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)
“Draco! Don’t go!” Piper’s voice echoed in my ears.
I fought my urge to turn back and save her; however, if I truly wished to help her, I had to fight for a world where my hell never came true. If there was truly goodness in the world, she would be set free, and I would see her in the afterlife.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Power. Some said it was an aphrodisiac. Some said it was the root of all evil. Others believed it was a necessary component in a hierarchical world. From wolves and lions to monkeys and humans. Some were born to lead, and others were meant to follow as a matter of survival.
I believed that my power was a culmination of both. King had built Ten Club, a tool for collecting power, but he’d done it for love. The Seers loved power. Ultimately, they’d both achieved total domination of their worlds, and I was the fruit of those efforts. And now I had the chance to end them with the very power I’d obtained because of their achievements.
I would never get Piper back. Not in this world, and I understood that now. She was gone, and any attempt to bring her to life again would only come at greater cost.
So while Piper might not be around to witness it, I would ensure the world was set right again. For everyone she loved and everyone suffering in a hell they didn’t deserve.
I tapped the microphone and stared out across the thousands of people gathered on Market Street, in San Francisco. Behind me, the cold salty air blew in from the bay. To my right was the building my father once owned, where it all began. And up the hill was the house that marked the beginning of the end.
It had taken every ounce of my powers to make this moment happen and to wake up the masses so that they’d listen. I had nothing left, but I’d done it. The world was now paying attention. People everywhere were in a panic, frightened and confused, but they had shut down cities, airports, and even paused the many wars flaring up. The world had stopped to hear what I was about to say.
What came next was up to them.
I looked up at the crowd and hundreds of news cameras. “Hello. My name is Draco. And I am here with a warning.”
I sat on the basement floor, a bottle of scotch in my hand. The house was quiet now, and Piper’s cries for mercy had ceased.
“I did my best, Piper. I told them everything.” I raised my bottle at the floor, hoping my actions were enough to end the hell she was in.
Of course, I hoped for more than that. I wanted her back. I wanted her to know her actions had given the world a chance to change. Ten Club and the Seers weren’t gone, but I was no longer a contender to lead them to victory. I had no powers left, my reign over before it began. Fate had not won.
“Who said that was your fate?” said a soft female voice.
I looked to my side. Sitting in a chair was my mother, Jeni. Where had she come from?
My hackles rose. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Her eyes filled with tears of joy. “I am so proud of you, Draco. I know you’ll never forgive me, but I did it for you.”
“Did what for me?” I snarled. “Killed Piper? Tried to burn me alive? Abandoned me in a basement to rot?”
She exhaled slowly, and I noticed a thick, leather-bound book in her hands. She slapped it shut. “It’s time for you to wake up, Draco.”
“What?”
“Wake up. Open your eyes,” she said.
I gasped and slingshotted to an upright position. I was in that hospital bed in the cellar again. Jeni sat next to me, and King stood behind her with his arms crossed.
“What the hell is this?” I asked.
Jeni smiled. “It’s the end of your nightmare, and the beginning of something real.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
I sat at the small table in the French café where I’d first seen Piper up close. So much had happened since I’d woken up.
For real this time. My own mother’s doing.
She said she had fought for years to break me free, but King and Mia had refused, and there was no getting past the Spiroses. Jeni’s husband, Ansin, had pushed back, too, until he finally gave in and got involved. With his people, the Bastuli, behind them, Jeni was finally given access to the basement where I’d been asleep for thirty years.
King, who feared what would happen if I woke, fought tooth and nail to stop Jeni at first, but the Bastuli were the only ones who could stand against the Seers in the afterlife. It wasn’t wise to make enemies of them.