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.

in my head and bled out of me. It

paralyzed. I could hear my mates, see them. Hear the glass breaking. Even the tiniest cracks were like the loudest speakers replaying the same sound over and over again in

then, finally, I could hear the power surging as I forced it on them, feeding my mates with my power through the bond. For a brief moment, relief washed over me. I did something

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

he chose me. Regardless of how wrong or right his doings were – he always chose me. Now, I chose Darius. Now I accept

gritted out. His voice was filled with anguish, and that alone made my heart sink.

me, my mates were desperate to get Darius out

I had gotten

were translucent as I peered up at the ceiling. I felt like I was watching everything through cellophane. I was still stuck in that transient state between the waking world and a time

watch, but those were the last thing I wanted to see. What I truly wanted

brightly, too brightly, and the entire room started shaking. Even the memories shook as I tried to break the hold his bond

cracked and glass shattered when a loud, deafening scream left me. I

me, and I felt it surging in my veins when it burst out of me,

a slivering crack in the glass, I felt the seal Darius placed start to ripple, bend and crack before it exploded along

cold seeped into my bones. The darkness enveloped

heart

I finally managed to open my eyes, the room was so cold that my breath reminded me of

was ice-cold,