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)
Yeah, seeing his torturer dead after what he’d gone through would be satisfying, but it would have to wait. They needed to get to safety. To get some real help. He’d made the mistake of bringing too few people with him, thinking that he could be sneaky and escape anyone’s notice. The moment Kaeda and Juro died, Shey should have headed straight for the border and left Damardor far behind. But he hadn’t wanted to admit failure. Hadn’t wanted to admit that he’d planned this poorly and had been overwhelmed from the very start.
“Don’t worry. She’s going to get hers. They all will. We’re making a strategic retreat and regrouping.”
Tyche snickered. “Is that what you’re telling yourself?” He’d just gotten that mocking comment out when he stepped on a pile of wet leaves that slid out from under his foot. His arms pinwheeled in the air as he tried to stay upright. Shey smiled and caught his arm, keeping him on his feet.
“If I have to,” he murmured.
“Ugh. Fine. I—”
“Shh!” His fingers tightened on Tyche’s arm, digging into soft flesh.
To his credit, Tyche froze, his mouth snapping shut. He waited while Shey strained to hear what had triggered his internal warning system. They had been walking along chatting, the warm summer breeze rustling the leaves in the trees and the birds singing.
But the birds had stopped singing. Someone else had entered the forest.
A shout went up just as the thought crossed his mind. Ten armed men with guns drawn broke from behind the trees a few hundred yards away, moving to circle them while shouting for them to lie on the ground. The facility had caught up with them.
Except there was no way in hell Shey was going back to that place.
The guns he’d taken off the dead guards as they broke out had long since run out of ammunition as they escaped the facility, but he still had some knives and magic. He would have to make do with that.
“Ty, you’re gonna have to fight,” Shey announced as he shifted to put his body between Tyche and the bulk of the guards sent to retrieve them.
“You’ve lost your mind. You know that, right? How have I given you any kind of impression that I know how to fight?”
“Something,” Shey snarled. He palmed a long blade and braced for the attack. “Do something.”
“Die? I’m pretty sure that I have a good chance of dying.”
Shey wanted to tell Tyche that he wasn’t allowed to die. He was stuck with Shey, and he wasn’t allowed to escape that way. Yet the words never left his tongue. One of the guards stepped forward to close the gap and tighten the surrounding trap, but his foot got caught on a raised tree root. He tumbled over with a shout, plowing straight into the guy on his right. As the second guard fell, his finger squeezed the trigger and a shot went wild, hitting a third guard in the center of the chest, killing him.
“There,” Tyche snapped. “I did something. How was that?”
Fuck.
It hadn’t been pretty, and the entire incident was comical, but it also meant two guards were still tangled up and a third was dead. Shey still didn’t understand Tyche’s magic, but he was beginning to appreciate its odd elegance.
“Yeah. Yeah, keep doing that.”
With several of the guards distracted, Shey tried to go for the dead man’s gun, but the guards closed ranks too fast, forcing him to retreat and attack another. He punched and slashed, dodging blows as best he could. They didn’t want to shoot him or Tyche. Otherwise, they would have been dead already. The guards must have had orders to bring them to the facility alive, which was working to Shey’s advantage.
Shey racked his brain trying to think of a way to use his magic, but he had to stop and concentrate on conjuring up a storm. Breaking out of the cell, he’d pulled the storm and lightning together before setting it loose on the prison. At that moment, he couldn’t think beyond staying alive and free.
It also didn’t help that he could hear Tyche shouting and swearing at the guards. He couldn’t keep a protective eye on the other man and beat these assholes at the same time.
A punch connected with Shey’s right cheek, snapping his head to the left and out of his thoughts. He staggered in time to see Tyche dart around a tree while the guard closest to him slipped on what appeared to be a pile of dead leaves. He slammed his head into an enormous tree trunk and hit the ground hard. The guard didn’t get up.
Tyche didn’t look back as he ran to Shey. He scooped up a stick and snapped it in half, creating a sharp, pointy end. As soon as he reached Shey’s side, he slapped it into Shey’s empty left hand.