Total pages in book: 209
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196141 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 981(@200wpm)___ 785(@250wpm)___ 654(@300wpm)
Kaleb swallows. He tries to say, “Yes,” but chokes. Instead, he finds himself saying, “I … I think my friends are dead.”
Raya pauses. “Friends?”
“The ones who tried to escape. With me. Ashara said they were fine, but … but I don’t think …” Kaleb chokes again, tries not to cry. “I don’t think she let them live.”
A long moment passes. There’s a dreamy note in her voice when she says, “I don’t know the fate of your friends. What I do know is you deserve better. Better than this. Than all of this. It’s not too late to have a life outside of this deceptive place … a real life, an honest life. Hey, do you remember our game? … That one we played in the cells where we pretended to be other people?”
Kaleb finds himself smiling, remembering it.
“I want us to become people,” she says. Then she laughs. “That sounds so stupid. Doesn’t that sound stupid?”
“It doesn’t,” answers Kaleb.
There is a tender silence. “You need to stay strong. You are going to have to fight for that dream, Kaleb. Both of us are. We may not find our dream for another year, maybe many years … or it could be tomorrow. But we have to fight anyway.”
Kaleb is seduced at once by that dream. He can nearly taste it. Smell it. Feel it like fresh air on his skin. His parents at the kitchen table, making a fuss over his grades. His overprotective brother who kept walking him to school even when he hated it.
And a girl next door. A totally normal girl named Raya.
“I don’t know if it’s … p-possible,” says Kaleb.
“When I was mortal, just a child, so many ages ago … there was a great big spider that hunted me.”
Kaleb frowns. “S-Spider …?”
“In the dead of night. It was the size of my room, this giant spider monster. I was going to be eaten alive. I screamed, but my parents didn’t come. The spider … it kept approaching … I braced for death.” She pauses. “Then I noticed the candle on my table. And … I realized … it was merely a giant shadow … on the wall, a shadow of a teeny tiny spider passing by the flame.”
Kaleb lifts his eyebrows. “A tiny spider …?”
“The point is that your enemy seems enormous right now. A monster can appear insurmountable. But if you look at it the right way, approach it from the right angle … you might find that it is so small, you can squish it beneath your thumb.”
Kaleb glances down at his hand.
At his thumb.
“It was a real illusion,” says Raya. “Not one of Markadian’s. They’re all around us here, too … real illusions … deceptions. And monsters. You have to be strong, Kaleb, just like I’ve been strong, but maybe not in the way you think. You have to know your enemy … but more importantly, the shadows they cast.”
29.
Our Blood Boy.
—∙—
The creaking of footsteps overhead is strangely comforting, as Kyle and Drake sit in the corner of the church basement, just an old folded-up curtain between their asses and the hard floor. In the middle of the room, an exhausted Cade pores over that sinister-looking book like an obsession. Jeremy and Layna have gone upstairs to presumably sleep on the pews, but there’s no telling if they’re actually able to sleep, despite being kept awake all night long. Someone was sent half an hour ago to bring back food for everyone.
Even if no one’s in the mood for eating.
Or resting. Or sleeping. Or feeling like their life isn’t about to come to a tragic end the moment the sun sets again.
“You really should sleep,” says Drake.
Kyle sighs. “Not a chance.”
“You’ve got circles under your eyes. You barely slept in our desert hole. I could feel you fidgeting all day.”
Kyle snorts. “You expected me to get any sleep while I was crammed inside a hole in the desert? Forced to stand the whole time? It was one of the most uncomfortable experiences I have ever had in my life. Over twelve hours of that torment.”
“You were leaning on me. It was like … a really long hug.”
Kyle sighs heavily, crosses his arms, and leans his head back against the wall, closing his eyes.
He feels Drake’s head rest against his shoulder.
He decides not to care.
Cade curses under her breath at the table. Kyle tries not to notice. Then the sound of a page flipping. Another page. Then another sigh. Kyle keeps his eyes closed.
The floorboards above creak with footsteps again. It’s likely Chief Rojas or Mikey pacing around. Their presence comforts Kyle, makes him feel less alone.
Could they really be facing their final hours?
Could this really be Kyle’s last day alive?
Will all the vampires storm them from every direction the moment the sun falls beyond the horizon?