Chapter Twenty-Six Aria
Chapter Twenty-Six
Aria
Pax stuffed his hands into his jeans pockets as he ambled my way. The breeze rustled through the white locks of his hair, and the slightest smirk played at the edge of his mouth, something knowing and tender written in the harsh angles of his face.
I didn’t know if he’d ever looked so beautiful to me. So perfect and right.
It felt as if we’d just received confirmation of a theory we’d held on to for years. A loss that had throbbed. A vacancy that had gaped.
Wondering if others in our Laven family had felt the same way we did about each other. If we’d been marked on each other in greater ways than we’d been told, or if Pax and I were just an anomaly.
It seemed like an affirmation.
A promise that Pax and I had made the right choice in stepping out. Going against a rule that felt faulty. A blight carved in the middle of our souls.
“He didn’t even try to resist her the way I did you,” he muttered when he got to within a foot of me, low enough that it wouldn’t disturb Dani or Timothy.
The smile still fluttering across his plush red lips that seemed so at odds with the rest of him sent a crash of wings fluttering through my stomach.
“Dude couldn’t keep his hands off her for one second.” His voice was raw with adoration.
I couldn’t stop my own smile as I swiveled so that we were hidden, to give Timothy and Dani a moment to themselves.
I let my hand slide beneath Pax’s jacket, which was open in the front, my palm smoothing up the thin fabric of his tee and over the sinewy strength of his abdomen and chest. Warmth saturated me at the contact, the rush of his aura, which I swore weaved with mine.
I leaned back against the wall as I stared up at him, feeling light and airy within this sanctuary we’d found.
“Maybe he just wanted her more than you wanted me, and he couldn’t help himself.” I let a tease wind into the words. A taunt and a play. A moment’s reprieve from the torment that haunted us.
For a few seconds, I wanted to get lost in the happiness I felt at seeing Dani and Timothy together. It spouted like a spring from within. A soothing balm, like something that had been set to wrong had been dialed to right.
An injustice rectified.
Mischief danced in the deep, fathomless depths of Pax’s gaze, and he eased closer, boxing me in with all his heat. His nose brushed mine as he murmured, “You think that’s even possible, Princess? Someone wanting another more than I want you?”
“Mmm?” I pretended as if I weren’t quite sure as I toyed with the neckline of his tee. “He seemed awful happy to see her.”
Pax’s hand cinched down on my hip as he let his lips whisper down the angle of my jaw.
Shivers raced.
The perfect kind, that tingled through my senses on a streak of bliss.
“Think this thing I’ve got for you is far greater than any simple want.
I thought I was going to die, not getting to touch you.
Trying to endure the hunger that raged inside me.
Feeling like I couldn’t get a full breath of oxygen into my lungs whenever you were near.
Fighting something that felt intrinsic. Like something I couldn’t survive without. ”
The playfulness had shifted, and a stark severity wound into the breeze that wisped through the air.
Pax eased back, and he ran his thumb over the scar on my jaw.
“Turns out, you were the blood in my veins. Because looking at you, Aria Rialta? I came alive for the very first time. It’s when I understood the meaning of this life.
Years spent denying it . . . forcing myself into accepting that you were only meant for me in Tearsith and Faydor.
It was torment, Aria. Being without you was nothin’ but torment, resisting you the most painful thing I’ve ever done. ”
Overcome by emotion, I raked my teeth over my trembling bottom lip as I reached out and brushed my fingertips down the long scar cut into the right side of his face.
His menacing, magnificent face that made my insides quake.
“And because of your bravery . . . because you were willing to sacrifice anything to get to me, you opened the gates for the rest of them. Because there is no question that remains in my mind that Dani and Timothy feel the same way as you and me, and I have to believe that’s true for the rest of our family. ”
He took my fingers that were tracing over the lines slashed deep into his expression and pressed kisses to my knuckles. “No, Aria. All of that is because of you. Because of extraordinary, amazing you.”
Then he grinned and edged in closer, the tease back in full force. “But for the record, there’s no chance Timothy needs Dani quite as much as I need you. That’s just not fucking possible.”
“Sorry to break it to you, Pax, but I’m going to have to interrupt this little lovefest to respectfully disagree.”
A surprised laugh choked out of me when I looked up and found Timothy grinning, him and Dani standing beside us.
Pax shifted enough to throw him a smirk, along with a wry quirk of his brow. “‘This little lovefest’? That was quite the display going down right around the corner. Don’t think you should be talking.”
A blush rushed to Dani’s cheeks, but she was still pressed tight to Timothy’s side, their fingers locked, unwilling to let go.
“Hey, man, no shame here. Think it’s clear there’s a whole lot of love going around. As far as I’m concerned, it’s about damned time,” Timothy said.
“It’s such a relief you’re here,” I said, slipping out from under Pax so I could edge up to Timothy’s side, the one Dani didn’t occupy. I wrapped my arms around his middle, and he curled his free arm around my shoulders and hugged me tight.
Affection billowed. Happiness uncontained.
“The second I woke up this morning, after you’d suggested that it might be safer to be with our Nol than without, I was on a plane,” Timothy said.
“Only thing I knew was, I had to get here. My heart was clawing its way out of my chest like it was going to make it here faster. Every piece inside was already sure that this is where I really belong. And I’m willing to bet that’s been the case with a whole lot of our Laven family today. Reunions happening all over the place.”
I pulled back, and Timothy cast a tender glance down at Dani. A thick sound rolled up her throat, her face blotchy from the tears that couldn’t seem to stop falling.
Devastating joy and marked relief.
“I hope so,” she whispered. “Because there is absolutely nothing better than this. No better feeling than you being here. Right beside me. That you’re all here,” she added in a rush of gratitude as she turned her attention to me and Pax.
We spent a moment relishing it—the hope for our family. But it was also tainted by the fact that there were those of us who would never have that chance. Their lives ripped from them before they could experience the fruition of the connection with their Nol.
It also wasn’t lost on any of us that our rejoicing might be short lived. The celebration dampened by the threat we could feel lingering in the perimeter. Right on the outskirts of the peace we had found.
Dani cleared her throat as if she felt it, too. Right there. Hovering just out of reach.
She swiped the moisture from her cheeks with the back of her free hand as she urged, “Come on. We should go inside where it’s warm.”
She gave a little tug for Timothy to follow.
We all trudged back up the porch steps, stomping off our shoes on the mat at the door before we slipped back inside.
Timothy chuckled as he looked around. “How did I know exactly what this place was going to look like?”
Dani shrugged. “You’ve always known me best.”
“Yeah, I have, haven’t I?” He ran his knuckle under her chin; then she squealed when he suddenly swung her up into his arms. He cradled her as he strode into the living room and plopped down onto the couch with her on his lap.
Okay, so Timothy was not shy.
Pax and I shared a look, a tinge of embarrassment coloring my cheeks, unsure if we should excuse ourselves, or how to handle this. Remembering what it was like when I’d first seen Pax all over again, though our circumstances had been entirely different.
The pull that had dragged between us.
An undertow.
Waves of outright fear battering against it. Fear of the consequences of giving in to what we’d wanted so much.
“I’ll grab our teas,” I offered, and I slipped into the safety of the kitchen. Pax followed close behind. His lips twitched with amusement when we heard the murmurings echoing in from the other room, Timothy and Dani whispering things to each other that we couldn’t hear.
Things that were only meant for them.
“Can I help with anything?” Pax asked quietly.
“We need another mug.”
Pax searched through two cupboards before he found the one that held them, and he filled it with the still-steaming water as I went to the pantry Dani had been in and found the box of tea bags.
I opened one and tucked it into the mug; then Pax and I each grabbed two.
I peeked around the corner, worried I was going to interrupt something, before I eased around, clearing my throat to make sure they knew I was approaching.
Dani giggled and shook her head where she sat on Timothy’s lap. Her arms were draped around his neck, my friend fully wrapped around her Nol. “I’m so sorry that you’re in my kitchen getting us tea. I’m apparently a little distracted.”
She glanced up at Timothy, who grinned down at her.
“Don’t apologize. It’s understandable,” I said.
“Was it like this when you two first saw each other? I mean, I can only imagine, considering the way the two of you already were in Tearsith,” she added.
Pax set the two mugs on the coffee table near them. “Safe to say, my foundation was rocked the second I saw her, but since I was breaking her out of a mental institute, we didn’t quite have the time for a first encounter like yours.”
“That, and he pretty much insisted on keeping at least twenty feet of space separating us.” I gave him a mischievous roll of my eyes as I folded myself onto the floor, sitting with my legs crisscrossed. I wrapped my hands around my mug to warm them.
Pax grunted as he climbed down behind me, curling an arm around my waist and hooking his chin on my shoulder.
“Just was trying to be chivalrous.” It was his own tease.
Dani peeked up at Timothy, her expression waffling between irreverence and awe. “Well, I, for one, am glad chivalry is dead.”
“Don’t worry, beautiful. I don’t really intend to be polite,” Timothy said, his intentions gleaming all over his face.
My lips pressed together. Nope. Definitely not shy.
Ease wafted around us, our smiles so wide they hurt, the same as our ribs, where our hearts pressed against their confines. Bursting free of the shackles we’d been given.
Given by Ambrose, who sought to steal. To ruin and destroy.
As if Timothy had heard the name uttered into his ear, he stiffened a fraction, his head angling to the side as his attention volleyed between each of us. “So now that we’re all here, how are we going to take down this motherfucker?”
Pax exhaled a heavy breath. “We still aren’t exactly sure, but when Aria came against him yesterday?
She was the one who ended up with the upper hand, and he took off.
Not sure if he was surprised, tucking tail because the fucker was scared, or if he was just choosing to divert and take a different route. ”
Timothy’s eyes swiveled to me. “Do you think if you got one-on-one with him, you could end him?”
My rib cage expanded as I inhaled. “It’s like I feel that I can. That it’s possible. But also, I know there’s something missing. Something I don’t know or understand.”
“And the problem is figuring out what it is,” Timothy offered.
My nod was unsure. “It’s like he keeps coming at me from different angles, and when he doesn’t overcome me, he tries something else.
Dragging me to different realities and realms. Sending others for me, and other times coming at me himself.
It’s like . . . the ground is always rocky.
No way for me to fully figure out how to fight him because it’s always brand new. ”
Timothy’s expression turned appraising. Knowing. “And as long as you’re scrambling, always disoriented, you won’t be able to catch up.”
Distracted.
It was there again.
“Maybe he’s testing you . . . seeing what you’re capable of?” Dani suggested, though it was clear she didn’t want to.
“Like he’s preparing?” Timothy phrased it like a question.
“He’s definitely preparing for something,” I said.
I felt Pax tighten his hold on me, his agitation at the thought rising high, before he murmured, “I promise you, that asshole won’t be prepared for what is coming for him.”