Total pages in book: 118
Estimated words: 108563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 108563 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 543(@200wpm)___ 434(@250wpm)___ 362(@300wpm)
I skip over the bars that block people from stepping out onto the tracks and forge ahead. The cart is already halfway around the track, so I head in the opposite direction, ready to catch it as it passes through.
The smell of gasoline is thick in the air, and as I race along the tracks, I keep my eye on the prize, desperate to get to her.
Shadow’s squeals cut through the night, and I know without a doubt that it’s not the fear of the fiery cart that has her screaming, it’s the agonizing burn of the fire against her delicate skin.
The track bends toward the sky, and the further I run, the higher up I go, but nothing can stop me now, and as I begin to reach the very peak of the track, standing high over the amusement park, I have no choice but to try and time this just right.
The fiery cart is blazing around the tracks, traveling at a speed no human could possibly keep up with as it whips around the tracks and flies around the sharp bends. My feet don’t stop moving, and just as the cart speeds toward me on a parallel track, a bullet whizzes through the sky, grazing my upper arm.
“FUCK!” I screech, ducking down just in time to miss another.
The cart is barreling closer, and I don’t even get a chance to look back to see who’s shooting before I have to jump, launching myself off the track and through the air. My body crashes down into the fiery cart, slamming into Shadow’s chest as three more bullets sail past us.
“Shit,” I say as Shadow lets out a loud cry at the impact of my body slamming into her chest.
I adjust myself in the small space, narrowly avoiding the flames creeping up the sides of the cart every time we begin to lose momentum. I’m frantically trying to figure out how to get her out of here while being all too aware of the deep dive the cart is about to take down the track. There are cable ties locked around her wrists and ankles, but I keep searching, knowing these cable ties aren’t an issue for Shadow. That’s when I notice the heavy rope wrapped around her chest, bracing her to the cart.
Another bullet whizzes by, and I curse under my breath. “Who the fuck is shooting at me?”
“The Boneyard Slayer,” Shadow yells over the noise of the roaring wind whipping past us.
“Fuck,” I grunt, trying to focus on the issue at hand.
My blades will easily get through the rope, but there’s so much of it that neither of us are about to get out of this cart without injury, and having said that, I get straight to work slicing through the cable ties at her wrists and ankles.
“What the fuck did you think you were doing coming here alone?” I demand, starting on the thick ropes as I keep my head down, hidden away from the constant bullets, but I’m not worried. If it were anyone else, the bullets might actually have a chance of taking me out, but The Boneyard Slayer is a lousy shot.
I tear through the bottom rope, giving Shadow enough space to start moving her arms and the second she can, she grabs a knife from my thigh holster and gets right to work, frantically trying to help me free her.
“You said we were a family,” Shadow grunts as the wind whips violently through my hair. “This is what family does for each other. I couldn’t stand the thought of you two going out and trying to save me when I could have saved us all.”
“This is your idea of saving us?” I say, noticing the fresh tears in her eyes. “Shit, Shadow. Do you have any idea—fuck. We can fight about it later, for now, we just need to get you out of here.”
“What about you?” she demands as more bullets sail over our heads, one of them getting way too close to Shadow.
“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine,” I say, slicing through another rope as the flames blister my skin.
We cut through enough rope that Shadow is finally able to shimmy out of the destroyed bindings, and just as she’s free enough and goes to pull herself away from the blaze at her back, she looks up ahead on the track. “Shit,” she grunts.
I look back over my shoulder, seeing the way the track takes a steep dive before sailing straight into a twisting loop, and with neither of us locked into this damn cart, there’s no way we could both hold on. Then grabbing a gun out of my holster, I shove it at her chest. “RUN!”
“But you—”
“FUCKING RUN, SHADOW.”
She clenches her jaw, and after closing her hand around the gun, she climbs up onto the small seat of the burning cart and launches herself onto the track. She doesn’t skip a beat, breaking into a sprint through the barrage of bullets, and just as I see Shadow’s head disappear behind the raging flames, I have just enough time to clutch onto the burning handlebar of the cart as it falls down the massive dip of the track.