Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112398 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Pax shoved off his covers and stood from the bed, too. “It means we do whatever it takes.”
The four of us looked at each other as reality sank heavily on our hearts.
We either stopped Ambrose today, or we’d meet our end.
Thirty minutes later, we were peeling out of Dani’s garage in her Civic. Pax and I were in the back, Timothy in the front passenger seat, and Dani at the wheel.
It was early, dawn just breaking at the horizon and cracking through the sky.
A sky that was intact above us, though I still shivered at the sight.
Dani rammed on the accelerator and flew down the road, again wiping tears that dripped down her cheeks when she glanced at the house that sat up the road from her own.
It was where she’d left Pixie. Dani had taken her to her elderly neighbor’s and told the woman she had an emergency and needed to leave town for a while.
She’d promised she’d return as soon as she could.
Only I’d felt the wavering of the lie.
The way she’d been unsure if she would see her cat again.
If she would make it back.
If she would even have anything to come back to.
It was where our own humanity collided with our purpose. Where we struggled with our mortality.
Struck by the magnitude of the uncertainties that stretched around us.
A foreboding so thick in the cab of the car that it was difficult to breathe. Our lungs heavy and tight. Tremors of alarm and trepidation ripping through our bodies and shattering our spirits.
Pax clutched my hand as Dani flew down the street.
“Where exactly am I going?” she asked.
“East” was all I could say.
It was the only thing I was certain of.
The tugging at my spirit that guided our path.
A different place than the men had taken me last night.
“Yeah, east,” Timothy agreed, no doubt getting the same indication.
“I know,” Dani whispered, the words barely audible. “I just . . .”
Timothy reached out and set his hand on her thigh, trying to offer some of the peace that had seemed to slip away with each second that passed.
But any hope of peace had been torn away when Pax had turned on Dani’s television as we ran around packing the few things we could bring. When we’d seen the carnage that had begun to spread across the world.
The complete panic and turmoil the world had been cast into.
No answers for the tragedies that befell the world. The murders and the fires. Wars started between allies and friends. Every manner of crime right out in the open. As if the reasons for hiding sins had been stripped away.
So far, we hadn’t seen any reports of strange beings, but there was no question the Kruen we’d seen breaking through the two realms were responsible.
Pax searched for a route on his phone, and I could feel him scouting around within himself, looking for his own lure. For the power inside him to discern where to go. “Take I-84,” he finally said. “We need to make a pit stop first. There’s a camping and hunting store three blocks up. We need supplies.”
Disquiet whirled around us.
From the opposite direction, three cop cars approached at high speed. Red and blue lights flashed, and their sirens blared.
Dani pulled off to the side of the road, and we were all silent as they whizzed by.
An ambulance and fire truck came from the west, crossing at the intersecting road and continuing in that direction.
We held our breaths as the world spun out of control around us.
Once they had all passed, Dani mumbled, “That is, if there is even a store left,” before she pulled back onto the road.
Chapter Forty
Pax
I’d spent most of my life stealing from the scum that wandered the earth. Pillaging what they had stolen. Money they’d attained through whatever vile, heinous crimes they preferred to commit. Feeding their wickedness into the population.
Drugs and prostitution.
Thieving and deceiving.
Exploiting the vulnerabilities of others to sustain their greed.
Had sworn to myself that I would only ever take from the ones who had taken, but I’d never imagined that it would come to this—and some things just had to be done for the greater good.
Besides, I doubted any of these businesses would remain standing for much longer if something wasn’t done.
If we didn’t find a way to intervene.
To stop the madness that had so clearly infiltrated the world.
There was just this vibe pervading reality.
A lawlessness that had merged with the oxygen. So distinct I could scent the evils that coursed through the atmosphere, wisping and winding as they sought to lay siege.
Dani flew into the nearly empty parking lot at warp speed, her little car tilting to the left as she curb-checked the back wheel. The tires skidded as she cut across the lot, not taking the time to follow the aisles.