Total pages in book: 68
Estimated words: 62128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 62128 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 311(@200wpm)___ 249(@250wpm)___ 207(@300wpm)
“Avel, Thorn needs to see you. Now.”
I don’t like his tone. I don’t like anything about this at all. I am Thorn’s first port of call when he needs someone. I was the first he called when he was attempting to capture the first human. I was there for him in the depths of the evening. And now he sends Fang and Karn for me, as if I am a criminal to be brought in.
“If Thorn needs to see me, he knows how to contact me. He can call me.”
“Thorn needs to see you urgently,” Karn repeats.
There are still ears all around us. This is not a private location, and yes, having dragged Wrath skyward has drawn a crowd. It looks and sounds as though I am being brought before the alpha. I suspect that is precisely what is happening, and I am not happy. I am stunned.
“I do not have time to see him. He, and you, should be helping me find Raine.”
“Thorn. Please.” Fang lowers his voice for the please, but that does not please me. He is hiding his pleasantries and leaving the same public impression. This will undermine me publicly. This should be done in private. This will impact my position as executioner and enforcer. I wish I cared more about that in the moment, but all I can think about is Raine. She is somewhere in this city, either alive or dead, and I do not have time to comply with the demands of underlings who should be reporting to me.
I know what refusal means. Serious trouble. My public apprehension is bad, but my public defiance of said summons will be worse. Scandal is brewing. If I do what I know I am going to do, it will boil over.
“Avel…” Karn’s voice is entering the territory of a growl. “Thorn was very specific.”
“Then very specifically tell him that I am busy. And he is well aware of how to contact me. This is not the way.”
With that, I spread my wings and take to the sky.
“AVEL!” I hear Fang snarl in my wake. I don’t think they imagined an outcome in which I outright refused Thorn’s orders. I don’t think I imagined such an outcome either, for that matter. This city should be absolutely swarming with the alpha’s soldiers. Every bit of it should be taken apart, brick by brick, if necessary.
I take a direct heading toward the old brewery. It is quite a flight away, even at my maximum speed, and of course I am intercepted before I can arrive, because Thorn has sent yet more underlings after me.
Two sets of wings are in the sky, heading right for me. The first to reach me is Cirrus, another one of my allies and a servant of the alpha. He swoops toward me and draws himself up erect, beating his wings in the effort to ‘stand’ in the sky. I like Cirrus. He’s a dark shadow of an aerial saurian, with piercing blue eyes and black scaling and wings. He, like Fang and Karn, is an excellent backup at times.
He is followed by Garris, a pale, golden-scaled aerial saurian with broad bone-hued wings outlined in gold. He has a good nature and a kind visage, and though he does not carry much in the way of outright intimidation about himself, he is also a good backup.
It is hard to act in defiance of those I consider friends. I have worked with these saurians for years. They are my allies, and before Raine I would have lain my life down for any one of them.
“Avel!” Cirrus calls my name, though not in an unfriendly fashion. “Do the skies find you well today?”
“You know very well they do not.”
“Strange skies today,” he smirks, his eyes lighting up with amusement. “Tanks seen among the clouds.”
A breeze whips past the pair of us as Garris joins us. Now the three of us are treading air, wings flapping to maintain our location, even as we begin to sink toward the ground. I give a few strong strokes to rise again.
“I do not have time to talk. I need to find Raine.”
“Thorn needs to see you.”
“I heard. I will see him once I have her.”
Garris sighs. “Avel, please, do us a favor and let’s not make two scenes today.”
“I need to find Raine. I don’t need to talk to Thorn.”
They exchange glances. We are not insubordinate as a rule, and I have never disobeyed the alpha in anything. I have been Thorn’s most devoted soldier and his constant enforcer. My rank is a reflection of my obedience. But every rule has its exception, and today is the exception.
“Everybody in the city just watched you drag Wrath into the street like an animal and fly him up. Nobody is going to hurt anything that belongs to you. They know it would be suicide.”