Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 48929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 245(@200wpm)___ 196(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 48929 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 245(@200wpm)___ 196(@250wpm)___ 163(@300wpm)
“I’m going too,” Molly chimes in. “Draven’s still out there and…”
“I’ll stay behind,” Emery volunteers softly. “Calix, Av, and Oz are close by, too. We’ll keep an eye on the children. Willow?”
Willow nods. “I’ll stay with the twins, Mom.”
Molly sighs in relief, offering her daughter a small smile of thanks.
“I can’t leave,” Grace says as she bounces the swaddled bundle in her arms, “but I’ll do what I can to help hold down the fort.”
“This is a suicide mission, Lyric,” Zoe spits out. “We should all stay here until we know more.”
“We’re going,” Lyric says. “End of discussion.”
Quinn wraps an arm around Zoe’s shoulders. “They’ll be okay.”
I don’t wait a second longer. Hell, I barely wait to make sure the others are following. Aria scurries in front of me to make sure I don’t barge my way in the wrong direction and I make a mental note to thank her when I’m not scared out of my mind. She and Lyric lead the group of women through the passages—I feel like I’ve been in tunnels for an eternity. When this is over, I’m going to spend weeks outside in the fresh air with Galen hunting up whatever flowers and roots he wants to. We’ll spend all day in the bushes making love and hopefully more little Galens. A thousand more. Henry deserves other little people to play with.
After I ground Henry for a thousand years for leaving my side, I’m going to hug him and never let go.
“This is the armory—sort of,” Aria says when we reach a small off-shoot of the tunnels. “We’ll each take a magknife and a zonnoblaster just in case.”
“Just point and shoot,” Lyric offers with a smirk. “You can’t do it wrong.”
We strap on our suits and air tanks in case the air above is foul with smoke and other fumes from Oz’s explosion. It’s a good thing, too, because the moment we open the door from the tunnels to the bowels of the Facility, a putrid black fog permeates the air. It’s so noxious, I can smell it even with the air tanks and suit. Whatever the visors are made of allows my vision to penetrate a few feet in front of me, but barely.
“Let’s start with the Command Center. If Breccan is anywhere, that’s where he’ll be,” Aria says confidently through the communicator in my ear.
It kills me a little inside to put Henry’s fate in someone else’s hands, but I don’t have any other choice. Wandering around in near-dark with no clue where I’m going would waste precious time. I have to trust her. Galen would tell me to trust her. So I motion for her to show me and follow close behind with the others at my back.
The dark fog is eerie, making the hair on my skin stand up underneath the suit. Every so often a piece of the Facility will creak or collapse in the distance, making me jump and whirl, stirring up the shadowy fog even more. We’re not too far into the Facility when I hear a gasp from Aria.
My heart convulses, my throat constricts, and I race to her side where she’s kneeling on the ground beside a bulky shadow. Please don’t let it be him. “What is it?”
For one heartrending moment, she doesn’t answer. Then she expels an explosive breath, but my racing pulse doesn’t ease until she says, “It’s okay. It’s a human. One of the soldiers. He’s dead. We must be getting close.”
The mangled body of an Earth II soldier comes into view as the smoke clears. Their face is mottled with blood, almost unrecognizable. The soldiers must be lurking around trying to regroup, attacking the morts when they wander through. I push myself to my feet, needing to step away from the boiling rage that fills me. This is what Galen felt when he would fight to protect us. Against the sabrevibes, those humans who kidnapped us. A rage so profound, he was willing to risk everything he was for those he loved.
I can only hope it would continue to protect him—and Henry.
“Let’s keep going. They have to be near here.” I lift my zonnoblaster to a ready position. “Henry will be wherever they are.”
He has to be.
“Stay behind me,” Aria orders. She’s breathing heavily, fogging up her mask—the only sign betraying her nerves. The hands holding her zonnoblaster are steady. “There could be more of those assholes.”
“Hopefully more dead assholes,” Lyric grumbles.
“Do you think the morts could be hurt?” Molly asks. There are murmured agreements from the others behind me. “Draven isn’t known for being careful.”
It’s not only my family that’s out here. All of their mates are, too.
Aria hesitates for a moment like she wants to give Molly comfort. There simply isn’t time. We have to find them—now. Worrying about it won’t do anything. “If they are, we will take them back to Avrell and Zoe. He can work miracles. Now let’s keep moving. It’s dangerous to stay in one place.”