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)
“Stop it?” Skepticism creased the man’s brow.
“Yeah, we’re going to stop him. End this piece of shit now. End them all,” Pax gritted.
Pax moved to the trunk. “We need to move. Get closer and make a plan.” He thumped the metal. “Can you open the trunk, Dani?”
“Yeah.” She shifted around, still on her knees as she reached in and pushed the button to release it. The trunk popped open, and Pax started taking out the bags we had piled inside and dropping them onto the ground.
I rose, too, a frenzy pulsing through me as I realized what was happening, the sensation urging me to move.
Valeen had sent an army. We weren’t alone.
Her voice drifted through my mind.
“Rise up, dear Valient. You are the chosen. You must lead.”
You must lead.
I wasn’t alone.
I was only meant to lead. To stand and to guide. Another vessel in the midst of this war.
A charge I was going to fully give myself over to.
My hands shook as I moved to Pax, who’d bent over and unzipped one of the duffels, though he straightened when he felt me come to stand beside him.
He slipped his hand onto my cheek. His palm burned with our connection as he stared across at me. Every brutal edge of his face seemed to sharpen, his words coarse as he forced them from his tongue. “You have the power to do this, Aria. We wouldn’t be here if you didn’t. None of these people would be.”
“We have the power,” I said, emphasis lining my voice. “All of us. Together.”
Those eyes flashed—pure, burning flames—and he threw himself forward and captured my mouth, his lips desperate as they pressed against mine.
And I swore, for one fleeting second, the darkness was swept away as he poured everything into this one singular moment.
Every oath.
Every promise.
All his love.
Then he cleared his throat and peeled himself back, though he clung to my arms as he gritted out, “Let’s go get this motherfucker.”
Dani, Timothy, Pax, and I all looked at each other for a moment. Taking one heartbeat for this family. A glance of eternal love and loyalty we would forever carry for one another.
Timothy finally dipped his chin and rumbled, “Let’s go.”
We each grabbed a bag and slung the straps of the heavy duffels over our shoulders, and we began to trudge through the high grass in the direction of the crack that hovered over the town.
The Laven man stuck close to us as we weaved across the field.
A throng of others had amassed.
An instinctual gathering as a stream of Laven made their way toward the town, heading in the same direction we were.
I could feel them coming.
Hundreds . . . maybe thousands who’d flocked from every direction and made their way toward the call that had been issued.
Strangers who’d been drawn.
Some spoke in English.
Others in different languages.
Brought here from every end of the earth.
It felt as if each of us had been inscribed on one another in some secret way. Our souls recognizing each other as wary, uncertain glances were cast. As understanding dawned and hope blossomed in the crux of the turmoil that awaited us.
The heavens continued to writhe, thrashing with insolence and the intonation of the immoral.
It only grew thicker the closer we got. Like sludge had filled the atmosphere.
The coldest chill slicked through the middle of it, gusting across our faces and whipping through our hair.
We slowed once we made it all the way across the field, our breaths heaving as we came to the fence line. On the other side was a road locked with cars. Most had been abandoned, many with their headlights still gleaming into the darkness that obliterated the day.
Beyond it was a gas station that looked as if it typically catered to semitrucks. The parking lot was large, and it now overflowed with pickups and cars that had been left at odd angles.
Huge diesel-fuel tanks were lined along the backside near the tall canopies that protected the pump stations.
And it was here that we saw the others. Those who’d been called for a different purpose from ours.
A slew of people charged through the abandoned cars and trucks.
Enraged.
Violent.
Barbaric.
Running amok on the streets as they flocked toward the crack where the Kruen crawled out from above.
My stomach toppled.
It was what I’d feared most.
Laven weren’t the only ones who had been coaxed to this place.
The corrupt who had fully given themselves over to the nefarious and vile had come in scores.
We all crouched down at the fence line, taking in the scene. The complete chaos that had befallen the land, so much worse than it’d been back in Portland, though I was sure it wouldn’t take long for this virus to spread.
For it to advance and expand and decimate.
“They’ve all gone mad,” Dani whispered where she knelt at my side.
“It’s what happens when there is no good left,” Pax grunted as he peered out. “We’ve seen it time and again since we’ve been on the run. These monsters who give themselves over to the wickedness that possesses their minds. They’ll do anything to see it through without any thought of consequence.”