and danced in the nothingness. In that bare space that always held them before they were taken to where they were destined.
Lights flickered and flashed in that glimmery second before they flew.
Carried away to the otherworld.
Aria emerged on Tearsith’s boundary first.
Their sanctuary was surrounded by dense woods, the foliage lush and the air cool. Green grass and red vingas covered the ground, and her ears were filled with the gentle babbling of the brook that cut through the middle of the meadow.
Off to the side was the great tree she and Pax had played on as children, its massive arms coiled and twisted. A canopy of peace.
Previously, she hadn’t given much consideration as to why there were no children there now, playing beneath its protection. Why she was the youngest of their Laven family. But now it struck her as wrong.
Ominous.
She didn’t have much time to contemplate it, because one moment later, Pax manifested at her side. He didn’t hesitate to thread his fingers through hers.
Energy erupted, stronger than it’d ever been.
It was as if a new force had been bred between them once they’d joined.
When their barriers had been stripped away and there was nothing left to separate them.
When they’d become one.
They shared a fleeting glance before they turned their attention to their Laven family, who had gathered near the stream at their great teacher’s feet.
Ellis was giving them words to bolster their spirits. A reminder of their calling. The way he did every night before they descended.
But there was something in the air that left her unbalanced, something that felt off as they stepped out from the fringes and into the clearing.
Ellis immediately quieted when he noticed them.
“Aria and Pax. You have arrived.” Aria had thought relief would shine bright in his expression. It’d been only the previous night that they’d defeated the Ghorl, and Ellis wouldn’t know of the new world Aria had stumbled into afterward.
But no.
It was sorrow that twisted through his aged features. The weathered lines carved on his face deepening to ravines.
Aria’s attention rushed to take in the faces of the rest of their family.
Grief.
She felt it fiercely. She felt it distinctly.
And she somehow knew it wasn’t about her or her situation.
“What has happened?” she whispered hoarsely.
Ellis’s expression dimmed further. “We’ve received news that Nathan has passed into eternity.”
Shock speared through Aria. Nathan wasn’t that much older than she was, only by four or five years. Aria and Pax had often played with him during their childhood growing up here in Tearsith.
He was a friend.
Family.
“No.” It wheezed out of Aria on a bottled sob.
Margarethe, Nathan’s Nol, stood from where she’d been surrounded by ten or so of their family members.
Dani, Aria’s closest friend, the one who’d been her mentor when she’d prepared to descend into Faydor for the first time, kept an arm around her waist to support her.
Tears blurred Margarethe’s eyes, and Dani curled her closer to keep her upright as she swayed to the side and struggled to form words.
“He didn’t come for three nights. I became concerned, and I . . .” Margarethe hesitated as if she were afraid of admitting a mortal sin. “I knew his last name and where he lived, so I searched for him. I found a news article. He . . .”
She faltered before she choked around the confession. “He fell down the stairs at his house and broke his neck. His sister found him the next morning.”
“Oh my God,” Aria gasped around a clutch of sorrow.
But she knew that sorrow wasn’t close to the magnitude of what Margarethe was experiencing right then. She could sense it.
A shattering of spirit.
A cleaving of hearts.
As if an actual piece of the woman had been carved from her being.
“I’m so sorry, Margarethe,” Aria wheezed.
Dani met Aria’s gaze. The two friends shared a moment’s grief between them.
Margarethe squeezed her eyes closed, and a torrent of tears fell down her face before she shook her head in anger. “It . . . it doesn’t make any sense. He was strong. A force. Completely stable. There was no reason . . .”
Death always seemed impossible. A vague threat in the distance before it reached you.
“You’re going to be okay,” Dani murmured, though the words broke. “You’re going to be okay.”
“Oh God, where is William?” Claire suddenly cried out from the edge of the crowd. As if she’d been trying to keep it bottled since she arrived. She turned in a circle, as if coaxing her Nol to step from the boundaries and into Tearsith. “He didn’t come last night . . . and he still isn’t here.”
Ellis’s Nol, Josephine, ambled over to Claire. Her spine was hunched with age, her limbs spindly and thin. She reached for the Laven, and she peered up at her as she took her hand. “Oh, Claire, do not be troubled. He must have had a change in his human life. He’ll come. You must not worry.”
Though Aria heard the quaver in Josephine’s voice, could feel the unease ripple through the entirety of their family.
As if each of them felt that something was off.
Trepidation slithered through Aria, and Pax’s palm twitched against hers, as if he had the same sense. The feeling that an axis had shifted.
Their entire Laven family gathered around Margarethe, their heads bowed as they surrounded her to offer their support.
No doubt, each of them wished for a way to bear some of it for her. To hold her up when she dropped to her knees and wailed. All while they clung to their own Nols a little tighter.
“No. Why? Oh, Valeen, why?” she wept toward the placid heavens.
Dani got down on her knees to console Margarethe the best that she could, and her Nol, Timothy, joined her.
Ellis moved forward, touching Margarethe’s bowed head. Promising that Nathan was at eternal peace, that he could now rest and his duty had been served, though it did little to quiet the sobs that racked the woman.
When Ellis finally stood and turned in their direction, his features were piteous. They only dimmed in worry when he stepped toward them and Aria whispered, “I need to speak with you.”
He ushered Aria and Pax away from the group, and the three of them gathered beneath the gnarled, twisted branches of the great tree.
Ellis glanced behind them to the group of their family mourning with Margarethe before he turned his full attention to them. “Tell me I should not fear. I’m not sure how much more this family can withstand.”
It was a plea. They’d already been through so much.
Reticence filled her at sharing the news. “Unfortunately, it is not over.”
Ellis blanched, and he reached for her and wrapped his bony fingers around her wrist. “How so?”
Wariness pulsed through Aria. “Last night, while fighting in Faydor, I was compelled into another realm.”
Alarm rushed through his features. “What do you mean?”
Aria told him about what had happened. How she’d been drawn into the other realm.
The things the man had said. How he’d told her he’d ended her kind for generations.
The fight that had ensued. How she was sure he was responsible for the Ghorl being sent for her, and that it was only happening again as humans were clearly still hunting her.
“He called himself Ambrose. Have you ever heard his name before?” she begged.
Awareness nudged at her consciousness. She swore she should know. It was like the answer was right there, dangling in front of her but just out of reach.
Regret shook Ellis’s head. “No. Nor have I ever heard of anyone of his kind. Of another plane. And he said Kreed gave him this gift?”
He might as well have spat it.
Aria’s nod was withdrawn. “Yes.”
“Maybe he welcomed Kreed into his heart in some way? Allowed Kreed to strip him of his humanity to use him on Earth? I don’t know.
This is . . .” He trailed off in horrified disbelief before he peered at her with sheer intensity, though his voice was soft with awe.
“Sweet child, you are beyond anything we’ve ever known.
I wish I had the answers, but I don’t. I’m afraid I no longer hold the wisdom to be your teacher, but it will be you who is teaching us. ”
He gave a wary glance between her and Pax, worry seeded deep in his gaze.
Air puffed from Aria’s nose, and she let her eyes travel their sanctuary. It used to make her feel safe. Untouchable. But now that peace felt thin. She was sure these realms were so much greater than she’d fathomed, and she couldn’t help but wonder how much had been undiscovered.
“But the thing I do know is, you must figure out who this man is in the day,” Ellis urged. “He must be human if he is walking on that sphere. Maybe that is where you have to stop him.”
Uncertainty washed through Aria. It seemed unlikely that he would be vulnerable in the day. Susceptible to human weaknesses. His powers seemed far above that.
But if she was also vulnerable there . . .
She almost scoffed at herself.
Could she dare compare herself to him?
“Don’t worry, I have every intention of hunting that bastard down,” Pax growled from her side. “Every intention of ending him. Whatever it takes.”
Ellis shifted in disconcertment, and Aria watched as his attention dipped to where Pax had her fingers woven firmly through his.
Refusing to let go for a second.
The old man slowly lifted his gaze to theirs.
“And you remain together.”
He didn’t phrase it as a question. It was a statement knitted in distress.
Pax didn’t cower. He simply lifted his chin.
“I’m not leaving her, Ellis. Know I made the promise to you that I would once we stopped the Ghorl, but I can’t, and I won’t.
This thing isn’t over. But even if it was, I don’t believe that we don’t belong together.
And even if we didn’t, it wouldn’t change anything. I won’t leave her side.”
“It’s a risk we’re both willing to take,” Aria told Ellis, her words twisting in a plea for him to understand.
Aria knew the mandate.
Nols were not to join in the flesh; Ellis had only given them a temporary blessing while they’d been trying to defeat that Ghorl.
But how could Valeen forbid this? This connection they’d been given?
She and Pax were so much more than temporary.
Another wail rose up from Margarethe, a mournful cry that echoed through their sanctuary.
Aria’s spirit throbbed and thrashed, and she held tight to Pax’s hand.
Praying that what they were was unbreakable.