Total pages in book: 113
Estimated words: 105164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105164 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 526(@200wpm)___ 421(@250wpm)___ 351(@300wpm)
“That’s a shame.” He paused to carefully step over a fallen log, flashing Drayce a wicked grin over his shoulder. “I had another idea of where you could set up camp that was going to be even more fun.”
Oh! Caelan’s bed.
No! Their bed.
Yes, that did sound like a better idea. They could stay in bed for a week and have people bring them yummy food from the kitchen. This was an excellent idea.
A chuckle brought Drayce’s gaze back to Caelan. “What?”
“I can hear your thoughts ping-ponging between food and sex. It’s nice to know that I share the first-place spot with your appetite.”
Drayce shrugged and didn’t bother to deny it. There was no point. Caelan could hear his thoughts. And after all this time, if Caelan didn’t know that he was the most important to him—even more than good food—he wasn’t doing a very good job as a boyfriend and fiancé.
He opened his mouth to make a joke when the echo of a twig snapping sent them both to their knees, hiding in the dense undergrowth. They’d been getting steadily closer to the Empire soldiers.
Only about ten minutes passed before six men stepped out through a thicket of trees into a small clearing. The gold accents on their black uniforms glinted in the afternoon sun. They moved cautiously but didn’t seem to be making much of an attempt to be quiet.
Each walked along with a head on a swivel, constantly in motion, scanning for possible attackers, while holding an assault rifle in two clenched fists. That could be useful, particularly since those men had to be carrying spare ammo as well.
“Six against two is hardly fair,” Caelan muttered.
“We could make it more of a challenge,” Drayce suggested. Caelan gave a small nod, urging him to continue. “If one of your targets fires his weapon, you lose.”
“No shifting.”
“No being a god.”
Caelan rolled his eyes and they turned their attention to the approaching soldiers. They were headed in the direction of Eno and Rayne. The sooner they took care of this threat, the better it was for all of them.
The grouping of six had spread out across the clearing as they headed in a vaguely northern direction. It felt like a very disorganized way to search for anyone—but then, the Ordas was enormous and largely uncharted. It wasn’t like the Empire knew which way they were headed. The Erya soldiers were largely in the same boat with Adrian guiding them in a general direction toward Caelan. They might as well have been two blind men fumbling around in a lion’s den. They couldn’t see each other, and there was a good chance something else was waiting to eat them.
Caelan motioned for Drayce to take the three soldiers to the far right while he took the ones to the left. With a smirk of confidence to his best friend, Drayce slipped his knife from its sheath on his hip and started to silently cut through the thick growth, relying on the heavy foliage and dense shadows to provide him cover. He glanced back once to find that Caelan had disappeared as well, stalking his prey.
He needed to move fast to get into a good position. If Caelan struck first, his chances of moving without being seen were practically nonexistent. His heart sped up and sweat slipped from his temple down the side of his face. Insects zipped and buzzed through the air, but the birds in the trees had grown quiet, as if they were watching the show from their perches, waiting for the action to happen.
Very carefully, Drayce moved into position behind the soldier who was lagging behind the others. He looked to be the youngest with light-brown hair and red face from too many hours out in the sun. It was a shame. He was too young to be in this war, but Drayce wasn’t about to let anything happen to the people he cared about.
The second the soldier turned his back on Drayce, he leaped up and drove his blade into the man’s throat. With his free hand, he grabbed his shoulder and pulled him down. They crashed noisily into the bushes. All five of the soldiers jerked around in their direction. Drayce cursed his luck. That was way louder than he’d meant it to be, but stealth wasn’t his forte. He was a sniper and a dragon. He attacked them from a distance or he bellowed and belched fire. Adrian was the sneaky one.
With the corpse gushing blood on top of him, Drayce fumbled and reached for the gun lying in the dead man’s hands. He lifted it as the soldiers were locating him and sprayed a quick burst of gunfire, taking out three more before they could even aim their guns.
“You got one of mine!” Caelan complained.
The remaining two soldiers turned to see Caelan standing behind them, his sword clenched in his right hand. They didn’t even have time to raise their weapons. They gasped once and Caelan slashed through the air, decapitating both as smoothly as popping the heads off a couple of dandelions.