Tasting Darkness

Read Taming Darkness By Jessica Hall Book 3 Chapter 9 – Aleera POV

As more memories washed past me, I couldn’t be bothered to focus on them.

I didn’t care for them. I cared for the feeling of agony tearing through my chest as his pain bled into me through the bond. The pain was so intense and raw, so d*mn fresh, that I didn’t believe it could be eased by the most skilled healers.

Nothing I did would pull me out of the trance my body was in. It didn’t matter how hard I tried to fight back, how much of my energy and my own power I forced into breaking the veil – it didn’t move. It didn’t let me go.

It forced me to watch his memories. I was stuck in-between the pain and past. The veil forced me to endure Darius’ pain physically in this memory state and in the waking world.

Even in my current surroundings, I could hear them. As if the veil took pity upon me and let me listen in while the memory scenes kept rounding me. The foreign feeling forced me deeper into the past of the very man who shared his pain with me.

Their voices rounded me like whispers in the wind, but I could still hear the intense panic resonating through the few words I could understand.

Tobias wanted to help Darius and I could hear my phoenixes cawing loudly, desperately wanting me to come back. They were telling me something was seriously wrong.

Nothing worked, no matter what I tried, it didn’t work, so I decided to focus on my anger towards Darius’ past. Maybe that could help me break the chains that held me in this helpless state.

A storm was brewing fiercely, it made the wind howl, and I was suddenly very aware of my outside surroundings. The memories that trapped my mind caught me between both worlds. I was present in two  alternate realities at the same time – one in the far past, and the other which needed me.

The more I saw, the more enraged I became. Along with my rage, my magic strengthened to the point it consumed me whole.

through the bond, something inside me broke. My scream echoed in my head and bled out of me. It was powerful enough to force my eyes open and break the veil between reality and

the glass breaking. Even the

them, feeding my mates with my power through the bond. For a brief moment, relief washed over

start fighting with new vigor, I knew I did something useful. Wherever he was, whatever he did, he had me now, and I

Now, I chose Darius. Now I accept every dark part of him, just like he

was filled with anguish, and that alone made my heart sink. Desperation overtook my

me, my mates were desperate to get Darius out of wherever

 thought I had gotten past the veil, broken it, I was as far from the truth as one

were translucent as I peered up at the ceiling. I felt like I was watching everything through cellophane. I was

memories were forced on me to watch, but those were the last thing I wanted to see. What I truly wanted was him, safe and sound, away from the awful past and

brightly, too brightly, and the entire room started shaking. Even the memories shook as I

and glass shattered when a loud, deafening scream left me. I couldn’t stop it. I didn’t see

broke out, a shift in energy rippled around me, and I felt it surging in my

slivering crack in the glass, I felt the seal Darius placed start to ripple, bend and crack

breath hitched and cold seeped into my bones. The darkness enveloped me, making my bones

surging through me, my heart felt like a raging inferno, growing hotter

to open my eyes, the room was so cold that my breath reminded me of smoke clouds in the air. Fog filled the room as goosebumps laced over

room was ice-cold,