Darkest Designs Read Online Free PDF Page A

heavily, as if he was letting go of a long held wish. “No, death should have come immediately and if not, then within days to a week at the most.”
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    Eric wasn’t so sure of that. If there was anything over there to find, Storey would be the one to find it.
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“H ello?” Storey called out, her head cocked to hear the echo. There it was, faint, but solid. She walked quickly toward it. As quickly as she dared. In the dense nothingness, she didn’t dare look up or down. She focused on the sound, her hands out in front, and tried to keep a steady course forward. In her mind, she held to the thought of finding whatever created the echo.
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    She didn’t understand how this place worked and with the stylus still not up to full strength… Were her messages to Paxton and Eric even getting through? She hadn’t heard anything in response. And that wasn’t good. She was running out of options. She had to find a way to boost the Stylus’s power. Fast.
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    And she had to figure out if there was anything useful in this In-between dimension to make that happen. She called out again, and again, each time getting closer to the source of the echo. She felt like a fool, but there was nothing new in that. She’d never have tried to go through the portal in her bedroom floor if she’d been worried about what other people thought of her. She knew she was ‘different.’ Tough. Who said different was bad?
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    She dropped her arms and picked up the pace to sprint forward and smacked into…something…hard.
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    â€œOomph.” Storey groaned as she stumbled backwards, tried to regain her balance and fell on her butt. She shook her head and looked up.
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    And looked again.
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    â€œHello,” she said cautiously. There appeared to be a person in front of her. A man. But he was tilting forward several feet in front of her. In fact he was leaning so far forward she didn’t understand what kept him upright. Then remembered where she was.
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    The fog was so dense, she could barely see his features. She edged forward and studied him closely, noting his Toran style pants and shirt, his brown hair and oddly preserved-looking features. He couldn’t be more than mid-twenties, but there was something off to his face, as if it were weathered, like an antique. He slowly shook his head, as if waking from a deep sleep.
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    Yet he didn’t straighten. He opened his eyes, blinked several times, then closed them as if to snooze off again.
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    She was both relieved to see someone here and yet at the same time…discomfited at his oddness. Even after all she’d seen. Still, having another person to talk to, to bounce ideas off of, to show her how to manage this new dimension was huge. Her breath gusted out and her shoulders relaxed. She was not alone.
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    â€œHello,” she repeated quietly, not sure what else to do, but not wanting to freak him out.
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    His eyes flew open and he twisted his head enough to see her. Now he looked really odd because he still leaned so far forward.
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    Storey walked in front of him, hoping he’d straighten. And he did, slightly.
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    â€œW…who…are you?” he asked, his voice a whisper of sound in the air.
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    â€œI’m Storey Dalton. I just arrived here.” She grimaced. She sounded like a damn tourist. She took a deep breath. “Who are you, and how long have you been here?”
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    He blinked, yet the rest of him remained eerily still.
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    Now this was going to get irritating. Storey hadn’t realized how much of a get up and go person she really was until she’d started crossing dimensions. And how different she was from others. And not only her own people. The Torans with their endless discussions, the Louers with their communication system that didn’t include her and now this brain fogged sleeper. Nothing moved as quickly as she’d