Free The Darkest Night by Gena Showalter Page A

that the people who had called him by that name were still alive—so Aeron’s task was probably nothing to him.
    “No, they didn’t. But…”
    Lucien arched a dark brow. “But?”
    “They did tell me that if I failed to act quickly, blood and death would begin to consume my mind. They said I would kill anything and everything until the day I complied. Just like Maddox.” They hadn’t needed to warn him, though. Wrath had overtaken him numerous times. When the spirit decided it was time to act, Aeron always tried to resist, but the cravings for destruction grew and grew until finally he would snap. Even in the worst thrall of Wrath, however, he had never been compelled to kill an innocent. “But unlike Maddox, my torment will not end with the dawn.”
    Gravely, Paris asked, “How are you to do it? Did they at least tell you that?”
    His stomach twisted, cramped. “I am to slit their throats,” he said. How he would love to refuse to obey these new gods. Only the horror of being ordered to do something even worse had kept him silent.
    “Why are they doing this?” Torin demanded, a question they would each ask at least once, it seemed.
    He still did not have an answer.
    Paris stared over at him. “Are you going to do it?”
    Aeron looked away. He remained silent, but he knew, deep in his bones, that nothing could save the females now. They had been placed on the spirit’s mental kill-list, no matter that they were innocent, and they would eventually be checked off. One by one.
    “What can we do to help?” Lucien asked, his eyes sharp.
    Aeron slammed his fist into the couch arm. If he did this terrible deed when he already teetered on the brink of depravity, he would crumble. He would lose himself to the spirit completely. “I don’t know. We’re dealing with new gods, new consequences and new circumstances. I’m not sure how I’ll react once—” say it, just say it “—I’ve killed the women.”
    “It is possible to change their minds?”
    “We are not to even try,” he answered, dejected. “They again used Maddox as an example, saying we would be cursed as he is if we dared object.”
    Paris exploded to booted feet and paced from one wall of the spacious room to the other. “I fucking hate this,” he grumbled.
    “Well, the rest of us love it,” Torin said dryly.
    “Perhaps you will be doing the women a favor,” Reyes said, his attention remaining fixed on his blade as he carved an X on the center of his palm. Crimson drops trickled onto his thigh.
    He was the reason all of the furniture was dark red.
    “Perhaps I will be ordered to take your life next,” Aeron replied darkly.
    “I need to think about this.” Lucien worried two fingers over his roughly scarred jaw. “There has to be something we can do.”
    “Maybe Aeron can just obliterate the entire world,” Torin said in that annoyingly wry tone. “That way, all possible future targets will be eliminated and we’ll never have to have this discussion again.”
    Aeron bared his teeth. “Do not make me hurt you, Disease.”
    Those piercing green eyes glowed with wicked humor and Torin offered a mockingly feral grin. “Have I hurt your feelings? I’d be happy to kiss you and make you feel better.”
    Before Aeron could leap across the room—not that he could do anything to Torin—Lucien said, “Stop. We cannot be divided. We don’t know the magnitude of what we’re facing. Now, more than ever, we must stand together. It’s been an eventful night and it’s not over yet. Paris, Reyes, head into town and make sure there are no more Hunters lurking about. Torin—I don’t know. Watch the hill or make us some money.”
    “What are you going to do?” Paris asked.
    “Consider our options,” he replied gravely.
    Paris’s brows arched. “What of Maddox’s woman? I will be better able to fight any Hunters if I spend a little time between her—”
    “No.” Lucien stared up at the vaulted ceiling. “Not her. Remember, I