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)
“Ellis, get down!” I shouted as I lifted my gun and aimed.
He turned toward me, surprised by the call of his name, and I was running his way, throwing myself on top of him one second before the bastard got to him.
Curling my arms around him in the hope that I would protect him rather than hurt him as I took him down.
We hit the ground hard, and the second we did, two shots rang out.
One piercing the monster in the chest before the next struck him in the middle of his forehead.
He dropped to his knees, and I glanced back at where Timothy had stepped forward and taken the shots.
Relief surged between us, and the whole group came running as I carefully unwound myself from him.
Ellis.
The man who’d been my teacher for my entire life. The only real father I’d ever had.
I gripped him by both sides of his neck as he sat up. “Are you hurt?” I begged through my fear, though the words were harsh.
He nodded. “I am uninjured.”
Air heaved from my lungs.
“Thank fuck.”
Then Aria was there, throwing herself around him, weeping as she hugged him. “Ellis. Oh, Ellis. I can’t believe it’s you.”
Joy rolled out to clash with the alarm as she helped him to stand.
Then the energy shifted.
A whirring of warmth that blasted through the cold as he shifted toward Josephine, who’d come three steps closer.
For a few suspended moments, the two of them just stared at each other from five feet away while the savagery raged on around them.
Josephine’s stringy gray hair whipped around her weathered face. A face that was littered with a thousand scars.
The most gentle, beautiful woman. Battle worn.
The same as Ellis.
His thin, feeble frame downtrodden, flesh covered in the wounds from his years fighting the battles of Faydor.
But there was a strength beneath it.
A stoic ferocity that burned between the two of them.
Then they both stumbled forward and met in an embrace.
A fierce, unrelenting embrace as they hugged each other with the force of a thousand lives. An embrace that went on forever, no words said as they shared a moment that could only belong to them.
We surrounded them as they did, creating a barrier of protection, each of us facing out to ensure no one could get close to them.
When they finally parted, Aria and Dani moved, hugging them both and whispering their love and belief in each other.
“I can’t believe you’re here,” Aria wheezed, the love she felt for them clogging her throat.
“We dreamed, too,” Josephine told her. She didn’t even need confirmation from Ellis to know that it was true.
“Many have arrived.” Awe filed Ellis’s voice as he stepped back, his expression carved in the wisdom he’d forever carried.
“More than we can count,” Dani said. “And they’re still arriving.”
“Not only our family, but I would imagine from every family that can reach us,” Aria added.
Emotion washed through Ellis, his nearly white gaze both pallid and uplifted.
The amount of time he’d spent believing we should be apart.
Living these meager lives in solitude. Without the ones we’d been purposed for.
He turned to Josephine.
His Nol.
And he took her hand. “Valeen has summoned us. Come, we must fight.”
“It’s not safe for you and Josephine to be here,” I spat. “You need to take cover until this over.”
It was bad enough when they fought within the bowels of Faydor. But this? This was on the plane of humanity. Where their mortal bodies could be defeated. Just as easily as that woman two minutes ago.
Ellis turned to look at me. Devotion burned in his depths. “Pax. My sweet boy. My son. We were called for a purpose. First for Faydor and now for this. And together we will fight. I will not sit it out.”
“They’re slaughtering.” My teeth ground together as I said it.
“My life has been dedicated to humanity. To safeguarding the lives of the vulnerable. And that mission has never been more important than now.”
“Ellis . . .” I pleaded, his name cracking as I said it.
“I know, Pax. I know.” His nod was slow; then he turned and took Josephine’s hand, and she shifted to slant a glance at me from over her shoulder.
Knowing.
Adoring.
Determined.
“We need to keep moving,” Timothy said, turning in a circle, his gun lifted but aimed toward the ground a few feet in front of him as he kept threats at bay.
Hesitation brimmed in me, but Aria reached out and threaded her fingers through mine, her touch both gentle and firm as she looked at me with those eyes. Eyes that shone with her own wisdom.
This was a call for all of us, and I had no right to try to sway Ellis and Josephine from heeding it.
I gulped around the impulse to argue and instead squeezed her hand.
My own surrender.
Together.
Timothy passed large hunting knives to both Ellis and Josephine. “You’re going to need a weapon.”