Tasting Darkness

Read Taming Darkness By Jessica Hall Book 3 Chapter 29 - Kalen When | was younger, growing up in the orphanage, | always longed for home. There was ssense telling| didn’t belong there, that | was destined to be somewhere else. | didn’t understand that feeling until after | manifested and figured out where hwas. It wasn’t a place by itself. It madeunderstand the difference between a house and a home.

| could stay in any house, but any place without my mates would never be home. | used to dream about having a family, and that's exactly what | found with my mates. They were more amazing than | ever could have dreamed they would be, but there had still been something missing that stoppedfrom truly feeling at hwithin myself.

It wasn’t until Aleera cto us did | ever get that true sense of what | craved. Family, and completion. She tamed the shadows that haunted me. We were no longer chasing her ghost across half the country. Instead, we summoned her spirit and let her becour everything. She summoned the good in us.

Good? It was hard to believe that | understood what that word was.

Before her, I'd had an idea of it, but | had no true knowledge of just what it could personally do foruntil she shone a light and showed us.

With her by my side, the shadows were not so dark anymore, no longer a sinister thing that sought to pullunder. | wanted to fight them. | wanted to fight them for her. She didn’t just tempt our darkest parts out of hiding. She tasted the darkness and still forgave us. Until, eventually, she tamed us one by one. The darkness didn’t stand a chance against her.

With her gone, | was falling all the way back to the start, past when | was searching for my hand family, and all the way back into the darkest recesses of my memory. My heart battled back, trying to convincethat all of this was not scruel dream. I'd had a way out of the blackness that | didn’t have before.

I'd had many cruel and wild nightmares in the past, but | never thought a life with my mates could turn into the living hell that threatened us. A cycle of evil, manipulative b*tches, and past wrongdoings that would never stop haunting us, a never-ending river of pure bullsh*t.

| was fortunate to have incredible mates. Each of them perfectly complemented each other, and all together we made the perfect finished puzzle. They madewant to be a better person, but lately, everyone's fighting spirit had been sapped away.

Aleera was exhausted, we all could tell through our bond, and it wasn’t just physically, but mentally too. There had been too much dumped on her shoulders. The things she’d learned about not just her past, but ours as well, and she hadn’t had any tto process it or let any of it sink in.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say she was carrying the weight of the entire world on her shoulders, and those that lived within it.

Despite all of this, there was nothing | could do to help her, at least nothing I'd thought of yet.

Her b*tch of a mother had kept twisting the pressure dials, trying to break Aleera.

What could I do for her to ease her suffering? What words could | possibly say to save her from the load that was crushing her? | wanted to prove to her that my mates and | were here to stay and would be at her side no matter what cat us.

| bit into the quick of my finger and froze. | hadn't even noticed myself chewing on my nails again. | took a deep breath, trying to clear my thoughts. A slight tug in my chest forcedto look around. My surroundings were changing around me. Everything was floating? Why was | so light-headed all of a sudden? | wanted to fall over, but it was like gravity was turned off.

Had | forgotten to eat, or was all of this because of the extrstress | was currently under? | took a wobbly step forward, and my knees gave out under me, gravity returning as my body crashed to the ground. | wasn’t sure what was going on, but it was like a giant was stepping on me, squishing my body into the ground. | couldn’t even try to get up.

In a second, the weight was gone, and | was in an entirely different place, white patches of thin mist spread across the ground. | sat up, inhaling the surprisingly fresh air. “What the hell?” | whispered beneath my breath.

Rubbing my eyes, | squinted, trying to see through the mysterious mist. What was going on? What was | seeing, and could this experience get any stranger? | couldn’t touch the mist, couldn't even feel it beneath my fingertips, despite it floating all around me. Did that mean, wherever | was, it was just my imagination? Just in case, | got to my feet and stood straight up. | wasn’t about to waste any time. | peered through the mist again, desperately trying to recognize something, but this place was endless.

“Well, off on an adventure we go. Just callDora the Explorer,” | chuckled as the last words left me.

In any other situation, | wouldn't have trusted myself to be the one to venture out and explore, but | didn’t have any other choice this time. There were two choices, either | could sit in one spot in this sp***ky place, and probably die, or leave and see where the journey would end up taking me. Huh, who knew | would pick life over death when given the option? | took a cautious step forward, and the mist parted around me, welcomingfarther into this strange place.

Had | ever seen anything like this before? | racked my brain, but I couldn't recall a single instance. | reached out, and the mist flowed to either side. Nodding to myself, | continued the slow, cautious trek forward.

That had been the initial plan, but the farther | walked into this, the more intense a need to hurry flowed through me. Something, or someone important, was waiting for me, possibly even needed me? The sensation was just up ahead, where the mists gathered the thickest.

“F*ck this mist,” | grumbled, swatting at it again. “This stuff is really trying me.” The sensation was just as strong, but | had to have parted this stuff a million times already in my travels. | wanted to find out where | was being drawn to and what was makingrush forward. | needed the answer, and my patience was wearing thin.

Just when | was about to give up and turn back, | saw a door hidden inside the mist. | ran the last few steps and reached for the handle, sucking in a breath before twisting A grin spread across my face as | threw the door wide open, and | was finally free of the maddening mist. It faded, disappearing, without a trace, that was when | spotted her. Aleera!