Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
“How many guards are in the building?” Haru barked.
“What? Hey!”
“Tedious,” Haru grumbled and slammed the man into the building a second time. This time his head went through the side of the shed. After he pulled him out, he discovered blood leaking from the man’s skull, and he was no longer conscious. “Even more tedious.”
He dropped the man like a sack of moldy old potatoes and turned back toward the fire. Adrian ran across the open field, silver daggers flashing from his fingertips in the flickering light and speeding through the air. In the blink of an eye, two of the men collapsed on the ground with knives embedded in their vital bits. That left one straggler.
Haru’s head snapped to the man who’d located a bucket and was trying to get some water. His gaze hit Adrian, who conjured up another knife and then moved over to Haru. There was no hesitation. The poor guy dropped the bucket, fell to his knees, and threw his hands up in the air.
“Don’t kill me! Please, don’t kill me!”
Adrian approached with his knife ready, and Haru joined him as support, prepared to rip the man’s head off if he so much as sneezed at his mate.
“How many more guards are inside?” Adrian barked.
“Uh…one. No! Two! Two! Barlett was still asleep on the cot. He’s probably awake now. Just Barlett and Weist.”
“And how many prisoners are in there?”
The man swallowed hard, but it didn’t seem like he needed to think about it. “Four hundred and sixty-seven.”
Haru’s head snapped up, and he stared at the long warehouse that was still burning. He extinguished the fire with nothing more than a wave of his hand, though much of the wood still crackled and glowed with orange embers. The smoke would have flooded the rooms by now. They were going to be lucky if many of those four-hundred-plus weren’t crushed to death in the panic.
Adrian slammed the hilt of his dagger into the man’s head, knocking him unconscious. With one less person to worry about, they raced to the still-open doorway where gray smoke trickled out.
Haru placed a hand on Adrian’s chest, restraining him. “Allow me to go in. You remain out here.”
“What? No!” Adrian’s fingers dug into his arm as he struggled to pull his hand away, but Haru could not be budged.
“The smoke will not bother me, and the panicking people won’t be able to trample me. I’ll take care of the remaining guards and set the prisoners free. You speak to them as they come out. Search for Shey.”
Adrian frowned, but he nodded and released Haru. “Be careful,” he admonished.
Haru carried that wish with him into the darkness of the warehouse. He shifted his eyes to those of a dragon, sharpening that sense so that he could clearly pick out the two long rows of cells packed with people as if they were nothing more than animals in a pen waiting to be slaughtered. This wasn’t a prison. It was a waiting room for death.
The warehouse was sweltering, and the air was ripe with the scent of sweat, human waste, and death.
A low growl rumbled up his throat, and Haru darted forward to tear the doors away from the first two cells. “Hurry! Get out of here!” he bellowed.
Shouts of relief and gratitude went up from some, while the others seemed to grow quiet as if the promise of escape had created lumps in their throats, blocking their voices. His gaze skimmed the filthy, thin, scared faces of both men and women crammed together. No one looked familiar, but he couldn’t waste time searching for Shey in the masses. He would have to leave that to Adrian while he focused on setting these people free.
People flooded out of the two cells, and Haru moved toward the next set only to have the air shattered by the boom of a gun being fired. “Stop! Or I’ll kill you where you stand.”
At the end of the long hallway stood two men holding handguns, both pointed at him. They wore flashlights clipped to their shirts, creating two swaths of light by which to see him and the escaping prisoners. Haru couldn’t hesitate. If they missed him, they would undoubtedly hit the people pouring from their cages. He called on his magic and blew a ball of fire at the two men, engulfing them even as they attempted to run in the opposite direction. Their screams were deafening in the warehouse, bouncing off the thin walls of metal and wood. The darkness of the warehouse evaporated as the flames lit up the vast space.
Haru ignored them as they fell, writhing in death. Burning was too good for them, but he didn’t have time to spare for their punishment. He hurried to the last of the cells, tearing the doors off. The people were more cautious as they hurried past him, rushing out of the building.