Total pages in book: 178
Estimated words: 169578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 848(@200wpm)___ 678(@250wpm)___ 565(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 169578 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 848(@200wpm)___ 678(@250wpm)___ 565(@300wpm)
“Let me worry about such things. You just take what you need and listen to me.”
The fire crawled closer. They would either burn alive or be forced out by the lethal heat.
“You’re going to leave, Adriel. Run as far as you can and lock your mind. I’ll be able to track you for a few hundred miles since you have my blood, but that stays between us. I’ll tell no one. Not even Christian. For right now, for your survival, secrecy is best. I give you my word, I will watch over your son as if he were my own—and his young mate. If you leave now, you have a chance. Let The Order deal with Cerberus.
Shaking violently, she released his arm. While she appreciated his plan and help, this was one more excuse that allowed a truly dishonorable male to survive at the cost of an innocent female’s life. It was too much. “Eleazar, you need to destroy him.”
The bishop was a man of God, and as such, he saw murder as a capitol sin, even when a death sentence was warranted by the law. “We could put him before The Council—”
“That is a fantasy and you know it is such. Cerberus would never submit to such authority.”
“We can decide his fate later. For now, it’s your fate that concerns me.”
She grabbed his arm and waited for him to meet her stare. “Those who rebel against God will bring judgement onto themselves. You’re our bishop, a rightful servant of God and the Good Book declares you His servant, an agent of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.” She closed her hand tightly around his. “You must kill him.”
“Adriel—”
She shook her head, forbidding one more excuse that allowed Cerberus to live. “This is the horrible truth of your duty, my friend. I don’t envy the burden upon your shoulders, but it’s what you must do.”
He lowered his gaze and released her hand. “You must go.” He pulled her toward the back door. “Quickly, Adriel. For now, you must run. Lock your mind and run. Don’t come back until the situation has been resolved.”
He was hiding truths from her. Sheltering her delicate disposition from the ugly reality of the world. She shoved away his hold and straightened her spine. “I’m not a little girl anymore. You said so yourself. I’m an elder who lacks a title only to comfort the fragile male egos that hold authority over The Order. But I am an elder, Eleazar, and I know what has to be done. I’ll run and survive the night, but if Cerberus lives to see the dawn, I’ll do what must be done. I’ll kill him. So he won’t come back.”
“Adriel, love or hate him, he is your mate—”
“He is a monster! An evil, immoral male who has terrorized me since I was a young girl. I will not rest until he’s put down. And if ending him costs me my own life, so be it.”
A large wooden beam whined and creaked as the walls bubbled under the flames. “You have to go now, Adriel, or we’re both going to burn alive.” He steered her to the back door.
“Wait. The Book of Confessions. Show it to my son when this is over. Tell Christian I’m sorry. Had I been stronger, I might have had the courage to explain our family’s history to him myself. Tell him how proud I am of the honorable male he’s become.”
“You’ll tell him yourself when you return, but you have to go now.”
The ceiling collapsed, and the foundation of the house moaned. “Close your mind, and go as far as you can manage. Wait as long as possible before reaching out. Go now.”
The heat of the fire pushed forward as another window shattered. Screams built in the distance as the flames crackled and the wood blazed. This was it.
Smoke billowed and burned her eyes. She met his squinting gaze one last time, unsure if it would be her last chance to stare into the face of a friend. “Thank you. For everything.”
He nodded. “Go.”
She bolted through the door, running straight for the northern woods.
Delilah sputtered, her lungs on fire, as Christian’s blurry figure loomed over his father’s downed form. Maddox’s stare turned toward the northern woods, and he sprang to his feet just as The Order closed in.
Thunderous shouts clamored from the hill as a stampede of poorly armed immortals raced forward, closing in from the east, while a herd of mismatched farm animals bleated and brayed, encircling from the west.
Maddox, cornered and trapped, raised both hands and pushed his palms toward the sky. A wave of light burst from the trees, webbing from the black overhead clouds to the wood line below. A deadly bolt of lightning stabbed into the earth. An earsplitting boom blasted overhead, echoing out into the distance. Trees fell to the north as branches and leaves caught fire in a burst of flames and light.