Tasting Darkness

Read Tasting Darkness [Tempting Darkness] By Jessica Hall Book 2 Chapter 42 – Wind rushes past me as I fall, and I watch the ground grow closer. It was like time stopped, everything slowing down, and I saw every particle in the air, every vapor and streak of light from the moon when suddenly arms wrapped around my waist. The stone glows and burns hotter in my hand as I try to fight it from taking his magic through me when Darius opens a portal directly beneath us.

My eyes widen when Darius grips my wrist, shaking my hand, but I refuse to let go, knowing what dropping that stone would do to the city he opened a portal to. When I refuse, he blasts me with his magic, stunning me, and I scream as my arm spasms, my fingers twitching, and the stone slips through them, falling toward the portal. I grasp the air, trying to catch it, when Spark caws loudly, swooping off the roof toward us.

My fingers outstretched, reach for the stone, as I try to stop it, knowing the destruction it would cause, the power it would absorb, when talons caged around my body, and I scream as Spark grabbed us, plucking us from the air and he takes flight, his powerful wings taking us higher. In contrast, my scream of horror rang out loudly as I watched the stone disappear into the portal before closing.

He killed them; he killed them all. Spark moves toward the field below before dropping us to the ground and I round on Darius the moment my feet hit the ground, my hands slamming against his chest, and he staggers backward. Spark landed on the ground not far from us, but my anger was ignited like a match had been struck, and my rage was the fuel it needed as I called on my Phoenixes.

“How could you?” I scream at him, tears streaming down my face as I shoved him; Darius puts his hand up, backing away from me. The phoenixes on the roof caw loudly, feeling my burning anger and take flight. They circle the sky above while Darius’anger also rippled, his energy amplifying, and the air around us heats as the tension simmers between us, my shred tries to override my anger, calling on his power I could sense while mine was lost with the Moonstone.

“Don’t put this back on me! You brought it back home; you lied! You should have told us!” Darius yells at me. “I did what I had to do!”

“The city, that city. You just killed them all, led the power hunters straight to them!”

“I had no choice. That stone would have absorbed you, absorbed the wards and the power of your phoenixes,” Darius says, walking away from me toward the castle, and I charge and tackle him, furious that he would sacrifice an entire city when I could have led the Phoenixes straight to them.

“You monster, you just wiped out a city,” I scream angrily, and Darius rolls, pinning me beneath him.

“It’s better than leading them here!” Darius bellows at me before pushing off me and getting to his feet and I shake my head knowing that that stone would absorb any protection of the city’s wards offered, absorb the power of those that lived there, and lead the power hunters directly to them while they are defenseless.

“I could have taken them down; I have the phoenixes,” I scream at him, getting to my feet when the sky suddenly ignites, glowing crimson, as lightning streaks across the sky. We all look up at the trees toward the city as the power of the blast, ripples over the dome encasing the castle from Darius’s wards, shielding us from the blast, but I knew the city’s wards with an explosion that strong would have shattered, leaving them open to attacks. My eyes widen; I cup my mouth with my hands in horror before getting to my feet. I whistle calling on my phoenixes when Darius charges me, clamping his hand over my mouth.

I struggle against him, shoving him off.“ I can help them. I can save them!” I spit at him, and he stumbles back.

“You don’t know that! I am not willing to take that risk,” Darius screams back at me “But I am!” I yell at him as Tobias, Lycus, and Kalen come out of the castle, jogging over to us, their eyes casting nervous glances at the sky where light sparked and illuminated in the distance. Tobias waves his arms in the air trying to calm us. I wanted to beat Darius senselessly for his stupidity and for mine of believing her, trusting the one woman they warned me about.

“Picking up a rock, I chuck at him as he walks away, it hits him in the back, and he whirls on me, stalking toward me and Tobias backs up. Our mates watch from the sidelines as he reaches me, and I pummel Darius, hitting him wherever I can. My Phoenixes above caw and swirl in the night sky above like glowing beacons of infinite power, their magic zapping and recharging me with each cawing blast. “I could have taken them; I would have ended them,” I scream at him when he grips my arms.

“And at what sacrifice, your life? That sort of power, the power needed to kill the power hunters would have killed you. You can’t harness that kind of power blindly, you aren’t ready!” “Better me, than them!” I cry as our mates draw nearer.

“How could you?” He was a monster. Thousands, and thousands of lives he has just put at risk because of me.

them than you, because if it is between choosing between you and them, I choose you. I have lost you once. I won’t lose you again. I can live with their deaths on my hands. I can’t live with yours!” he says,

know that! I could have taken it, I could have absorbed the

left. Then what? You were giving the power hunters the ultimate weapon, the ultimate power.” I shake my head, tears

don’t know that.” I

mine. For years I

“What?”

hand and the rune on it, I knew it was mine.” I shake my head. He

was my mother’s power.

the bond from him caused him physical pain,

I can save,’ Darius yells at

was my

have told you, what you have seen! What you know!”| shake my head when he

second plague. How did your

father, he did something to her.” Darius nods before

tell him, gripping his shirt and pushing back against him as the shred coursed through me, sensing his magic, and I try to ignore it, try to focus on my anger instead of the

I already sacrificed the entire world thinking I was saving you all. I told you I have blood on my hands, and I told you that you didn’t want to know the sort of monster you lay beside at night. I am the plague Aleera, the reason it exists, the reason it got out, and the only cure, or I was before,” he stares up at the sky, at

laughs. “Didn’t I? My father wanted

you know, but

my touch. That stung, but I refused to let him escape it this time. “Then tell me?” I growl at him, recharging off slivers of power off my Phoenixes to hold him here, but he breaks it easily, feeding

Lycus.” Darius looks over his shoulder at Tobias. “Thomas, it’s all my fault.” He tells me, looking back at me. “You can hate me all you want, but I stand by what I did, their lives or yours?” He tells me, pointing

did not kill the world to lose what’s left of mine. You are mine. Every single one of you, mine, my life. I won’t lose

Aleera! I did this. Not you, so what I did doesn’t taint you. It’s all my fault,” he tells me, and

I plead with

asks, and Darius stops looking at him.

“I chose her.”

choose me and f**k the rest of the world?” I scream, charging in after him as he

told you who I was. You didn’t want to believe me.” his anger was palpable, and