Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
His expression grew grim and he spoke with caution, as if he didn’t want to be the one to give her the horrible news. “Timothy and Dani witnessed a Ghorl. They believe it might have been speaking ill toward you. But you cannot let it win. Just like your life as a Laven, this special power you’ve been given can be both a blessing and a curse. You have to choose which it is going to be.”
Oh God. A Ghorl. No.
She’d believed them to be nothing more than a mystery. Tales of terror. How could she stand against this?
“But I’m only a girl.”
He rocked her, his voice hushed against the top of her head. “Yes, you are a girl. A woman who has been given a powerful gift. One few have ever known. You have always been more, sweet child. Since the moment you awoke in Tearsith, I knew there was something more in you. Something different.”
He untangled her from him so he could hold her by the sides of her shoulders and peer into her eyes.
“Isn’t this enough?”
The sacrifice she’d already made?
The life of a Laven was punctuated with pain and isolation.
With wounds and scars, both physical and the ones imprinted on her soul.
Fated to love a Nol that she could never have.
She understood the call. Respected it. And she was willing to give.
But this? It was too much.
An albatross.
The hands of that vile man a millstone wrapped around her neck.
“Come with me,” Ellis told her, taking her hand and leading her across the meadow to the stream. He swirled his fingers through the crystalline water and murmured, “Look, Aria. Look and listen.”
Through her torment, she got to her hands and knees and peered into the crystal-clear depths and turned her ear to the breeze that whispered through.
“Aria.” She heard her name like a breath. A murmuring from her soul.
Confusion bound her, and she glanced at Ellis, who knelt at her side. “What’s happening?”
“Valeen is alive. Present in this nature. If you listen hard enough, it is said you can hear her.”
“Can you?” Her voice was cragged, her disbelief thick.
His head barely shook. “No. But you can, Aria. Maybe there is something in you that goes beyond who I am.”
Nearly frantic, Aria turned back to the water, leaning forward to peer deeper. “Valeen,” she begged. “Do you hear me? Do you see me? What is happening to me?”
“Aria, do not be afraid.” The female voice was haunting, so quiet Aria wasn’t sure she was even hearing it.
“Why me?” she asked anyway, tears still blurring down her face.
A face passed by in the ripple of the water, a vapor that twisted through like a ghost, though Aria heard her words before she was gone. “Because you are the only one who has the power to defeat this evil.”
“Valeen,” she pleaded, and she reached into the water, stirring it the way Ellis had done. “Valeen.”
But she was gone, and Aria was no closer to understanding what was happening than when she’d come.
“Ellis.” His name was ragged on her tongue.
With both of them on their knees, he pulled her into his arms. “It’s going to be okay.”
“How do you know?” she choked out.
“I have faith in you. And we will do everything in our own power to understand how and why. To fight it alongside you. Every one of your Laven family is to search. To listen. To protect.”
He leaned closer to her ear. “And you have Valeen. I understand it now. It’s what I’ve always felt in you.”
His words were only more confounding, and she held tighter to him. “I want Pax.”
She knew the admission was a clear confession of her heart. She couldn’t bring herself to care or to hide it.
Ellis went rigid, his spine stiffening where he’d once been soft.
Aria jerked back. “Where is he?”
Worry passed through his features. “He has not come tonight.”
“What do you know?” she pleaded, seeing the torment in his eyes.
Ellis shook his head as he edged back to hold her hands. “Each of us has our choices, Aria. I just pray you both make the right ones.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means I pray that Pax will follow his duty and not do something that might put you both at a greater risk than you already are. But let’s not consider that now. You need to rest. You are weary, and you need to find your strength here.”
She clutched his shirt. “Ellis, please.”
What she was begging him for, she didn’t know.
Reaching out, he cupped her cheek. “Believe in yourself, brave girl. Do not let them steal that from you. Now, you must rest so you can fight while awake. I will seek The Book of Continuance and see if there is anything I can find. We will do everything we can to protect you.”
And for the second night in a row, Aria found rest within the safety of Tearsith.