Total pages in book: 89
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 82949 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 415(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 276(@300wpm)
“Shiloh?” Her lilac eyes search mine. I can usually see right through them, but this time I can’t. I don’t know if it’s because she’s truly terrified, or because she wants me to think she is. “You can’t be serious. They were the last people we both remember.”
“Blaire!” I try to hold back my annoyance at her once again making this about her and her paranoia.
“I’m sorry.” She steps backward, colliding with a hard echo. “You know that my mind goes straight to the worst-case scenario for whatever reason.”
I’m about to tell her it’s fine when I notice a circle engraved into the wall behind her. Rushing forward, I graze my hand over the lines. A perfect circle with two Vs in the center, tilted to the side and joining at the hinge. “I’ve seen this before.”
Blaire turns to see what I’m looking at and she steps backward slightly. “So have I.”
“Where?” I ask, turning over my shoulder. “Where have you seen this?”
She shakes her head slowly as she backs up. “Shiloh, this is bad.”
“What is it?” I ask demandingly. “Where have you seen it?”
Her eyes meet mine, and I know that whatever she’s about to say to me, I’m not going to like. “I have to tell you so much, but I can’t start there.” She collides with the back of the bars, her eyes frantically coming to mine. “I can’t—”
A door slams and I jump forward, heavy boots clapping against the cold corridor. My breathing turns shallow, terrified they can hear me. The sound gets louder and louder until they stop, and movement catches the corner of my eye.
I turn slightly, needing to see who it is while also trying not to launch at Blaire so they don’t hurt her. All the blood leaves my body when I see the statue of a man staring back at Blaire and me, wearing a phantom mask to hide his face and a black hoodie. There’s another person next to him, smaller framed and much shorter. She has the same mask too, although the clothing she wears does not match. The symbol from the wall is below both of their eyes, and my stomach flips nervously when I try to rack my brain to remember where I’ve seen that image before.
Her blonde hair is straightened flat, flowing down over her shoulders. “Not impressed.”
The man beside her doesn’t speak.
She obviously didn’t need him to. “Shiloh and Blaire?” she asks, tapping on the iPad in her hands. Her skirt is short, her heels high. She’s wearing stockings over her legs and a low-cut blouse. “I don’t buy it.” She taps on something else, turning to the figure beside her. “You may think so, but I don’t, and you and I both know that if I don’t, he won’t.” She pushes away from the wall of steel, her heels clicking against the floor. “Let them go.”
“Yes!” Blaire drops to her knees, sliding across the floor to reach for the other person.
He remains still, his eyes on mine. I wish I could make them out from here, but because of the hoodie, I can’t see them clear enough.
“Please let us go!” When Blaire notices the man still staring at me, she looks over her shoulder. “Shi! Get on your knees and beg.”
Defiance pulses through my veins as my blood heats at every passing second. We’ve seen dead bodies hanging above our head, been captured, and I’m pretty sure we are on a boat. We know too much. They won’t let us go. I grind my teeth and hold where I think his eyes are.
“I don’t get on my knees easily.”
Whoever this asshole is, and the people behind him—and above him—I don’t care. Right now, in the back of my mind, I know how it’s going to end.
I watch in slow motion as he reaches for the bottom of his mask, peeling it back slightly to show his lips. My blood turns cold, and as if in slow motion, his hands land on the poles as he leans forward.
“Now you and I both know that’s a lie, Poppet.”
Shiloh
“Hmm?” Malyk smirks back down at me, flashing his wide-tooth grin.
I feel myself sway against the motion of the boat as everything goes blank inside my brain. I know where I’ve seen that pendant now. It’s disguised in one of Sparrow’s tattoos on his chest.
“I don’t understand…” I step backward, shaking my head while reaching for Blaire.
Blaire’s fingers intertwine with mine. “I fucking knew it!”
Malyk snaps, his eyes finding her instantly. It’s like watching someone you thought you knew change into someone you don’t know at all. His eyes darken, and the corner of his lip curls. He takes a careful step, his fists clenching at his sides. My body moves instantly, standing farther in front of her, and he stops, grinding his teeth.