Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 117246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 117246 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 586(@200wpm)___ 469(@250wpm)___ 391(@300wpm)
Citizens for Unified Reform, Education, and Defense made mistakes, but who didn’t? Cured ensured we survived in a world gone mad.
Tomorrow, I would join its ranks.
Say your goodbyes tonight.
My next breath emerged as a short, rasping pant. No matter how fast I traveled along the sidewalk, maneuvering through the crowd, I couldn’t escape a growing sense of doom. I’d only ever fought one maddened, and only to defend myself after she broke. I’d never come closer to dying.
Sizzling sunlight failed to warm my chilled skin. I tried to focus on my surroundings. Buildings of varying sizes and shapes lined the busy streets. A blend of sleek new constructions, old barns, and lavish crystal palaces that bisected different apartments, shops, and offices. Oddly shaped structures made from a shiny golden alloy fused with those made from ordinary brick.
As I turned a corner, an intoxicating floral fragrance hit my nose. Familiar. Despised. Icy fingers of dread crept down my spine, and my racing thoughts fragmented until a lone mantra remained. Ignore the Rock, ignore the Rock, ignore the Rock.
But I couldn’t. A section of it stretched along my right, and as always, I felt as if a thousand eyes were upon me, observing me with x-ray vision. Maybe they were. Small metal dogs patrolled the top of the stone, their eyes recording everything that happened, allowing operators to monitor the feed twenty-four seven.
Slinging my arms around my middle, I attempted to make myself smaller. Pieces of the Rock occupied every province in every nation. Truly, there was nowhere you could go without bumping into a seven-foot-long, seven-foot-high section. They were impossible to miss, move, or destroy. Not even explosives affected them. And yet, with their translucent, mirror-esque stone and intricate web of internal veins filled with a bloodlike liquid, every inch appeared fragile. On the outside, strange round symbols contained disjointed lines. No matter the weather or season, the most exquisite foliage bloomed along the upper edges. A cruel development, considering the Rock was also the source of the Madness.
Ahead of me, a woman knelt before the structure, reverently tracing her fingertips around a circle. Another Soalian. I huffed with disgust. She wasn’t the least bit worried about infection or her coming arrest. And she would be arrested, then placed in a treatment facility with the others.
When I passed her and cleared the last of the stone, I expelled a sigh of relief. I would go home and—
“Arden Roosa!”
The unfamiliar voice halted me in my tracks. Hoping against hope someone from the Department of Edification and Labor had come to tell me there’d been a mistake, my mother owed nothing, and I should report to the Center ASAP, I pivoted. Surprise jolted me when I spotted the speaker. Mr. Smiles, the guy from the waiting room.
“Yes?” I said when he stopped in front of me. Oh, wow. Sunlight adored the symmetrical perfection of his features, turning him into a work of art come to life. He was far more handsome than I’d realized. And tall. Around six two, with broad shoulders and lean strength packed inside a blue shirt and a pair of dark slacks.
“Hi.” He peered down at me with sparkling eyes. A grin teased the corners of his mouth. “I’m Shiloh Cruz. I thought you should know my name since I learned yours. Gotta keep the scale between us balanced.”
As people passed by, I remained rooted in place, my brain train veering onto a fresh track. He’d chased me down to . . . flirt?
I responded with blunt honesty. “You shouldn’t miss an appointment with your life adviser to speak with me.” I wasn’t worth it. No one was.
“I met with him earlier. I was—okay, please don’t be creeped out, but I was leaving when I spotted you. I decided to hang around.” His grin developed a bashful tinge. “I seized my chance to introduce myself.”
Heat seared my cheeks. “Let’s back up a minute. There’s a scale between us?”
“I really hope so.” He punctuated the words with an earnest nod.
A big, toothy smile threatened to bud. “You’re the first person I’ve ever met who considers a scale a good thing.”
“Because it is. I’ll reveal a fact about myself to you, then you’ll reveal a fact of equal value about yourself to me.”
Ah. “A tit-for-tat situation.”
“Exactly.” He winked, and it was the cutest thing. “Walk with me?”
Tomorrow, my life would slip off its axis; I should enjoy my freedom while I could. Also, he smelled like sandalwood, a man musk that should be classified as a mind-altering drug. “Yes. I’d like that.”
We moved along the sidewalk at a leisurely pace. “I’ll start,” he said. “I have an older half sister and brother. They’re twins. As children, we were as obnoxious as you might imagine. Not that I’ll ever complain. They taught me physical combat, psychological warfare, and how to sense suspicious activity.”