Read Online Rising Dark (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 2) by A D Koboah - Free Book Online Page B

to his
feet.
    “ Time will tell. And you
have plenty of that now. So I will wait and look forward to the day
you finally yield to me.”
    He smiled once more, a leering smile,
and then he walked away, leaving me with my thoughts.
    I remained in the chapel, trying to
come to terms with the devastating events that had taken place
since arriving at the plantation. Auria and Onyx returned not long
after with some male slaves in tow. I heard Onyx order them to
place barrels of whisky they had brought with them at the back of
the chapel. She told them they could leave and I listened to their
footsteps as they ran all the way back to the relative safety of
the slave quarters. When I heard Auria leave again, I ventured
outside and just stood in the clearing gazing up at the night sky.
The crumpled body of the slave still lay where she fell, and I
avoided looking at it, disgusted and ashamed, but also aroused
whenever I glanced at it.
    I was still getting used to
controlling the amount I could hear. I was surprised to discover I
could even hear the slaves in the slave quarters talking long into
the night about how many of them would die to fulfil Auria’s
sacrifice. So at first, I couldn’t be sure the whispering I had
been hearing wasn’t part of some unidentifiable sound of the
woodland all around us. But it had been getting stronger over the
last hour and I could hear it clearly now.
    Avery. Avery.
    Was I going insane or was someone
whispering my name? I looked around me, looking for the source of
the sound. Onyx, who was lounging against one of the trees, was
gazing into the woodland as if lost in thought. When I turned to
Emory, who was sitting at the foot of one of the trees, I found his
gaze trained on me, as it had been for most of the night, a mocking
smile on his lips.
    “ What is that? Can you
hear that?” I asked.
    “ Hear what?” he
said.
    It seemed as if he was trying not to
laugh, although I did not know why.
    Onyx only glanced my way briefly
before she shrugged and turned away, her expression bored. I gazed
at them helplessly. What was this new thing only I could hear? I
was already so weak and vulnerable among them. To lose my sanity
would place me in a much worse situation than I was already in. The
whispering began again, louder and more insistent than
before.
    Avery, Avery. Surely you
know my voice.
    I waited, unsure of what to
do.
    It is I, your dead
wife.
    I froze. Knowing the ease with which
they could read my thoughts, I moved away from them, trying to hide
my emotions.
    Julia? I said in my mind, hoping she could hear me.
    Yes! I have returned from
the dead.
    Tears filled my eyes as hope and shame
danced mercilessly through my being. I had seen so many
extraordinary things over the course of the last twenty-four hours
that I was fraught and still coming to terms with what had been
done to me. In the maelstrom of my emotional turmoil, I clung to
the hope that maybe, just maybe, she was still alive in some way
and I wasn’t alone among monsters.
    But tell me this,
Avery. Her tone changed dramatically,
becoming thick with anger and despair. Why
did you let her kill me? Why, Avery?
    I... It... My misery crested like a dark wave, and for a
moment, I couldn’t answer her. Forgive me.
Forgive me.
    Auria’s voice cut through our silent
dialogue like a whip slicing through the air.
    “ Stop it!” she
snapped.
    I spun around to see her beside Onyx,
her hand coming down to slap her. But her hand met only air as Onyx
vanished. Emory burst into uncontrollable fits of laughter. Onyx
re-materialised above Auria, hanging upside down with one leg
hooked over one of the tree branches. She blew Auria a
kiss.
    Although Auria was angry, I could see
the corners of her mouth tugging into a small smile of her own as
she glared up at Onyx.
    I stared at them in bewilderment as
Auria turned to me.
    “ I warned you to never
mention her name again.”
    “ But...but...I heard her,
she is not dead.”
    “ She is dead, you