Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116263 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 581(@200wpm)___ 465(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
I felt like her stare was searing into me. Burning through the rubble. Like she might have a tap into the otherworlds.
I didn’t have time to answer before the door behind us buzzed and a security guard pushed through, his words rushing out ahead of him. “Sorry to keep you waiting, Jill.”
He’d been fully at ease when he’d come through. The second he caught sight of me, he was instantly on guard.
His free hand moved to the Taser at his side while he stood frozen in the doorway.
Darkness spilled in from behind him and into the bright lights that shone above, the silence so acute I heard the foreboding woven in its fibers.
“Is there a problem here?” His attention swung between us, gauging the situation.
The man was tall and too thin. I’d peg him in his midfifties. He was doing his best to appear fierce. Confident. Though I didn’t miss the tremors that rolled through his body.
Irritation beat a path through my senses, the lure coming from behind that door growing intense.
Severe.
Overpowering.
It was almost impossible not to listen to it and force my way through. I shifted on my feet, trying to keep the turmoil at bay.
The echo of her spirit.
The shout of her soul.
Pax. Pax. Pax.
I swore I could hear her pleading my name.
Jill turned to wave him off. “No, we just need a moment of privacy, Will. Thank you. If you’d step out for a second.”
The frown he developed promised it went against protocol. “Are you sure? I’ll be—”
A crash suddenly echoed from somewhere in the recess of the facility. Metal clattered against a hard floor, reverberating off the walls and traveling the hall in a flurry of desperation.
One second later, a scream pierced the air. “Help!”
Her spirit pierced and slayed, and the sparks glinting beneath my skin burst into flames.
At the commotion, the security guard whirled around.
I didn’t hesitate to take the opportunity.
I acted.
Grabbing the edge of the door he had propped open with his body, I swung it open wider and shoved him out of the way.
It took him the flash of a second to realize that I was pushing around him, and a hand darted out to try to grab me by the arm. “What the hell do you think you’re doing? You can’t go in there.”
I didn’t have time for wavering.
Spinning around to face him, I cracked my elbow down on the top of his shoulder in the same motion, hoping it would incapacitate him enough to buy me some time.
It dropped him straight to his knees.
“Oh my God.” Shock gasped out of the nurse, and her hands flew to her mouth. The iPad she’d been holding toppled to the ground just as there was another crash reverberating from somewhere down the hall.
My eyes met hers for one knowing beat before I swiveled and ran.
Ran toward the one person on Earth who’d ever meant anything.
My boots pounded on the hard floor, driving the mayhem higher.
A thud, thud, thud racing in time with the battering of my heart.
Aria’s terror rode a sharp edge, cutting through the suffocating atmosphere like razors dragging across my flesh.
Footsteps clattered behind me.
“Hey, you can’t go in there! Stop!”
Fuck.
The security guard had gotten to his feet, footfalls slamming against linoleum as he began to chase me.
Energy screamed.
Dark and alive.
Frantic, I pushed myself as hard as I could go, skidding around a corner as I hooked a left down a second hall, intuitively knowing she was in that direction.
My heart thrashed. A violent battering against my ribs. Fear and determination clotted out all other senses.
Up ahead, a man stumbled out from a door on the left.
“You bitch whore,” he wheezed as he clutched his face. He was bent in half, hissing at the presence that glowed from inside the room.
In the bare light, I could see he wore blue scrubs, was short and thick, his blond hair buzzed.
Recognition slammed me.
I’d seen him before. Through Aria’s eyes when I’d found her in the Ghorl’s vile, nefarious mind. I had seen her huddled in fear, witnessing it through this bastard’s eyes.
I didn’t hesitate.
I pulled out my gun.
As much as I wanted to scatter his brains across the floor, there were a few too many witnesses for that, so I clocked him with the butt of it on the back of his head instead.
A roar of agony and rage tore from him, the bastard caught unaware, so held in his depravity he didn’t have the first clue what was coming for him.
It flattened him on the floor, the piece of shit writhing where he moaned.
Orders rained from behind: “Get down! On your knees! I’m warning you, young man, if you don’t get to the floor, you will suffer the consequences.”
The security guard shouted it through chattering teeth.
In my periphery, I could see he had his Taser out.