Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Khalil screams his answer, but thunder rolls and drowns it out.
“I can’t hear you!” I shout as I walk away from Zeke, who still hasn’t spoken a word to me, and toward the river. Khalil yells again…something about Zeke. My side of the river is a little higher than they are so it’s even harder for his voice to carry. I decide to take a shot in the dark. “Yes, it’s Zeke! I found him!”
“That’s not Zeke!” I hear echo across the storm this time.
Glancing over my shoulder, I’m greeted by the familiar green of Zeke’s eyes, the toasty olive-toned skin, and the tattoo of a skeleton hand clutching a moon between its fingers on his right bicep. It’s pretty fucking definitive. “Um…” I turn back to face Khalil. “I’m pretty sure it is!”
Lightning flashes, highlighting the stark terror on Khalil and Thorin’s faces even from here. It’s the latter who yells this time. “For fuck’s sake, Aurelia! It’s—” Thunder booms and I flinch. The sky calms and the thunder is a distant roar just in time for me to hear, “Shoot him!”
Shoot him? I turn again, intending to search the shadows in the trees surrounding us for the target, but I damn near jump out of my skin when I’m met with Zeke standing right in front of me, much closer than before. A little too close with that chilling emptiness that makes him seem so cold and distant. It’s so unlike Zeke even when he was actually trying to keep his distance.
This time it’s not so easy for me to dismiss. This isn’t just him upset about whatever drove him from the cabin in the middle of a storm.
This is…this is…
Heat blooms in my face as if I’d been slapped with the answer. Goose bumps pepper my skin and I shake my head in terrified denial as I back toward the slippery edge that feels far less dangerous than the taciturn man in front of me.
“Zeke?” I squeak, hoping I’m wrong.
“Mine.”
“Oh God. Oh fuck.” My vision blurs, and I slap my hands over my mouth as if my silence can save me. If Bane is awake, then…nothing can.
My breath is a hitch of terror in my throat as I stumble to put more space between us while cataloging everything I noticed before but ignored because I began to think the alter standing before me was an urban myth.
No, he was very much real.
There was no trace of Zeke or Seth anywhere in the harsh cut of his cheekbones, from how hard he must be clenching his teeth or the flat line of his mouth. “B-Bane?”
“Mine.”
My body trembles uncontrollably, and it has nothing to do with the wet clothes clinging to my skin while the wind batters my body. The eyes of the terrifying alter pinned impassively on me are cold. The frost is enough to root me to the ground while my fight-or-flight response plays tug-of-war with my common sense. I want to reach for the dart gun resting in its holster, but his eyes are tracking me too closely, so I ignore my twitching fingers.
Play it smart. Keep him talking.
Solid plan, Aurelia. Maybe he’ll forget to murder you.
Every step I take to put myself safely out of reach, Bane takes one equal to two of mine to keep me close. He follows without speaking, without doing anything other than hunting me. I’m the entirety of his focus as he tracks me to the water’s edge.
The sound of the river becomes louder, drowning out the sound of my heart pounding in my ears. I’m running out of ground, but Bane gives me no time to think, making me choose between drowning or…him.
“What do you want?” I decide to ask while my fingers creep toward the tranq gun. Distract him, and he won’t anticipate my next move. Khalil, Thorin, and Zeth all claimed that he was nonverbal, but he clearly has no problems terrifying the shit out of me.
“Mine.”
“Yes, you said that.” My fingers meet the cold steel of the dart gun, and a rough sound bursts from Bane in warning. Lifting my chin, I curl my fingers around it anyway and force my voice to remain steady. I’m done baring my neck to assholes. “What happened to Zeke? Why are you awake?”
It can’t be for anything good. Did something or someone attack Zeke? Harm him?
“Mine.”
“Oh, for fuck’s sake. What’s yours?”
Bane cocks his head, his stormy visage making Zeke’s normally pale green eyes seem even more muted. “Au-re-li-a.”
Oh fuck. He thinks I’m his? His to what? His to kill?
I don’t stand a chance against the shudder that agitates my muscles, and there’s absolutely nothing I can do about the dread creeping down my spine like taunting little fingers that say it’s only a matter of time.
Bane was the one who killed Tatum, the girl Zeke had been in love with, and he’d done it with his bare hands and without hesitation. Zeke certainly didn’t love me. He barely tolerated me. There was very little stopping Bane from snapping my neck too.