Total pages in book: 193
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 184001 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 920(@200wpm)___ 736(@250wpm)___ 613(@300wpm)
SETH
Abandoning the ATVs in the foothills, the three of us race toward the cabin, ignoring the trees falling down all around us and adding to the hazard the wildfire already creates. I can feel the heat of the flames, but all it reminds me is that Aurelia might be feeling them too. We’d already glimpsed the cabin on fire once we were high enough. Had she gotten out in time?
We shouldn’t have left her.
Our paranoia over keeping her safe might just be the reason we lose her forever.
A helicopter flies overhead, no doubt alerting the sheriff and emergency services of the fire destroying everything. I expected no less of Isaac than to burn down Zeke’s refuge and any feeling of safety. Rabbits, squirrels, wolves, deer, and even a family of bears forced to leave their homes race by us in the opposite direction, toward the safety of Maia and Little Bear while the three of us head into the thick of the danger.
For her.
Isaac is up there waiting for us, waiting for us to fall into the trap he’s set. But we were already too far away. There will be no time to plan, no time for caution, so we keep running at full speed up the fiery hill toward home, knowing that it might cost us our lives.
Finally, we’re closing in on our clearing, so Khalil, Thorin, and I slow our run to a creep, keeping our footsteps silent. It’s a few more feet before we see them. The robed figures scattered throughout the trees.
Jesus, there’s a fucking lot of them.
A few of the disciples are gathered in the clearing watching the cabin burn, and I search among them for Isaac. It’s not hard to spot him in the crowd of his disciples. The prick always had to be the center of attention. The crown jewel. He stands among them silent and unmoving.
Until someone screams.
The attention of everyone, including Isaac, turns toward the woodshed in time to see the body of one of the hooded disciples drop mysteriously to the ground.
“She’s out of the cabin!” a voice shouts.
“Where is she?”
“Does someone have eyes on her?”
“There she is! Get her!”
The air is thick with more than smoke, and I feel like I can’t breathe until I spot a small figure with golden curls darting away from the woodshed and into the trees on the other side of the clearing.
Aurelia.
She got out.
She must have found our secret tunnel and the key we hid in the walls.
Good girl. My relief is palpable, mingling with Thorin’s and Khalil’s as we watch our girl disappear from sight. It’s all I can do not to rush after her when I see three or four disciples give chase. But that would be foolish and counterproductive since there are about twenty more of them armed and standing in between us and Sunshine, not to mention the ones hiding in the trees with us.
“We need to get over there,” Thorin barks under his breath. “Now.”
“Come on. We’ll go around,” Khalil suggests.
We skirt the fire and hug the dark, killing as many disciples as we can without detection until one unknowingly puts himself in our path. We see his eyes widen with recognition through the mask, but then Thorin reaches out and snaps his neck before he has a chance to call out.
Hearing the body fall, another disciple nearby whirls around. “What was that?”
Khalil is already circling his position, getting behind him and closing in until he’s able to wrap a thick arm around the disciple’s neck and squeeze hard until the man slumps in his hold. Khalil lets his lifeless body fall to the ground.
When we left the cabin hours earlier, we only expected to make a quick run to the hardware store, so we went unarmed, something we never do. It figures the one time we let our guard down in ten years, this happens. I still have the deputy’s gun, the only weapon between the three of us, but there aren’t enough bullets for all of Isaac’s men, so I won’t use it until there’s no other choice.
I only need one for Isaac.
We’re still searching for Aurelia among the flames consuming the forest when we’re suddenly surrounded by twelve hooded figures.
“Ezekiel,” the sole masked disciple greets with his eyes locked on me. There’s something about him that’s familiar but before I can poke at the memory, a massive branch engulfed in flames breaks off from a bent tree behind him. The tree with its trunk aflame had been split in half from the fire and propped up by another tree with a burning crown. The branch falls to the ground with a boom, but the masked disciple doesn’t flinch because he doesn’t fear death. “The Savior is eager to meet again. Please. Come.”
There’s nothing we can do with their weapons trained on us, so we don’t fight them as we’re led out of the trees and into the clearing. Our home is little more than flames now, with only some of the structure remaining.