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)
With a smirk, he conjured up a few more blades to squeeze between the door and the wooden jamb. Might as well be thorough.
After the door was as secure as he could make it, Adrian tiptoed to the window, trying to keep the floor from creaking under his feet. His stomach sank as he looked out. It was a literal hellscape out there. What those men had said about the Washerlane Quarter and harbor made more sense. The nightmare they’d faced when attempting to dock at the Isle of Stone was nothing compared to this. There were glimpses of buildings that appeared as if they belonged to Sirelis, but he’d blink and they’d shift, becoming mountain crags or smoldering rubble. In the next second, the buildings would return as if nothing had happened. A black mist wove between the buildings as if dark clouds had dropped from the sky to claim the city. Fires raged, sending up plumes of gray smoke, but it was hard for him to tell if even those were real.
Whatever control Haru had possessed over Yesuntei’s powers was long gone, and dragon magic had to be feeding into it now.
There was only one way to stop this chaos. Adrian had to find Haru and help him get the magic under control. They’d made a mistake in leaving the goddess’s powers in him. They’d thought Haru could stay in control, and he could…so long as nothing happened to Adrian.
On the bright side, a rusted fire escape was outside Adrian’s window. Under normal circumstances, Adrian wouldn’t have touched it, but he didn’t have any choice. He needed to get to Haru. Adrian conjured up another knife and worked it around the window, cutting through what felt like decades of grit and grime, loosening it from the wooden framing enough that he could slide it up with a minimum amount of noise. It was an annoyingly slow process, forcing him to stop every so often to make sure he hadn’t caught the attention of his captors.
The second he had the opening wide enough to squeeze out, he shimmied onto the fire escape that groaned and squealed under his weight. Fuck it. There was no helping it now. Adrian charged down the rungs, his heart racing with every step he took. The metal fire escape trembled under his feet, threatening to collapse beneath him. He was only four stories up on the side of what appeared to be a brick apartment building, but he had no desire to plummet those last couple of floors to the hard concrete below.
At the bottom of the ladder, Adrian let out a cry and hit the ground hard. Pain shot up both legs, and he stumbled several steps, finally catching himself against the wall of the next building. But he didn’t stop. Limping, Adrian ran away from his temporary prison, searching for a major street. He didn’t know where in Sirelis he was or even where Haru was. But he had a guess.
As he reached a street clogged with cars that people even now were abandoning, Adrian looked toward the north to see that the sky had taken on a deep red cast, as if the very air was on fire. Black clouds swirled, forming an ever-widening funnel. The ground trembled under Adrian’s feet. There was the center of the nightmare. The gaping wound that was Haru’s heart. That was where he had to go to save his mate.
SIXTEEN
SHEY THRUDESH-VO
Shey tightened his grip on Tyche’s hand as they ran through the main corridor. He’d been loath to leave his mother behind, but they couldn’t fix this from a distance. There was no one else besides him and Tyche who could reach Haru. Especially if something had happened to Adrian. If he wanted to save the people of Sirelis, he needed to find that dragon.
After a few more turns, they reached a set of wide doors that opened to a balcony, which presented a perfect view of the city. But it was a vision of Sirelis Shey had never seen before. The sky was pitch black, with faint lights from the buildings barely more than pinpoints piercing the gloom. Yet to the far south, the sky was a blood red with swirling mists of black. It was the neighborhood where he’d seen Adrian and Haru set down after taking out the ships in the harbor.
From that bleak region, piercing screams, moans, and dragon roars arose. Goose bumps formed on Shey’s arms, and something hard sank deep in his gut. While it was hard to tell from this distance, it looked as if buildings were missing, replaced by jagged rocks that shot up from the streets.
“This seems worse than anything we’ve seen yet. Tell me I’m wrong.” Shey tore his eyes from the scene.
Tyche shook his head, but he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the city. His voice was soft, but his words sounded so haunted. “No, this is worse. Something happened to Adrian. It’s the only thing that could have caused this. He’s dead or wounded. Maybe…if we’re lucky…they got separated.”