Total pages in book: 112
Estimated words: 112567 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 563(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112567 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 563(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
She’d also said that when a crow died, the group surrounded the deceased and cawed. Many believed the crows were not only mourning the dead, but attempting to find out what and who killed their feathered friend.
Apparently, when the crows figured it out, they always banded together and chased the predator away. Chanel explained that this was known as mobbing.
Chen cleared his throat. “Did you get some rest, Lei?”
I rubbed my tired eyes. “Not really.”
“We’ll be in the town of Glory soon.”
“How much longer?”
Chen checked his pink Hello Kitty watch. “Five minutes.”
I yawned. “What is the tracker on my father saying now?”
When my mother passed last year, I worried about my father. He seemed close to being suicidal. I gave him a gold and silver cross locket with my picture inside. However, a tiny tracker was on the back to monitor his movements.
Chen pulled out his phone and looked at a screen. “According to the tracker, Uncle Leo checked into an old inn near Glory’s Chinatown. He’s been at the location for several minutes.”
“Then, we’ll head there first and kill him.”
Chen stirred in his seat.
Like his father Song had done, Chen served as my Deputy Mountain Master and represented the typical example of an East Paradise man—blue suit and blue tie.
He followed the old traditions of the East. Swift and clean kills. No showing off. No blood. No psycho shit. Just quick and final. No bullets. No guns. No grenades or bombs. Just the sharp edge of a blade to finish all conflicts.
While he enjoyed a drink or smoke socially, he only had two things that brought him unsurmountable joy—the study of Alchemy and his ridiculous obsession with Hello Kitty.
Chen gazed over his shoulder and gave me a worried look. “We have some other problems.”
“What?”
“I’ve gotten reports that Aunt Suzi and Aunt Min took the helicopter.”
I rolled my eyes.
“They’re heading to Glory.”
I sneered. “They should be going back to their main hobbies—palace gossip and drinking liquored tea.”
“Uncle Leo is their brother—”
“Still, they won’t be able to save him from me.”
Chen sighed. “Are you sure you want to kill your father?”
I glared. “He is no longer my father.”
Chen countered, “He still is your father, Lei.”
“When he killed Chanel, he cut away the last bit of love I had for him.”
Chen glanced at Duck as if hoping for someone to help.
Smart, Duck didn’t look back.
Today, he had his silver hair in a top knot.
Duck was my Red Pole—my military commander. When we went to war, he oversaw defensive and offensive operations.
Chen cleared his throat. “I loved Chanel too, but I believe that Uncle Leo thought that he was saving you.”
I growled, “How could he think that?”
“After your mother died, Uncle Leo left our world of crime. He found religion. He became a servant of God.”
Frowning, I glanced out the window. “And you assume that killing Chanel was his duty to God?”
“Your father wanted you to leave the Syndicate and stop this life of crime—”
“A life that he introduced me to.” I snapped my view to him. “A life, that was forced on me, before I could fucking walk.”
I had other dreams as a kid. I wanted to be an artist. I loved to paint.
One time when I was ten years old, I snuck away from my training, hid on the back of the estate, and painted a picture. I thought if I could just create the most beautiful, best portrait of Mom and him, he would understand that I was not meant to take over the Eastern throne or fight in the initiation ceremony.
Surely, he would understand. Father loved art, too. He was the best living painter I knew.
But he found me. And with no hesitation, he slung the painting to the side, slammed my little ten-year-old body to the ground, and stomped on both of my hands so hard, I couldn’t hold a brush, fork, pencil, or anything else for a month.
Still, the next day, I was expected to show up at the gym and continue my training with broken hands. Sparring and climbing, shooting at the range behind our house and punching a wooden dummy for countless hours.
I was meant to be his champion. I was expected to destroy the thirty-six and take his crown.
That was my entire childhood. Hours before school and sunrise, I had to get up, run five miles, and then jump rope for thirty minutes. And each day, he stood over and watched me, yelling when I slacked and showing constant disapproval.
And now what? Why did you put me through all of that to utterly destroy me?
Chanel’s death devastated every cell in my body. I would never recover. I still hadn’t gotten over my mother’s passing.
And now. . .
My eyes burned from dread and sadness.
I rubbed them.
I suffered this past week without Chanel. I should have been going after my father in Glory, but I couldn’t leave Paradise. . .or more. . .I couldn’t leave Chanel’s lifeless body behind. I couldn’t be too far away.