Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119846 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 599(@200wpm)___ 479(@250wpm)___ 399(@300wpm)
He walked with Noelle wedged between him and Bright, both of them crowding her protectively as the Skow shoved them forward. The place stank of ozone, cold metal, and something sour—fear, maybe, or old blood. It was hard to tell in a ship like this.
His muscles trembled—not with weakness, but with the effort it took not to explode.
Because his mind wouldn’t fucking shut up…wouldn’t stop throwing images at him. Not whole memories…not stories. Just flashes of the past.
He remembered a scream—his mother’s scream—high and sharp, echoing down a metallic corridor.
A blinding red light…then darkness.
Hands gripping his shoulders…pushing him…pulling him. He couldn’t tell which.
A voice in his ear…
“You have to be strong now, son. And stay with your brother—no matter what, stay with him!”
Then a shadow dragging someone away.
Burn blinked and clenched his jaw so hard it felt like it would crack. He forced the images down, burying them under the hot, sick wave of anger rising in his chest.
Not now. Don’t think about it now.
But his mind didn’t listen.
Another flash.
One of his fathers’ voices—cut off mid-sentence…a choked sound…a thud…a metallic smell in the air.
How much of it was real? How much of it was memory and how much was imagination?
Burn stumbled a half step before catching himself as the mental fragments battered him. Gods, he couldn’t even fucking walk straight anymore! He just wanted to shut his brain up…but he couldn’t.
Bright glanced at him over Noelle’s head, clearly worried, but said nothing. He didn’t ask what was wrong…he never did. Bright knew better than anyone—some pain was too deep to talk about.
Noelle looked up at Burn then, her big brown eyes wide and frightened, and something inside him snapped into sharp, painful clarity.
It’s happening again. Another ship. Another attack. Another family being ripped away right in front of you. And you’re helpless. Again.
His breath hitched, and for a second he couldn’t see the corridor at all—just fire. Smoke. Shapes moving behind it.
His mother reaching out—then disappearing. His brother shouting his name—then silence.
Burn’s stomach lurched. He swallowed hard.
Not again. Not fucking again.
He forced the memories back down—slammed a mental door on them—just as the Skow shoved the three of them into a huge, cold chamber. The cargo hold.
The air inside was freezing…damp. It tasted like metal and fear.
Around them were cages—lined up like livestock stalls. Some were full, some empty. Shapes huddled in the darkness…eyes stared at them without blinking.
Burn felt Noelle shiver beside him and moved closer to the little human automatically.
He shouldn’t have. The cuffs the Skow had put on him crackled, tightening around his wrists, vibrating with warning. A bright pulse of pain shot up his arms, but he didn’t back away.
Noelle pressed into his side, tiny compared to him, and he leaned slightly, instinctively, so she could borrow his body heat.
He didn’t speak…he couldn’t. His throat felt like it was closing.
“In you go!” a guard snapped and the three of them were shoved into a cell and the door slammed behind them with a hiss of deadbolts.
“It’s all right, sweetheart. We’re going to be okay,” Bright murmured, placing a steadying hand on Noelle’s shoulder, as he also ignored the crackling of his cuffs.
Burn just stared at the metal wall, fists clenched so tight his knuckles ached.
This place… this smell… this sound… the way they took us. It’s too much. Too much like—
His heartbeat thundered in his ears as he pushed the thought away.
He felt the phantom pain and numbness as though half of him had been amputated…heard the distant echo of someone crying for help…the rasp of strange voices speaking words he didn’t understand.
He shook his head violently—almost snarling at the memories.
NO. Fucking stop it!
He wasn’t that helpless kid huddled on the ground anymore. He wasn’t watching from the shadows, too small and too weak to fight.
He was a grown male…a warrior. A fucking Dark Twin Kindred. And this time, he wasn’t alone—he had Bright and Noelle.
He looked at the curvy little Elite then—really looked at her. Her shoulders were shaking and her eyes were filled with the fear she was trying so damn hard to hide.
Something in his chest twisted painfully.
She and Bright…they’re not going to die. Not today. Not like my family. I won’t let it happen—I’ll protect them both, no matter what it takes.
The thought came with brutal certainty and he swallowed hard.
If I have to tear this ship apart with my bare hands, I’ll get them out. If I have to bleed for them, I will. If I have to die for them—
He didn’t finish the thought…he didn’t have to.
Burn turned away from the memories clawing at him and set his jaw, staring at the locked cell door and the cold bars surrounding them on three sides with cold determination.
Whatever happened next, he’d face it head-on.
And he’d make damn sure neither Bright nor Noelle suffered the fate his family had.