Chapter Forty-Two Aria
Chapter Forty-Two
Aria
All four of us clicked our doors open at the same time and climbed out of the car.
Frigid air gusted across the field. It was a chill that sank straight to the bone as spikes of razor-sharp rain pelted our flesh.
Each of us hung on to the top of our door as we peered up at the calamity that had been waiting for us.
This reality was something I’d prayed would never come to fruition. But I think I’d known the entire way here that we were going to be met with the impossible.
With the horrible.
I could feel the disbelief radiating from my family as we gaped up at where the sky was split open over the center of the small town in Idaho that I doubted many had even heard of, though now it would earn the most significant title.
The birthplace of the end of the world.
Because hopelessness shuddered through my being as I looked up at the onslaught of Kruen that continued to pour into this plane.
“Fuck,” Timothy breathed.
The sight confirmed everything we’d feared when we saw the Kruen broach the barrier of the realms, their tendrils lashing out as they’d fed their degeneracies into the men who’d come for me.
This would be a massacre.
An absolute, complete massacre that would spread out to infect every inch of the world.
Tortured screams cleaved through the air, carried on the wind to taunt our ears.
“I can’t believe this,” I finally whispered. Tears blurred my eyes as I succumbed to what the surety of this meant.
There was no way the four of us could defeat them. No way we could stop them. And I was sure, in that instant, that the cars that had raced to this town had been called here for a single purpose.
Their drivers were going to be used as vessels for the Kruen. I should have known it then, that night when I’d thought I’d seen the monsters rippling beneath the men’s flesh as they surrounded us.
“We can’t lose hope,” Dani murmured, trying to keep the trembling from her voice. She looked back at me, her big eyes wide and despairing. “We can’t.”
“I’m not giving up.” Just because our fate was likely sealed didn’t mean I wasn’t going to fight until my final breath.
Pax met my gaze from over the roof of the car. White flames glinted in the depths of his eyes. My chest expanded. And I remembered his words from when we’d first met in person. How he’d already believed in his purpose—that he’d been sent to give his life for mine.
And I wanted to save it.
His.
Ours.
Everyone’s.
From here to the next existence.
But how could we overcome this?
I shifted when I somehow felt the movement off to my left, and I scanned through the dim haze that coated the air, looking out into the dead, high grass that covered the field.
Alarm pitched through my body and adrenaline thudded through my veins in a convulsion of trepidation when I saw a man coming up through the pasture, pushing through the grass as he made his way toward the town in the distance beyond where we’d stopped.
Drawn that way.
There were more behind him. It appeared a ton of people had abandoned their vehicles in the gridlock that remained on the main road and were going on foot.
Emerging behind the cars and coming in our direction.
“Aria, get back in the car,” Pax growled. “You need to stay away from these bastards until we can figure out what’s going on.”
But I was frozen.
Stuck as the man got closer and I was finally able to make out his face. But it wasn’t his face that had me riveted to the spot.
No.
I’d never seen him before.
It was his eyes that burned through the chaos.
The palest gray eyes, which were wild and confused as he trudged across the damp ground.
“Oh my God.” It whimpered out of me when I came to recognition.
“Do you see him, Aria?” Uncertainty filled Dani’s murmured question, and she sent me a look of disbelief. One of shock.
“Laven,” Timothy said from his position.
But he wasn’t from our family.
The man seemed to cower, slowing his approach when he realized we were staring at him. Emitting turbulence and fear. His brow knitted in something between solace and grief when a stake of his own recognition seemed to strike him.
Though he remained there, wavering, unsure.
Worried it was a trap.
A loud explosion suddenly erupted from the middle of town. A shock wave blistered through the air and trembled the ground.
A yelp ripped from Dani, and we all dropped to our knees to take cover as a bulbous plume of fire rolled high into the heavens. Lighting everything up for one disturbing beat, our vision going red and our skin glowing with the heat.
Terror rebounded as a slew of screams carried on the gusts of wind.
Moisture burned at the back of my eyes, and my nails sank into the damp dirt below as I tried to catch my breath. To press out the panic that threatened to keep me pinned as ash rained down, turning pasty as it mixed with the icy rain.
Pax was suddenly right there, curling an arm around me where I was hunched at the side of the car.
“Are you hurt?” His hands rushed over me, palms smoothing as they shook, searching to see if I’d sustained any injuries.
“No.” I gulped. “I’m fine.”
Timothy remained low as he scurried around the car to get to Dani, whose breaths heaved as she whimpered through the bedlam.
“Is everyone okay?” Pax hollered.
“Yeah. Just startled. Don’t think any of us are prepared on how to handle this shit,” Timothy replied.
The man we’d seen lumbering through the field was suddenly right there, staying low as he came toward us, crying, “What’s happening? Are you . . . ? Oh my God, are you Laven? How are you here?”
Twisting out of Pax’s hold, I forced off the trepidation as I faced the man. Revealing to him the distinction of my eyes.
A gasp choked out of him, and he ripped at his hair, mumbling, “I have to be losing my goddamned mind. What is happening? I don’t . . .”
“We are Laven. All of us.” I stretched a hand toward him. “It’s okay.”
He warred for another second before he scrambled the rest of the way to us, remaining crouched down as he warily looked between us.
“You’re a Laven. And you came?” It flooded from me on raspy astonishment.
We weren’t the only ones being called to this place. There were others.
A spark of faith flickered within me, coming to life when the hopelessness had nearly trampled it out.
My gaze rushed over our surroundings, finding more and more people wandering through the fields.
Laven.
They were here, as disoriented and confused as they were drawn.
The man in front of me frantically shook his head.
“I couldn’t not. I had this twisted dream three nights in a row, something telling me that I had to do something.
Demanding that I get up and move. It was like there was some kind of rope attached to me and I had no choice but to follow where it was pulling me. ”
“We had the same,” I told him.
Disbelief puffed from his mouth, and he roughed a hand through his hair, which was as white as Pax’s. The man was probably in his early forties, wearing jeans and a tee and a thin rain jacket. A large scar marred his right cheek, and another sliced through his left brow.
“And what the hell did we come to? I don’t understand what’s happening.”
My throat was thick as I hurried to explain, “The Kruen have broken through the realms. They’re here, which we believe makes them much stronger than when they’re only feeding wickedness from above.
There’s a man . . . Ambrose . . . He used to be a Laven, but he betrayed his Nol and earned immortality through Kreed.
He’s been ruling in Faydor but has also been walking on Earth, and now, he wants to rule here. ”
“And why are we here?” The words trembled from his lips.
Pax stood, rising up to his full height, hands curled into fists. “To stop it.”
“Stop it?” Skepticism creased the man’s brow.
“Yeah, we’re going to stop him. End this piece of shit now. End them all,” Pax gritted.
Pax moved to the trunk. “We need to move. Get closer and make a plan.” He thumped the metal. “Can you open the trunk, Dani?”
“Yeah.” She shifted around, still on her knees as she reached in and pushed the button to release it. The trunk popped open, and Pax started taking out the bags we had piled inside and dropping them onto the ground.
I rose, too, a frenzy pulsing through me as I realized what was happening, the sensation urging me to move.
Valeen had sent an army. We weren’t alone.
Her voice drifted through my mind.
“Rise up, dear Valient. You are the chosen. You must lead.”
You must lead.
I wasn’t alone.
I was only meant to lead. To stand and to guide. Another vessel in the midst of this war.
A charge I was going to fully give myself over to.
My hands shook as I moved to Pax, who’d bent over and unzipped one of the duffels, though he straightened when he felt me come to stand beside him.
He slipped his hand onto my cheek. His palm burned with our connection as he stared across at me.
Every brutal edge of his face seemed to sharpen, his words coarse as he forced them from his tongue.
“You have the power to do this, Aria. We wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. None of these people would be.”
“We have the power,” I said, emphasis lining my voice. “All of us. Together.”
Those eyes flashed—pure, burning flames—and he threw himself forward and captured my mouth, his lips desperate as they pressed against mine.
And I swore, for one fleeting second, the darkness was swept away as he poured everything into this one singular moment.
Every oath.
Every promise.
All his love.
Then he cleared his throat and peeled himself back, though he clung to my arms as he gritted out, “Let’s go get this motherfucker.”
Dani, Timothy, Pax, and I all looked at each other for a moment. Taking one heartbeat for this family. A glance of eternal love and loyalty we would forever carry for one another.
Timothy finally dipped his chin and rumbled, “Let’s go.”