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)
My gaze flicks toward the men doing their best to kill each other in my peripheral vision.
“Don’t you dare listen to this whack job,” Mine says with a furious growl. “Khalil is safe. Khalil is part of the group. He’s Zeke’s friend. He’s your friend.”
I frown at that as a hot bolt of confusion twists through me.
Friend? No. Competition…yes.
The Savior returns calmly, “You have to kill him now, Bane. You’ll never get the chance again and they’ll never let you near her.” Something inside me reacts violently to those words. “All you have to do is pick up one of those rifles and pull the trigger. Kill him, Bane, and this pretty little thing is yours. All yours.”
As if the Savior’s promise was a release, I suddenly turn to find Khalil on the offense this time. Every part of me—the part that Zeke’s afraid of—urges me to go in for the kill now that he’s distracted. Mine wouldn’t approve. She and Zeke would never forgive me, but I can’t turn away from the bloodlust.
As I move away from Mine and closer to Khalil’s unsuspecting back, my gaze snags on one of the rifles. I kneel to wrestle it free from the lifeless hand still clutching it. The gun feels foreign in my hands.
“That’s it, Bane,” the Savior praises. “Now aim and pull that lever in the middle.”
I raise the gun.
“Bane.” Mine gasps when she realizes my intent. “Bane, no!” And then she yells in a panic, “Chrysalis! Chrysalis, Chrysalis, Chrysalis!” But the trigger word fails to penetrate the bloodlust.
Not when it means I can keep her and Zeke safe.
“KHALIIIIL!” Mine screams again when she comes to the same conclusion. He finally has the throat of a disciple trapped inside the crook of his elbow, but he looks over in the direction of Aurelia’s voice. “Ruuuuun!”
Khalil’s gaze immediately searches for the threat and finds me holding the rifle pointed at him. My finger curls around the trigger at the same time he curses and drops the disciple. My shoulder smarts from the recoil as bullets spray from the muzzle in an uncontrolled spread.
Khalil makes a break for the trees.
I can’t see much beyond the spark from the rifle, but I shoot until there’s nothing left. I’m distantly aware of Aurelia fighting off the disciples’ hold and breaking free. In my peripheral vision, I see her run down the secret path and the disciples giving chase.
CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
I drop the rifle immediately when it ceases to fire and I turn away from the trees where Khalil disappeared to go after Mine instead, but I’m suddenly brought to my knees by invisible chains coiling around my wrists and ankles. Throwing my head back, I roar my fury into the night sky and then I am no more.
EZEKIEL
I’m yelling when I come to. My ravaged throat quakes with a hoarse gasp when I stop abruptly to look around. My vision is blurry, and there’s ringing in my ears, but that’s nothing new with a switch. What I don’t expect is to find myself surrounded by flames. The first thing I notice is that the cabin is gone. It’s nothing more than charred wood and ash as the last of the fire consumes what remains. The second thing I notice is that I’m alone.
My gaze moves around, and my stomach sinks at the dead bodies everywhere. All of them robed, all of them except—
“Thorin?” I stand from where I’m kneeling and rush over to him. He isn’t moving, and it doesn’t look like he’s breathing either. “Thorin.” I touch his shoulder gently and then move to try to check his pulse, but I pull my hand away immediately to study my now wet palm. It’s caked in blood. “Shit, Thor.” My bloody hand trembles. “You better not be fucking dead,” I choke out.
Tears fall from my eyes, joining the ones already drying on my cheeks.
What the hell happened? Did I do this? Did Bane?
“Shit!” someone shouts, drawing my attention to the woods or what’s left of it. “I found her! I found her! Someone get over here!”
A moment later, I hear a scream and a gunshot, and my blood chills when I recognize that scream.
Aurelia.
Finding one of our radios among the carnage, I call the sheriff and tell him to send a medevac before shoving the radio in my back pocket.
“I’ll be back, Thor. Help is coming. Hang on for me, brother. Please.” Grabbing the first gun I see, I pause only long enough to check the clip before running off around the side of the cabin and down the only drivable path.
I’m barely fifty feet when I spot a body lying on the ground, another robed man wearing a mask with his neck twisted at an odd angle. I feel my own burn as I disregard him and keep pushing down the hill.