Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
I was quiet for a moment, and Kellan relaxed slightly. Just slightly. Then he raised his hand to Matt, and I murmured, “You don’t think I can do it?”
“What? No.”
But it was too late. Kellan whirled around just as I lifted my hand in the air. I didn’t do anything great. I thought one word, but tried to put extra oomph in it. Forget! Then the air zapped. It felt like a tidal wave of electricity washed over us. When I looked up, Kellan was staring at me with something that looked like fear in his eyes. Matt was on the ground. And I was…I looked down. I was floating in the air.
“Oh!” Immediately, I crashed to the ground.
“Do you know what you just did?” Kellan growled.
“Thanks for helping me up,” I grumbled as I stood and then dusted off my pants.
He ignored me, staring at Matt. “I wasn’t going to kill him, Shay. I was going to make him hurt for a while, and then I was going to turn him into our bitch. He was going to live life normally, but he’d always do whatever we wanted him to do. That’s all I was going to do to him. Swear. Now, we have to sit back and see what you did to him. The most I do is wipe memories of certain events. I’ve never killed anyone.” Kellan looked and stared directly in my eyes.
When I stared back, I saw multiple layers in his eyes. The first was human. It was what anyone would see. The second was more demon, but it was what he thought was the truth. A part of him really thought he was telling the truth, that he was only going to turn Matt into our servant. Then I looked past into the third and fourth layers. There were more behind them, but I saw what I wanted to see.
Kellan wasn’t as in complete control of his demon as he thought. He had killed, but he either didn’t know or he didn’t want to tell me he knew, not at that particular time. A part of me knew it didn’t make sense, but it was what it was. Kellan was telling the truth when he said that he was only going to brainwash Matt a little. Not completely. That was something, right?
“What do you see?” Kellan asked quietly.
“What?” I shook out of my own trance-like stare.
“You were looking into me, Shay. What did you see? I have a feeling you see something no one else does.”
Something in his voice caught my attention. Narrowing my eyes, I studied him again. Kellan didn’t move. He didn’t twitch. There was an extra meaning in his words that I’d never heard. “What are you saying? What do you mean by that?”
Then it was gone. Kellan smirked and withdrew. “Figure it out.” When he looked at Matt, he groaned. “Look at him. You turned him into an actual zombie.”
“No, I…” My voice faded when I saw what he saw. Matt had a blank expression in his eyes. He lay on the ground with his hands resting together on his stomach. His chest still moved up and down so we knew he was alive, but there was nothing in his mind. I’d turned him into something like the living dead.
“I…”
Kellan cursed and then barked out, “Get up!”
Matt stood. He didn’t move stiffly, but like normal. His eyes were so blank.
“You will remember your life. You will live your life as you did, but you will stay away from any Braden. Do you understand?”
Matt never blinked. He didn’t say a word.
Kellan cursed again and then slammed his hand into Matt’s forehead. As he did, he muttered something under his breath. The same energy sparked in the air, and Matt’s body jerked alive. His back arched. His feet lifted off the ground. And then everything was frozen for a second after. Suddenly, Matt’s body fell back to the ground, and he let out a strangled cry. As he fell, moaning, Kellan turned to me. His eyes were hard. “Go home.”
“But.”
Matt looked up, blinking away tears in his eyes. “Wha…who?”
“Go, Shay!”
His command bounced off me. It would’ve compelled someone else, possibly even our siblings, but I merely looked at him in confusion. “You fixed it?”
“Go. Do your painting.”
I turned without thinking. When his words registered, I stopped and whirled back. “You know?”
“I’ve always known.” Kellan gentled his voice and bent to help Matt back to his feet. He spoke to me as he watched Matt tentatively start to walk toward his home. “I know everything about you, Shay. One of these days you’ll realize why it’s me and no one else.”
“What?” He knew about my paintings… Did he know about the ones of him?
He sighed and walked past me. “Come on. Let’s go.”
I watched as he got into my car, in the driver’s seat, and then opened the passenger door for me. I got in reluctantly. “I feel like I have no idea what’s going on anymore.”