Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64702 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 324(@200wpm)___ 259(@250wpm)___ 216(@300wpm)
“In the back of the room, down a hallway, but I need a minute. I have to—”
“We don’t have a minute,” Creed grinds out, grabbing my hand. Voices sound outside the lab, an argument about how to bring down the door and not the entire lab.
“That’s it,” she says, and punches a button. “We have exactly five minutes before the lab and all my research on Red Dart goes up in flames.”
A blast sounds in the hallway. The door rattles but doesn’t come down.
“We can’t leave Brock!” Jocelyn insists.
Creed half growls. “He’s a walking tracking device.”
“I can use him to make an antidote in case Red Dart ever surfaces again. Please. We need him.”
With a conflicted grimace, Creed releases my hand and is in the cage, checking Brock’s pulse in a flash, shaking his head, and rushing back to us. “He’s dead,” he announces, already motioning us toward the rear exit, his gun in his hand as a blast finishes off the lab door. “Go! Go! Go!” he yells, firing off a round of bullets.
Creed is still behind us, firing away, as Jocelyn punches in a code in a panel, and steel doors slide open, exposing a stairwell. I yank at Creed’s arm, urging him inside, and then Jocelyn punches a button again. The doors slam shut—a barrier between us and our attackers—and we’re already running up the stairs.
Gunfire sounds behind us and above, but they aren’t shooting at us. Renegades. The Renegades must be here. Or maybe the human soldiers. Creed pulls us both behind him, and when he reaches the next door, he calls out over his shoulder, “Code!”
Jocelyn shouts it out, and in a moment, Creed has it open but holds our position, yanking his phone from his pants and dialing. “We’re in the house,” he says to Caleb, I’m guessing. “The kitchen. The entire thing is going to blow. Get everyone out.” He disconnects, focusing on getting us out.
Almost instantly, more Zodius soldiers are on us, and Creed is fighting. Me and Jocelyn hide in the stairwell, but the minute I see a soldier down and a weapon in reach, I go for it. I start firing, but they come up behind us, and suddenly I’m being yanked by my hair down the hallway.
“Creed!” I scream, but it’s too late. The soldier has me out of the house—which is a good thing since it’s going to blow—but he could windwalk me someplace that I’ll never come back from. “Creed!”
That’s when the blast happens, and we go flying in the air with the impact.
Chapter Fifty-Six
Creed
I windwalk out of the house with the wind on my side, talking to me, helping me, and delivering me to Addie’s exact location, but I hit the lawn right as the blast sends us all flying and then sprawling to the ground. I’m on my feet before the shaking even stops, and I find myself facing off with Tad, who is holding a gun to Addie’s head. He can’t windwalk. I won’t let him. It’s not a power I’ve ever wielded until now, but I feel it—I feel the wind. I hear it tell me it won’t happen.
He can’t leave.
But he’s a coldblooded killer with a gun to my lifebond’s head. “The general, for his daughter,” Tad bargains as Caleb steps to my side.
The fool must think the general can still give him Red Dart, or he’s just buying time until reinforcements arrive.
Fuck that shit, is all I can think. I unleash the wind with nothing more than a thought, and his gun flies out of his hand, the wind curving around him and him alone, imprisoning him. “You get Addie,” Caleb says. “I’ll handle Tad.”
I charge for Addie, who’s stumbling toward me, and once she’s in my arms, I release the wind, and Caleb takes over with Tad. Renegade soldiers swarm the area, but there are few soldiers left, all dead or long-retreated.
My mother rushes to our side, ashes smudged on her face. “I can’t keep this,” she says, reaching for my hand—something I never thought she’d do ever again in my lifetime. “The Red Dart Crystal. It’s what makes it work. Keep it safe.”
I inhale sharply, my fingers curling around the offering, though I’m unable to fully consider the magnitude of my mother’s actions right now. She didn’t destroy everything, as she led us to believe. But instead of using the crystal for personal gain, she’d given it to me, and now I am free to end this battle without recourse, with no fear that Lawrence still held the power of Red Dart.
“The general is gone, though,” she warns. “He’s trouble.” She squeezes Addie’s arm. “I’m sorry, honey, but he’s a monster and a deceiver. He made me believe so many things that weren’t true.” Her gaze returns to mine. “I’m sorry, Creed. I’m sorry for everything, but right now, you have to find him. You have to stop him before he acts again.”