Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Swallowing past the emotions knotted in my throat takes some effort. “Why are you telling me this? I’m not Zeke.”
It’s the only thing I can think to say because I can’t let him off the hook that easily. All I know is my resentment. Burning hate is the only way I know how to connect with them at this point. That…and Aurelia. And Khalil just told me he’d take her from me, too, one day.
Fuck him.
“I know that,” he says quickly. “I just…” Khalil’s chest expands when he breathes in and out deeply. “I don’t just think of you as being a part of Zeke. You are real, and I care about you, Seth. That makes you my brother, too, even if you don’t feel the same.”
He reaches for me, but I take a step back as my gaze narrows. “How do I know you’re not just saying this so that I won’t let you hurt Sunshine?”
“Because you were right, okay? I don’t want to be rid of her.”
“I knew it!” Forgetting the heavy topic of my imprisonment and daily torture, I grin triumphantly when the discussion returns to Sunshine. “You feel her too, don’t you? She doesn’t just have us by the cock and balls, Khalil.” I tap the side of my head with my finger. “She’s in here too, pressing against your skull.”
Khalil gives me a dead look. “I think they call that a tumor, Seth.”
“Oh, yes, I know.” I continue to grin until it feels like my face will break. “Love. It’s gloriously gory, isn’t it?”
And Aurelia, our gorgeous little tumor, is quickly spreading and working her deadly magic on us all. I love her so fucking much.
Two down, one to go.
Thorin’s a stubborn bastard, but Aurelia doesn’t give up easily—not that she’ll admit what she’s doing to us. Aurelia’s a ruthless queen who wants to burn the world. All she needs is us. Her loyal fire-breathing dragons who will protect and avenge her.
Someone should tell her.
No, that might scare her off.
Better to lay low and let her conquer us one by one.
It takes another hour for Khalil and I to reach the exfil point where we’re choppered to the camp. Once our boots are on the ground, we track down Sheriff Kelley, who’s speaking to one of the rangers. Spotting us, he ends his conversation and walks over.
“Appreciate you boys making it down so quickly. I know it was last minute.” The sheriff’s gaze bounces between Khalil and me before searching behind us and realizing it’s just the two of us. “It looks like you’re missing one,” he observes slowly. “Where’s Thorin?”
“Sorry, Sheriff. We got caught up in that squall last week, and Thor caught a nasty case of pneumonia,” I say, delivering the excuse we’d rehearsed to explain Thor’s absence before Khalil and I took off. “He stayed at home to finish recovering.”
After Aurelia’s failed escape attempt, we’d be morons to leave her alone again, so Thorin volunteered to stay behind and keep an eye on her. She’s been on her best behavior ever since we saved her, and I’d like to think she’s finally settling in, but I know it’s more likely that she’s feeling discouraged after almost dying.
Her feelings of defeat won’t last, so Thor, Khalil, and I have been on guard all week, keeping her mind inside our cabin so that she stops thinking of the life she lost.
“Oh, hell,” the sheriff says grimly. “I’m sorry to hear that. I’d normally turn you around to go look after him, but we’ve already lost too many vital days, so we need all hands on deck. What do you say I send my wife to check on him? Her homemade soup could heal anything. One sip will have him right as rain in no time.”
“We appreciate that, Sheriff, but it’s looking up. His fever is down, so he should be back on his feet in a couple of days.”
“Good, good. That’s great to hear.” Despite his words, his expression becomes pinched. “Although, it makes what I’m about to ask difficult.”
Khalil keeps a straight face. “Yeah? And what’s that?”
“We need you two to stay at the camp for the next couple of days.”
“Why?”
“Because this is it, boys.” The sheriff removes his hat with a grave look on his weathered face. “We’re searching every square inch of these mountains round-the-clock, and if we don’t find Aurelia George in the next forty-eight hours, we’re calling off the search. Permanently.”
I nod my agreement. “You did everything you could, sir. This isn’t your fault.”
“Yeah, you might be right about that, son, but it won’t keep me out of the bottle tonight.” He starts to trudge off when he pauses and peers at us. The scrutiny would make lesser men squirm. “You know…she’s the only one we haven’t found. All the others, every single soul who was on that plane—dead or alive—has been found except her. We even gave what pieces were left of that poor girl we found near a wolf den back to her family. But Aurelia George? Nothing. Gone. Vanished into thin air. It makes you wonder, doesn’t it?”