Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Is it really even my fault if I prove them all right in the end?
She’ll still want me. It’s me, after all. I’m a god, more powerful than ever, and she wanted me before when I was a far weaker version of myself. It is weakness that’s even made me stall this long.
I lift my arms, close my eyes, grit my jaw, and allow my determination and fury to light the fire within me until I burn.
Goodbye, Brother. Forever.
Chapter Thirty
LAUREN
We can do nothing but wait, and I hate feeling so powerless. I pace back and forth in the vampire’s den, taking turns with Hannah entertaining her daughter, Raven. The only way to quiet the girl was to allow her out of her glamour. She flies around the room, quieter if not exactly content.
We haven’t seen any sign of the vampires since they fled to whatever saferoom or underground bunker we assume they headed to earlier.
The news plays endless footage of the Devourers flying toward space, and I’ve run out of nails to bite in nervousness. Hours pass, and still nothing.
Then the door bursts open. I shoot to my feet, but it’s just Layden. He’d left for a room with a stash of computers, saying he needed to keep an eye out, whatever that meant.
“The runes are gone!” he declares dramatically.
I look around, confused. Is this supposed to mean something? But others in the room react as if it does. “How?” Kharon asks.
“I don’t know,” Layden says, “but they’ve disappeared as if they were never there. The angelic AI is completely gone, even though that shouldn’t be possible. It was its own learning entity. There shouldn’t have been a way to scrub it, but it’s completely disappeared—”
“Look—” Hannah says, pointing to the screen. The news has just been repeating the same thing over and over, but now a banner reading “Breaking News” scrolls across the bottom. Hannah grabs the remote and turns it up.
The newscaster speaks again. “We’re now receiving information from official sources that everything we’ve witnessed today was due to an incredible coordinated internet hoax, complete with deep-faked videos of the footage we’ve been showing all afternoon. Governments and militaries all over the world remain on high alert. The British Army Reserve and in America, the National Guard have been called up. Shelter-in-place notices remain in effect in countries across the world as everyone struggles to make sense of this unprecedented event that still has many citizens in a panic.”
“Bullshit,” Layden says, eyes on his phone. “I’m checking my sources to see if we can get eyes on the Devourers after they left the atmosphere.”
“Are they just trying to cover it up to stop people from panicking?” Hannah asks, pacing up and down the room while keeping one eye on her daughter circling the ceiling.
The newscaster holds his ear as if receiving incoming updates. “From the reports we’re getting, there’s more and more confirmation this was indeed all an elaborate hoax. The Internet has gone wild with conspiracy theories to the contrary. Barbara?” he says, throwing to his fellow newscaster.
“That’s right, James,” she says, also putting a hand to her ear in a way that seems overly performative. “But both NASA and the United Kingdom Ministry of Defense satellites have no reports of the supposed creatures once they left Earth’s atmosphere, leading more and more credence to the fact that this was a ruse. This just proves the danger of realistic hoaxes that can cause public panic in this era of deep-fake technology. Looting and rioting in response to the perceived threat, however, have been very real consequences. Police and even military in some instances around the world are struggling to maintain control over a panicking public.”
“Did you see?” Everyone’s head swings back toward the door when Phoenix bursts into the room. Hannah turns down the TV volume.
Layden rushes toward Phoenix, halting abruptly as if he barely stopped himself from embracing her. Vlad stands behind her, eying the both of them.
“See what?” Hannah asks. “Them denying all of it as a hoax? They’re obviously covering it up to try to calm the public down.”
But Phoenix is only looking at Layden. “The rune-code. It’s all gone.”
He nods emphatically. “As if it never existed.”
“What does it mean?” Phoenix asks, brow furrowed. “The Devourers couldn’t have done anything to the spirit who created and was controlling the AI. Them leaving shouldn’t have had any impact on the AI.”
“I know,” Layden says. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Hannah hurries over to join them. “Unless Abaddon stopped them!”
“I didn’t.”
Now it’s Abaddon appearing at the door behind Vlad. Hannah pushes past Vlad to jump into her husband’s arms. “Don’t you dare run off like that ever again,” she shouts, banging him on the back even as she clings to him.
“Daddy!” Raven cries, flying at her father like a little torpedo. She lands on his back, wrapping her legs around his neck and hugging his head fiercely, tiny hands attached to his horns.