Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
The Euphorians thought peace would last forever. They thought they could do anything to anyone, go to other worlds, take sentient beings and bring them back as amusements and nothing bad would ever happen. They thought they could kill fathers and steal mothers and imprison brothers, and nothing would ever happen.
Now something is happening. Something terrible and destructive, something that will scar the city and its people for the rest of their lifetimes.
Ark curses and picks me up, running for safety. The prison would be closer, but he doesn’t want to go there for obvious reasons, instead he is forced to make a break for more open territory. It is completely random as to who is hit by the wreckage, and who is sent plummeting miles to the sunless ground below when the path they are standing on becomes suddenly unmoored.
As much as I relish this chaos, I know it could just as easily take us out. I cling to Ark and close my eyes and hope for whatever passes for the best in this situation.
“BROTHER!”
A familiar shout makes me open my eyes as Kahn sweeps down in a shuttle next to us. I thought he would be in the prison handing the charge off to Zain while we made our scene, but it seems he managed to make it to his shuttle. This is very good news for us. A savior is at hand.
“Get in!” Kahn throws the hatch of the shuttle open.
Ark races toward the shuttle and leaps into it, keeping a close and tight hold of me as we make a getaway among the storm of ship which continues to rain pieces large and small, and now a sad ash which turns the perennially bright skies of Euphoria to a dour gray.
There’s silence as Kahn pilots the shuttle out of the danger zone. What was almost impossible to escape safely on foot is much easier to clear in a shuttle. It’s a matter of seconds to leave the center of peril, and then only a few more minutes to reach the Voros family home.
Not a fucking word is spoken until Kahn lands and we disembark. There is a shell-shocked vibe among all three of us. We stand and stare. I assume they are talking telepathically.
Something is wrong. Not in the ship exploding way sort of wrong. Something is wrong between the brothers. Ark is keeping me in his lap, holding onto me so tightly, as if he’s still afraid of me getting hurt. I am confused and a little scared because I do not know what is going on.
“Kahn…” Ark begins to speak out loud.
“Don’t ask a question you don’t want the answer to,” Kahn says.
“Do I need to ask the question? Or do I already know?”
I wonder what they are saying to one another telepathically. There is probably so much I miss out on when it comes to the conversation between these brothers. What they’re saying out loud is cryptic and more than a little nonsensical. There’s definitely some drama going down.
“We’re going to have to vacate the family home. They’re going to assume we were behind…”
“There will never be any evidence. Just as there was never any evidence for what happened to our father.”
Kahn speaks with a cool, collected tone that is actually incredibly chilling to hear. I haven’t heard probably ninety percent of the conversation, but I didn’t need to. I’ve heard enough. Somehow, Kahn is behind this. He blew up that ship.
Moments later, he confesses as much with a casual shrug.
“I decided not to give Zain the charge. I decided to put it somewhere else.”
Ark
Kahn has just killed an entire crew and taken out millions of dollars of technology in a single reckless act. He has obliterated all semblance of civilization in this war. And he has come out hard and entirely in favor of fighting for our family.
I let Jen go for a moment so I can draw Kahn into my arms for a hug of the kind we have not shared in many years.
“I didn’t know you had it in you,” I say, fighting back tears.
This is what a united front feels like. Yes, he was chaotic and unpredictable and dangerous, and perhaps even committed an atrocity, but it was well overdue. Nobody has feared the house of Voros in years. Now they will. Now they will see what befalls the city when we are crossed.
Perhaps I should be horrified by Kahn’s actions. Perhaps I should condemn them as being too extreme. But this is what happens when good men are pushed further than they can bear. Kahn wanted peace. He wanted an easy life. But Phenix could not let him, or us, be.
This is the end of peace in Euphoria. It is the beginning of war.
When I release my brother, I see Jen standing there. Not running. Not hiding. Not trying to escape. Instead she is smiling broadly and proudly.