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)
What they all must be thinking. I’d back-burnered Ingrid Voss, because getting back to the mainland with Briar and saving the rest of our camp was the most important thing to me.
But Voss brought war to my doorstep. And since it’s a fight she wants, she’s sure as hell going to get one.
36
“Just find a place for her, will you? I have no use for a 32-year-old mistress with saggy tits who can’t get pregnant. I need to be spending my nights with younger, fertile women.” – Message from New America Commander Lochlan Murphy to his chief security officer
Briar
Thin branches slap my face as I race through the jungle, several vines slithering along beside me.
Marcus is gone. Ingrid Voss is closing the fist that is New American around us, and we hardly have anything to fight back with. An aromium stabilizer would’ve been our greatest weapon, but I couldn’t make one.
Thoughts fire through my mind like bullets as my boots trod over spongy moss, thick, gnarled roots, and soggy, slippery leaves.
I glance over my shoulder, slowing. Ellison is having trouble keeping up, and Nova has an arm around her shoulders, half dragging her through the thick jungle. Ellison must have cut off the cuffs on her wrists.
The surrounding vegetation is humming through me, in tune with my frantic need to escape.
I wait for Nova and Ellison to catch up, Ellison’s chest heaving with exertion.
“Why do we have to get out now?” I ask Nova, giving Ellison a chance to catch her breath.
“Olin,” Nova manages, also winded.
“What about him?”
“Have to ... get him out.”
A thorny vine climbs up my leg and I gently bat it away. “He’s safe.”
Nova looks over both shoulders, making sure we’re alone. “I heard Voss talking ... to one of her men. She said they ... intercepted a radio communication from someone on this island.”
My brows fly up with alarm. “When?”
“Right after Marcus left. It was someone from the ILF. Telling someone else from the ILF on Voss’s island that Marcus is fighting Rising Tide.”
“Oh shit.”
Olin. He must have been trying to help Marcus. I’m grateful to him, but Nova’s right—he’s in grave danger.
“Do they know it was him?” I ask.
Nova shakes her head. “They’re going to interrogate people to find out who’s with them and who’s not. We’ve got to get somewhere safe so we can game-plan.”
I nod, my stomach churning at the thought of leaving Stella, Chance, and Adele on that boat. They’ll probably be the first ones Voss tries to turn.
Thunder cracks the sky overhead, rain falling so heavily that some of it makes it through the jungle canopy.
“Keep following,” I tell Nova and Ellison. “Amira and Olin are waiting for us. Amira has the switch.”
The corners of Nova’s lips twitch with a grin. She’s thinking what I’m thinking—we need to get our aromium on.
I lead the way through the darkened tangle of trees and vegetation, nearly falling when I run into one of McClain’s freakish megamantises. It almost comes up to my knees.
It slashes a razor-like claw at my leg as I’m pulling my knife from my boot. I don’t have time for this. I stab it in the eye, rip my knife out of it and keep moving.
By the time we reach Amira and Olin, I’m soaked with sweat, rain, and—from my left knee down—blood. But it’s a superficial cut, so I ignore it.
“Everyone okay?” Amira asks.
I nod and gesture at Nova.
“They intercepted a radio transmission from someone on this island. They know Marcus isn’t loyal to their cause.”
Olin’s face has drained of color. “That was me.”
“It’s okay,” I say.
He looks like he might be sick. “This is all my fault.”
“No, it’s not,” Nova says. “You were helping Marcus. You couldn’t have known that would happen.”
He cringes, pushing the rain-soaked red hair from his forehead. “I’ve been trained. I should have—” He stops. “If they know Marcus isn’t with them, why is he ... with them?”
My stomach clenches as I think about the way he looked at me. It was his eyes, but it wasn’t him. I’m a stranger to him now.
“They did something to him,” I say. “I don’t know what, but he’s not himself anymore. He doesn’t know me. He doesn’t know any of us.”
“What are we going to do?” Olin asks.
Everyone is looking at me. I don’t feel like being a leader. I just want to curl up on the ground and cry about Marcus. But I can’t.
“I know where we can go,” I say.
I know this island well. When Marcus and I were searching for the flowers used to make aromium, we covered every square inch of it. I know where the best hiding place on the island is. McClain’s cave.
“They could destroy everything at our camp,” Ellison murmurs.
The sound of a man’s voice calling out orders sends a chill through me. I look at Nova right as she says, “We have to go.”