Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Wait. How did he know I’d seen King?
“Will you focus, please, and answer my question?” he said. “It’s important.”
Can he read my thoughts? If yes, I was fucked.
“Yes. I can, but you already knew that. Deep inside you know more than you’re admitting.”
Oh crap. Oh crap. If he could read my thoughts, then he’d heard everything since we met. It was one more nightmare to add to this situation.
“I don’t want anything to do with this, okay?” I said. “I’m just going to pack up my car and leave. You can keep the house. I don’t care. Just let me go.”
He stood and came over, leaning against the table next to me. “Focus. When did you see King?”
I looked away and muttered, “Today.” Can I please go now?
“What did he tell you?”
I looked up at him, pleading with my eyes to let me leave in peace.
“You’re afraid of me. Truly afraid. Good.” He reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Show me what he said.”
Suddenly, I was standing on my porch, and King was telling me how Draco had to be stopped. The entire memory played out like a video clip.
How was he doing this? How the fuck was this happening?
Draco released me. “He disappeared?”
That was the part he was most interested in?
I nodded.
“Then it’s true. He is back from the dead, and you and I need to go. Pack your things,” he ordered.
I didn’t budge.
“Piper, King is a very, very bad man.”
And you aren’t?
“I am nothing like him,” Draco replied.
“Then why am I more afraid of you?”
“I can explain on the way to the airport, but we need to go before King returns.”
“I’m not going anywhere with you, and I am not going to help you kill everyone I love with your madness.” Not that I totally believed he would, but maybe I didn’t disbelieve it either. Honestly, the crazy stuff I’d seen today was enough to convince me I was out of my depth.
Draco growled something unintelligible under his breath and combed his hand through his hair. “So you believe that I might be the anti-Christ because King told you.”
“At this point, anything’s possible.” I’d seen a man vanish in front of my face. And there was no denying the facts King had laid out. The world was going mad.
“Piper, you do not even know him. Why would you believe anything he said?”
“I don’t know you either, but you expect me to trust what you’re saying.” In short, I only had my intuition, and it was screaming at me. King had seemed generally desperate to stop whatever terrifying thing was about to happen.
“Yes, you are right. Something is coming. But what if King isn’t here to help? What if he’s here to stop the only person who can?”
I’d still be shitting myself and asking what the fuck I’m supposed to do.
“A very good question,” Draco replied to my thoughts, which I was still trying to accept. How was any of this real? How could he see inside my head? How could a man disappear into thin air? What the fuck!
Draco drew a breath. “I spent the afternoon learning who my father really was. King is Draco Minos—Senior—also known as King Knossos of Minoa.”
Huh?
Draco added, “He was an evil man, so brutally vicious and powerful that even death wanted nothing to do with him, which is how he stayed alive—if it could be called that—for thousands of years. And during that time, he formed Ten Club. I do not have time to explain the full scope of what they are, so try to imagine the wealthiest, most depraved people on the planet paying ten billion a year for the freedom to do anything they like. And what they like is living out their sick fantasies: sex slaves, murder, torture, and anything else they feel like doing. These are the sickest of the sick, Piper, and King founded them. King ruled them. And when the members began developing a taste for the occult, he was the only one keeping them in check. Until he died about thirty years ago and left the world to fend for itself. And now these monsters have grown to a point where they’ve taken over everything—governments, companies, banks, and universities. They have control of over half the world, and trust me when I say that I had nothing to do with any of it.” Draco pointed to his chest. “I’ve been locked in a basement for thirty fucking years. So you tell me who is the real threat, Piper? What does your gut say now? Because King is back, and he’s the one who started it all. And now Ten Club is preparing to make their final move. They want absolute authority over everything, and they are very close to getting it.”
“You’re telling me that the man who stood on my porch a few hours ago was the king of Minoa. Who, according to every book I’ve ever read, died thousands of years ago.” Bullshit.