Gloaming (The Tenebrous Trilogy, #1) by Addison Taylor Rich

Author:Addison Taylor Rich
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: urban fantasy, vampires, werewolves, monster hunters, paranormal romance
Publisher: Addison Taylor Rich
Published: 2022-06-25T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Outside the community centre, Lee fumbled with her earbuds before she managed to put them back in, and she cranked the volume up, uncaring about hearing damage. What did it matter, after all, if she could just heal it away?

At some point while she’d been inside, the clouds had burst and it was starting to drizzle. Lee tilted her head back to feel the bitterly cold water on her face. It was strangely soothing after her explosion of pent-up emotions, a breath of fresh air after the stifling atmosphere of the support group.

Stupid to keep her promise. Maria probably hated her now, and though the former hunter shouldn’t tell Ariel what had happened, Ariel would probably guess. It didn’t exactly take a genius.

Whatever. If he hated her, too, that was fine. That was just fine.

“I’m fine,” Lee whispered, and took a deep breath, starting down the sidewalk as the drizzle became a downpour.

It had been too long since she’d done this, she realised, just put on a favourite playlist on a walk to lose herself in the music. Lee smiled faintly despite herself, her stride no longer lopsided but rhythmic in her footsteps, almost dancing to the music only she could hear as she made her way along the sidewalk.

The songs, she’d listened to hundreds of times on similar walks whenever she needed an escape, and her body settled into the familiar rhythm, arms joining in the dance.

She knew she was drawing stares, and she laughed to herself when she realised she didn’t care. She might as well have been lost in her own little world free of monsters, where the music painted a story in her head that was just begging to be let out. Her tattered shoes came down on the mirror surface of puddles in sprays of water that refracted the lights of the city.

So this was what it came down to, in the end: stealing the moments of a childhood she never got to have.

Lee didn’t even realise how far she’d wandered until she reached the river, and she leaned against the railing, blinking water out of her eyes. Her hair was plastered to her skull, and the unpleasant ache in her knee had returned. Lee began to laugh again, almost doubling over as she pillowed her forehead on her arms. The music seemed to fade away, her brain tuning out all sounds until she was only left with her thudding heartbeat in her ears.

It had been raining that night, too.

Lee startled and whirled when someone lightly touched her shoulder, slapping the hand away out of reflex.

Ariel drew his hand back, annoyance on his face as Lee pulled out her earbuds. The rain seemed unnaturally loud after she’d spent so long drowning it out.

“The hell do you think you’re doing out here?” Ariel asked. “It’s fucking freezing.”

Lee shook her head, pressing her hands against her face. “Walking.”

“Well, walk your scrawny ass back to the dorms before you get hypothermia,” Ariel said, and strode off, gesturing impatiently for her to follow.

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