Tasting Darkness

Read Taming Darkness By Jessica Hall Book 3 Chapter 31 - Tobias It wasn’t like | was a master of Aleera’s Phoenixes, but | could tell? when they were acting strange. Wild, uncontrollable, and absolutely dismissive of everything that happened around them. They'd never acted this way before.

I didn’t want to put my theory to the test, but at this point, | believed that they saw everything and everyone as a possible threat. Since we didn’t have Aleera with us, they weren't even going to pretend to be under any sort of control.

| wasn’t the only one that noticed the difference in them, either. Until these creatures found their place, their home, the fire in them would continue to rage. The only way to calm them would be finding her.

When we set off on our journey, the animals seemed to settle, almost. They were still crazy wild birds that acted as if they'd just broken out of a hunter's trap and had to find their escape. They were an unstoppable army that could blaze through any obstacle in their way, and | didn’t want to be one of those obstacles.

The Phoenixes were just as beautiful as they were terrifying. A force to reckon with, just like our mate. They complemented each other perfectly.

The bubble of my thoughts and admiration was violently broken when the Phoenixes changed direction in the sky, wheeling off to a whole new area, and I finally understood that | had to pay more attention to them. It hitlike a bag of bricks. These beautiful, magnificent creatures were taking us to Aleera, showing us the way to get back to her side. And | would be d*mned if | was going to lose track of them.

There was no way to check if they knew where they were going or not, this was a test of faith, and we followed after them blindly. No matter how long or hard the trek was, we were going to get to her.

We had to find her as fast as possible before it was all too late.

None of us could predict what that crazy old hag had planned for our mate. She had already proven tand tagain that she had no values such as family, and she couldn't give a sh*t about her daughter. The only reason Aleera had been taken was a simple one - the power.

Lidia wouldn't even bat an eye if she decided to kill Aleera. She couldn’t. The emotions inside that withered frhad died long ago, and now she was the personification of greed, sick, intense, and deadly.

| never took Lidia as someone that acted as an adult should. Instead, she remindedof a child in a candy shop, she wanted it all. Every sort of candy she could get her sticky fingers on, it didn’t matter who it belonged to. All she knew how to do was take, steal, and demand.

The witch was more than willing to use whatever means she needed in order to force others to their knees and for her to get what she wanted. She had a legion of devoted followers, blinded by her fake shell. She could do so much with all that she had at her fingertips with their help, but it was never enough.

Even as my thoughts dived deeper into my hatred, | also hated myself. Why was that b*tch able to overtake my thought process? It was far too easy how she wormed her way into my brain and how d*mn hard it was to shove her out.

| hated how that woman managed to overtake my thought process. | hated how easily she could implant herself in my mind and how darn hard it was to forget about her existence.

For now, | had to focus on Aleera and her safety. On her raging beasts, that led us closer to where Lidia took her.

D*mn it, | hoped we weren't going there too late. She had to be safe, she had to be alive.

We needed her. | needed her.

Tslipped by, and it was almost impossible to keep track of where we were or what tof day it was.

But once the Phoenixes stopped, nothing else mattered. It was finally tfor action. We would get our mate out of the hell her mother had thrust her inside, and we would get our revenge.

That was... odd. The place we'd been brought was none other than Aleera’s old house, the location of it anyway.

There was no house, no building, nothing but a large empty field, but the birds seemed excited.

“Where is she?” Darius roared, startling all of us, and even the Phoenixes shot him a glare. They didn’t care his face was beet red, and his breathing had becloud and heavy. Anyone that didn’t know him would be scared to death if they saw him like this.

“F**kked if | know!” Lycus joined in, equally as p*ssed as Darius.

They both looked around, scowling at their surroundings.

| understood their rage, | really did, but someone had to be the voice of reason. | growled deeply at them and pinned them with my gaze. “Shut up! We're here to find out where Aleera is, not argue about a f**king building we burned down years ago! The Phoenixes brought us here for a reason.

Besides, focus, can’t you feel her? Because | sure can, and so could you if you didn’t let your anger control your senses!” My rage seemed to get through to them because they all focused on the empty lot. Their eyes widened once they finally understood what | already knew. Aleera was close.

We couldn't see her, but she was just out of reach.

It's why the Phoenixes circled through the air. They felt her too. They were searching for any trace of their mistress.

| exchanged wary glances with my mates. We knew what we had to do. There was no need for long-drawn -out plans. We split off, and each searched a different area, cutting it into pieces and each of us combing through our own for whatever we could find in this vast empty space.

So desperate were we that we counted the d*mn rocks, just in case moving any of them would open a hidden door. Her b*tch of a mother had brought Aleera here, and though we still couldn't find a sign of her, there was no doubt that we were in the sarea as her.

That b*tch was smart, as much as | hated to give her any sort of compliment. She always calculated every move she made and acted almost on instinct. She’d hidden Aleera somehow.

My mates were still frantically trying to find a way to bring us closer to her, but no one had been successful. My eyes returned to the Phoenixes, the ones that led us here. If there was a way to get to her, they would know, but there was a set of them that hadn’t moved from their previous positions.

“Guys?” | called out. My eyes were glued on the blazing monsters that presented themselves as if celebrating.

They'd found something, that had to be it! The birds huddled together before they glowed, heat rolled off of them, and it wasn’t possible for us to get any closer. They blasted the place with their magic, and the force of it nearly threwto my feet. The boom of unleashed magic was deafening.

They were screaming for her, calling her to give them a sign of how they could find their way back to her.

Demanding that she let them in, and they refused to wait or waste any more tthan we already had.

The Phoenixes got even louder, if such a thing was possible, and visibly more violent. My mates put their hands to their heads to shut off the cries, but beyond all that, something else caught my attention.

I took a step closer and squinted my eyes. With another flick of their massive wings, there it was again. Look, there,” | pointed in the direction they were watching.

((It was hazy at first, like we were staring at it through a mirage, as extrheat was between us and it. It was just a flicker, but | could make it out. Aleera’s old house. We were watching the building through what appeared to be a new portal the birds had seemingly ripped open.

“Motherf***ker!” | hissed in anger, kicking the rocks under my feet.

Darius took a place next toand put his hand on my shoulder, his fingers curling around it to stop me. “Lidia is good, better than | gave her credit for. Imagine protecting a house by throwing it in a different realm just to keep us away from our mate.”