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)
“I can see that you won’t be moved so easily, Seth. That’s unfortunate.”
The masked disciple who captured us suddenly reaches for his mask and removes it. When his face and salt-and-pepper goatee come into view, I feel the edges of my vision turn black.
Not now, not now…
“Come with us,” William Brantford urges. “Come with us and you can be with Tatum again. You can be with my daughter like you’ve always wanted.”
My lip curls, and even though I’m not Zeke and never fell for the bitch, I feel his burning hatred for the girl who betrayed him curling in my gut like a disease. Need to cut it out. Once and for all. I’m going to kill this fucker. “Fuck Tatum,” I spit out in her father’s face.
He startles like he’s shocked, and his weathered face turns red at the disrespect to his dead daughter’s memory. If Brantford’s one of the masked ones, then it means he’s completed his sacrifice. Isaac would certainly want to separate the true believers from the sheep as another exercise of mental manipulation.
But who did Brantford sacrifice? His youngest daughter? His wife? Someone distantly related who he pretended to give a shit about long enough to use them like Isaac did me?
“Fuck,” I grumble, knowing my mind’s made up and there’s no turning back now. I re-aim the gun and shoot Brantford between the eyes. His blood splatters Isaac’s face, and a few of the disciples cry out in horror as the man’s lifeless body falls to the ground.
“That,” Isaac snarls as he removes a handkerchief from his robes and wipes his face, “was a mistake.”
“Why? According to you, he can’t die, right?”
Isaac doesn’t answer my question. Instead, he points a finger toward Khalil and coldly orders, “Kill him too.”
Too?
No…
My heart sinks as my gaze moves to Thorin lying lifeless on the ground.
One of the disciples presses a gun to the side of Khalil’s head and time slows as his finger curls around the trigger.
No.…no, no, no. I can’t. Not again. I won’t.
With tears running down my face, this time I press the gun underneath my chin. Isaac’s eyes light up as he steps forward. “Yes, Seth. That’s it. Do it. Your friend is dead. You can join him. Pull the trigger. Pull it and let Thanatos ferry you to the other side.”
If I do, Khalil will live. Sunshine will live. I can make it all better if I go. It used to be Zeke. Now I’m the one who wants to die.
“SEEEEETH!” I stop breathing when I hear her furious roar rise above the trees and the flames claiming them. “DON’T YOU FUCKING DARE!”
Sunshine?
Something flies by my ear, and a strand of my hair rises from the wind it creates and then falls back in place at the same time I hear the thunk of a familiar yellow arrow finding its target. The throat of the disciple aiming a gun at Khalil. The other two holding him down quickly fall to more of the arrows, and then Khalil is free and bounding to his feet. I see him swipe a gun from the dead disciple, and then he’s aiming, but he doesn’t shoot.
We’re still woefully outnumbered.
My eyes search for Aurelia in the dark as more bodies fall one by one all around us. Half of the disciples are dead before they even realize what’s happening. I’m almost relieved that I can’t see her, which means they can’t either, but my relief is short-lived because suddenly there she is. I watch as she sprints into the clearing with her golden curls flying behind her and her bow aimed like a goddess of the hunt.
She looses an arrow and then another before I can blink and two more disciples fall. She’s thinning the herd and giving us a chance, but will it be enough? Isaac brought with him a small army, and we still don’t know if there are more hiding in the trees.
Aurelia moves closer with her bow still aimed at the remaining disciples until she’s standing next to me and then Khalil backs up until the three of us are standing shoulder to shoulder in a straight line.
“Ah, yes,” Isaac says with the false confidence of someone who thinks he’s won. “There she is. The pièce de résistance.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” she inquires coldly. I see her glance toward Thorin, so quick I might have imagined it if not for her flaring nostrils and her lips trembling before she lifts her chin and forces it all to fade away.
“Your uncle,” Isaac supplies. “He’s the one who sent me. Told me where to find my dear brother. The deal was I kill you after I’m done with him, so I guess you can say that this entire night is really for you.”
“Yeah?” Aurelia pulls back on the arrow. “Well, try it, Freddy. I dare you.” Isaac’s brows slam down at the reminder of his disfigurement, and I smirk. “Khalil?” she calls out softly without taking her eyes off the group in front of us.