Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 110079 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 550(@200wpm)___ 440(@250wpm)___ 367(@300wpm)
And then nothing.
He had no memory of what had happened to Haru or how he’d gotten here.
Holding in a groan, Adrian pried his eyes open to find that he was lying on a thin mattress on the floor of an empty, decrepit room. So…not a hospital.
His eyes fell shut again, and he sighed. This didn’t feel like a good start. Could this be one of Haru’s nightmares? It was possible that, out of worry for Adrian, Haru had lost control of Yesuntei’s powers the moment the explosion had happened, but he dismissed that idea. He was hurting too damn much for this to be a nightmare.
Fine.
The first step was determining if whoever had him was friend or foe.
Adrian peeled his eyes open and forced himself to sit up on the mattress.
Aches and pains filled his frame, but nothing felt broken. He looked around, taking in the small room with its filthy, worn wooden floor. The walls were covered in what had likely been white paint that had turned into a dingy, pale gray with time. No other furniture or items occupied the room. The air was stale and heavy with dust and mildew, as if no one had been in this place for some time. A single window broke the monotony of the wall to his left, while the one door to the room was on his right.
Beyond the window, the sky was black and scarlet with flashes of lightning but no accompanying thunder. That out there was the nightmare. Adrian’s throat squeezed, and his heart skipped a beat. Haru had lost control, and Adrian needed to get to his side as quickly as possible. He couldn’t let his dragon hurt.
Adrian shifted on the mattress, gritting his teeth and pushing down the pain as he pulled his legs under him to rise, but he stopped when a harsh male voice cut through the quiet of the building.
“What the fuck are we supposed to do with him?” Footsteps thumped across the floor; the sound grew louder as the speaker approached. “We were supposed to get the dragon.”
The speaker’s companion snorted. “Sure. You want to go get the dragon now?” Sarcasm dripped from his words, and Adrian almost huffed a dark laugh. He couldn’t imagine anyone would dare to approach Haru right now. If Adrian were missing, Haru would be inconsolable and frantic.
“To hell with that. The entire Washerlane Quarter has disappeared, and I heard someone say that the waves hitting the harbor have swallowed up three warehouses.” The footsteps paused, followed by a soft scrape. “Should we just kill the one we got? He’s not the prince, so it’s not like we can ransom him.”
Adrian flicked his left wrist, ready to defend himself, and a dagger appeared between his fingers.
“Nah. Leave him for now. The hit he took to the head should put him out for a while longer. Besides, the boss said the dragon always had a companion with him. Maybe the dragon would be willing to make a trade for this guy’s life. At least long enough for the boss to talk to him.”
The first person mumbled something, but the words were too garbled for Adrian to make them out. It didn’t matter, since the sound of their footsteps on the creaking floor indicated that they were moving away from him.
Adrian sat on the mattress, spinning the blade between his fingers. They’d said boss, not general or some other commanding officer. His captors weren’t part of the Federation of Order’s invading forces. The only other people he could think of who might be interested in Haru right now were the assholes who’d held Tyche and Shey prisoner. If you were trying to collect magic from gods, would you be so picky that you’d pass up a dragon? Not likely. Their boss might even realize that Haru was in possession of something far scarier than dragon magic.
As the building grew quiet, he debated whether it would be worth it to take out these two guys. It sounded as if there was no one else watching him. He could kill one and get information out of the other. Two against one—the odds weren’t terrible. He’d faced far worse.
Adrian shoved to his feet and rethought his earlier estimate.
Nope. Two against one—the odds were horrible. Impossible. His legs trembled and his ribs ached. The blade clenched in one hand almost slipped from his fingers as he struggled to adjust to the pain. He couldn’t beat one of his captors, let alone two.
The smarter choice was to escape. He needed to get to Haru as quickly as possible. They’d worry about people hunting the dragon when they got to the castle. If they were lucky, Vitor would have gotten into Ruben’s computer and could tell them who the fuck they were facing.
He edged over to the door and pressed his ear to the wood. Muffled sounds came through. The people guarding him hadn’t left the building. Sneaking past them wasn’t the best option. A slender throwing knife pinched between his thumb and forefinger, Adrian pushed it between the door and the jamb near the hinges. This should slow them down. They’d have to break the door to get into the room, potentially buying him a couple of valuable minutes to escape.