Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 140780 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 704(@200wpm)___ 563(@250wpm)___ 469(@300wpm)
Her shriek tore her words apart and something snapped inside me.
The walls flexed as my heart staggered. The fire stopped burning me and fed off me instead. It woke. Stretched. Stone rumbled as if the mountain couldn’t contain me.
Rook.
Help.
Untangling my hand from the little girl’s, I clawed at my throat.
Without Rook’s ice, the fire kept rising. Gathering. Impatient and wild and angry.
A red film coated my vision as I drank in the horror around me.
This wasn’t just imprisonment or torture...they were breeding people. The scars on their arms hinted they were harvesting their blood—just like they’d done to me.
Another like my son.
The line from my father’s note almost dropped me to my knees.
They were making more.
Creating another...like me.
That was why Marcus wanted my blood. Why he took so much—
My stomach turned. Bile scalded my throat. The cavern lights flickered as the fire stole my control. The prisoners’ chains began to glow.
I tripped backward, my heart pounding, pounding.
Stop.
Don’t hurt them.
Too late.
Fire detonated. The little girl scuttled behind a rock as my skin erupted with flames, lighting up the entire cave. I was no longer the host but the fuel—burning at the stake of my own bones.
Stop!
It spat and sizzled, reaching for the prisoners as if it would be a mercy to turn them into ash.
I choked and closed my eyes.
I couldn’t watch.
Couldn’t stop—
Don’t.
Don’t hurt them.
Free them.
Save them—
My heart tore.
I coughed up blood, clutching the broken vitalsync core that always knocked me out.
For a second, I was grateful. Thankful that I’d never had to fight this level of power. Never had to be at the mercy of such catastrophic annihilation.
The fire enveloped the prisoners. They screamed—
“Don’t hurt them!” Another pulse detonated through my ribs. “Please!”
The fire paused.
It listened...
...another wave blasted out of me like a volcano, tearing through my skin that was never meant to contain such power. Cave walls blackened as incandescent power consumed everything.
“NO!”
Flames swallowed the prisoners.
“Stop!” I dropped to my knees. “STOP!”
The scent of scorched flesh hit my nose just before the acrid stench of melting slag. The fire didn’t slaughter them—it aimed its fury into their chains.
Every link ignited white-hot. The animal enclosures burst open as iron bars dissolved in a shower of metal shards. The cavern filled with burning rust as every shackle melted—plopping off wrists and ankles like mercury.
The fire cracked back into me with a soul-rending punch.
Heat crucified me—purring and murmuring, whispering its secrets that all I had to do was become one. Stop fighting. Sacrifice my life in return for its power.
It showed me what I could become.
Cities reduced to cinders. Mountains turned to ash.
No more cages. No more chains. No more helpless children—
Enough!
Sagging forward, I trembled violently as the fire listened and calmed, giving me time to think about its bargain. I choked on a mouthful of blood and smoke, wincing against the overwhelming wrongness of being trapped. The flames didn’t fit inside me anymore. They were too much. Too strong.
I should never have come here without Rook, but...how the fuck could I let her see this? See this horror and filth and learn that these people suffered because of me?
I almost retched—
“You okay, mister?”
I grunted as the little girl placed her tiny hand on my shoulder. “You can vomit if you want. I can clean it up. I know how.”
The fact that she asked if I was okay.
That her eyes swam with worry even as her belly growled for food.
I couldn’t fucking do it.
Scooping her up in my arms, I shot to my feet.
I needed to get back to Rook. Now.
But...I couldn’t leave without these people.
Clutching the girl close, I ordered, “Get up. All of you. Move.”
The woman giving birth screeched as she delivered in a gush of blood.
Her baby joined her, its tiny lungs the loudest things in the cave.
And slowly, as if waking from a nightmare, the men and women blinked and looked down. Tears glossed their eyes as they noticed they were no longer chained. Nothing else mattered. Not the how or why...just that they were finally free.
Raw, animalistic hope made them stagger upright. The cave filled with the noise of limping, racing feet.
Slinging the girl onto my hip, I followed them.
She broke my motherfucking heart as she linked her skeletal arms around my neck and pressed a kiss to my cheek. “You finally came.” She beamed the most breathtaking smile, complete with blackened teeth. “I knew someone would come one day.”
My throat closed up.
The fire devoured yet more of my insides as she thanked the very man who was the reason for her nightmare.
Had she been born here? Did she carry the R gene like me and Rook? What did all of this mean—?
A scream echoed down the tunnel where people had fled. Hurrying forward, I chased after them. “Wait! I’ll come with you. Don’t—”
The crack of gunfire cut me off.