Total pages in book: 238
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 231781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1159(@200wpm)___ 927(@250wpm)___ 773(@300wpm)
I wanted my weapon.
“Will!” another voice—this one also male—called. “Where are you?”
Why were they just calling for him and not the others?
“Will Grayson!” a woman shouted next, coughing.
My ear pricked, something familiar about that one, and Will sucked in a breath next to me.
“Oh, my God,” he whispered.
He shot to his feet, pulling me up by the arm. “Here!” he shouted.
Alex came running down the stairs as figures dressed in black moved through the smoke, and I saw three tall men with paracord draped over their chest and carrying duffle bags.
“What the hell did we bring paracord for?” Kai Mori said, looking to Michael Crist. “Thought you told us we were going to have to scale the walls and shit.”
Michael just smiled and grabbed Will by the neck, pulling him into a hug.
Will tensed like he was shocked, but after a moment he exhaled. “Came for me after all, huh?
“Always,” another voice said.
I looked as Damon stepped through the smoke, laughing as he dipped down, pressing his forehead to his best friend’s.
A woman came up, her blonde ponytail draped over her shoulder, the top of her head covered in a black ski cap.
Erika Fane?
“Let’s get the fuck out of here,” she said and then looked over my shoulder, calling, “Alex!”
Alex rushed forward, brushing past me and crashing into Rika’s arms. “You made it,” she breathed out in a laugh.
Erika nodded. “Worried?”
Alex chuckled. “No. Course not.”
Everyone started to rush out the door, but Alex and I hesitated, looking back through the smoke, toward the back of the house.
“Wait,” she shouted. “There’s more back there!”
Everyone rushed back in the house, but the fire had drifted down the hall, splintering off toward the kitchen and then right, toward the pool.
We rushed up to the flames.
“Emmy!” Will yelled.
“Emory Scott?” I heard Damon say. “Alex, you didn’t tell us she was here.”
But no one had time to explain.
I peered through the fire, trying to see a way past, but I couldn’t find a path. We couldn’t leave them there to burn.
Alex and I tried, stepping left and right and trying to get through, but strong arms pulled me back.
“Take her,” Will ordered.
The next thing I knew I was being swept into someone’s arms and over his shoulder, and I screamed, trying to thrash my way free.
I could walk.
“And don’t put her down,” Will growled. “She likes to not cooperate.”
Motherfucker!
“Lev!” someone called.
And then I heard someone say David and murmurs mentioning Aydin and Misha.
Where were we going?
We left the house, rain splattering my body as the foyer grew smaller and smaller in my vision and more of the house came into view.
The fire reached the upstairs windows, an orange glow filling the rooms behind the curtains, and I stared as far into the foyer as I could the farther away we got, hoping for Aydin to make it.
Waiting to see a glimpse of him.
I didn’t want him to die.
“Give her to me,” Micah growled.
I was pulled off someone’s shoulder and into Micah’s arms, looking over and seeing that Michael was the one who had been carrying me.
I snarled at him.
“I got her,” Micah told him.
Michael nodded and ran ahead, and as soon as he was gone, Micah dropped me to my feet, holding my hand as we ran with everyone else. I looked over my shoulder, stumbling.
The greenhouse was separated from the main house. Not that I cared about the snakes, but that was a rotten way for any living being to go. They should be safe, though.
We ran through the woods, and I barely noticed the cold as the thunder roared over us and the rain spilled heavier.
“Where are we?” Will asked them.
“You’ll never guess,” Damon told him.
“How long will it take to get home,” Will prodded.
And everyone just laughed, whatever that meant.
We raced through the trees, and I gasped for breath as my legs turned to rubber under me.
“Micah,” I pleaded for him to slow.
But he just pulled me along, and then I saw it, through the trees in the distance.
I squinted, trying to blink away the blur that was always there. I needed my glasses. Shit.
Was that a… A train?
We scurried over the rocks and leaves, past the tree line to a train spanning to my left and right on tracks as far as I could see.
Did Aydin know this was here? They all must’ve known. We hadn’t run that long—maybe ten minutes?
Maybe he thought it was abandoned.
Everyone ran to a car in the middle, and I looked at the beautiful black steam engine, old but well restored. Curtains hung on the inside of the windows, and the engine chugged a steady rhythm.
“Go!” Erika shouted. “Go now!”
Everyone climbed into the car, and I looked behind me one more time for any sign of Aydin or Taylor.
I do know where you’re going, he’d said.
I didn’t even have to act like I didn’t know, either.