Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110757 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 554(@200wpm)___ 443(@250wpm)___ 369(@300wpm)
Marcus didn’t want him to go. He told Niran he was sending Nova to spy on the Tiders, and that made Niran so angry that he stormed out of camp with nothing but a canteen, a radio, and a promise to check in daily if he could. The two of them are more alike than Marcus realizes. Not only in looks and age—Niran is almost as tall as Marcus and a little lankier, with a panty-melting smile—but in the way they both want to call the shots.
“So what?” I pinch my brows together. “We’re not just leaving him. He wouldn’t leave us.”
He narrows his eyes, rubbing a hand over his jaw. “I’m not—” An alarm blares from the main area of the Sub, silencing him.
“Fucking great,” he mutters.
It’s the camp-wide alarm that means a boat of prisoners has been spotted approaching the island. This is the first one since Virginia’s death upset the balance of power at Rising Tide.
“This is perfect timing,” I say. “We can go get Niran while they’re all on the beach. A prisoner boat helped me escape their camp.”
“No.” His tone is decisive, of course. It always is. “We’re going to the beach.”
“So more of our people can be slaughtered and we can get a dozen new people to take care of?”
Someone—I think it’s Adele—gasps softly. None of them challenge Marcus. I used to only do it behind closed doors, but he and I won’t be alone behind closed doors again, so out in the open it is.
“It’s my call, and we need to get going.”
“Okay. I’ll go look for Niran myself.”
He gets to his feet, his legs eating up the distance between us. “The fuck you will, Briar. I’ve never said every decision I make is the right one, but I’m in charge. Don’t insinuate that I don’t care about the lives of my people. Niran left against my orders. Play dumbass games, win dumbass prizes.”
I press my lips together, then say, “Let’s vote on it.”
The smallest hint of a smile quirks on his lips. “All in favor of doing what I said?”
Arms shoot up around the table. Everyone but me and Amira, and honestly, even she doesn’t look fully committed to her choice, her palm halfway up in the air. I widen my eyes at her, annoyed.
“They might have captured him.” I look at the faces around the table. “That could be any of us.”
Amira lowers her hand all the way, but she’s clearly my only ally here.
“We have to go,” Nova says, standing up. “Just because we aren’t going after Niran right now, it doesn’t mean never.”
“Are you with us?” Marcus asks.
I glare at him. “Yes. For now.”
The tension between us is heavier than the thick, humid island air outside the Sub. He holds my gaze for a couple seconds before getting up and reaching for the handgun in his shoulder holster. He takes it out and points it at the ground, then checks the safety and drops the magazine.
Amira tugs on the back of my shirt.
“Come on, we have to get strapped.”
I get up and follow her from the room. It’ll be hard to clear my head for the fight ahead over the new prisoners, but I have to focus and do it. I can’t be thinking about Marcus when arrows are flying and the stronger, faster Tiders are gunning for me. Since I killed their leader, I know I’m their top target.
Half an hour later, I’m crouched behind some shrubs, a vine coiled on the ground beside me.
The Dust Walkers who don’t know me well are careful to keep their distance, even though I’m one of them. I get why. The vine is poised to defend me against danger, and the concept of sentient plants is kind of hard to swallow.
My bond with plants on the island comes from aromium. My aromium isn’t on now, but like Marcus’s connections to wolves and endoliths—small living organisms present in rocks—my connection to plants is there even when my aromium device is switched off. I’d be worried about it if I had time to stop and think, but I keep myself in motion, training and working on the stabilizer. Worrying accomplishes nothing.
“Stay in formation.” Marcus’s eyes rebuke me when he gives the command, like I defy his every order.
Asshole. My hand is hanging at my side so he can’t see me flipping him off, but I still get satisfaction from doing it.
Wyatt and Chance are always paired in combat, and Amira is usually with Niran. Since he’s not here, she’s paired with Nova.
Marcus and I are together in this one and only way. We’ll be the first team to engage, standing back to back to protect each other as we try to rescue prisoners from the boat while fending off Tiders.
Good thing we have guns and stun sticks. The electric current at the end of the long poles several of us are carrying knocks people on their asses. It’s like a super Taser.