Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 238(@200wpm)___ 190(@250wpm)___ 158(@300wpm)
“Why did you kill the guy?” My pet pipes up again, all her human curiosity very much on display.
“He killed our father. And I didn’t kill him. I failed.” Zain shoots another dark look at me. “Someone turned me in.”
“Someone stopped you from making the biggest mistake of your life,” I say. “I’m trying to stop you from perpetuating it. You don’t have to spend the rest of your life in prison. You could be free with a proper expression of contrition and a suitable payment to the Wrathelders.”
“Our father would turn in his premature grave if he could hear you say such things. You want to lay down and let them kill us all!”
Suddenly incensed, Zain shakes the bars with rage, his fists turning white at the knuckles with desire to burst free. Unlike my pet, Zain does not yearn for freedom. He yearns for revenge, and his presence here is not so much a punishment for him as it is the only thing preventing him from actually killing the patriarch of the Wrathelders and sparking the closest thing to civil war Euphoria has ever encountered.
Jen
This poor fucking guy. I feel so bad for him. I wish there was some way to break him out of this horrible prison, which is a thousand times worse than the one I got stuck in. There’s no real light here. There’s no hope here. It feels like there’s no air, either, like you could suffocate in the darkness and nobody would notice or care.
“We’re going to get you out,” I tell him. “That’s why we’re here.” I glance back at Ark. “Right? To get you out.”
“That’s sweet, human, but you have no idea what you are talking about. Ark prefers it with me in here. It saves him the trouble of worrying about what I am doing.”
“You don’t belong in here.”
“Jennifer…” Ark’s voice comes from behind me, deep with warning.
“He doesn’t. Anybody can see that. I can’t even fucking see in this shitty light, and I can see that. Let’s break him out!”
“Enough, pet!” Ark’s tone sharpens, and his voice deepens with an authoritative bass that makes me fall silent, not with respect, but with resentment. I don’t like being told to be quiet. I don’t like being snapped at, either. And I especially don’t like being dragged down into some fucked up alien prison to see someone who seems pretty cool suffering a fate he doesn’t deserve.
Zain chuckles, but not with real amusement. It is a dark, bitter sound.
“Careful, brother,” he purrs. “You can’t control everybody by yelling. That one looks like a rebel, and that leash does not look strong enough to contain her when she inevitably decides that your restrictive weakness is not strength.”
“Come to your senses, brother. Plead guilty. Apologize. Make amends. A time is coming when we will need all of us to be free.”
I just met Zain, and I can already tell he is never going to do any of those things. I give him a little shrug. He gives me one back. We leave.
I can tell that Ark is mad. I wonder if he is more angry at his brother or at me. There is a tension I have not seen in him before. The entire time I was being returned and acting out, he was calm. Seeing his brother has riled something in him. I wish I had the brain reading power they all seem to have. Instead, I am stuck in silence.
No sooner do we leave the cold, dark embrace of the interior of the prison than Ark starts to ring. A tone emits from somewhere near the side of his head, as an implant I wasn’t aware he had comes to life.
He taps his ear and falls silent. They’re talking at a distance telepathically. That’s wild. I wish I had some idea what was being said. It looks important.
Ark
It’s Kahn calling.
“Ark. I need you at the council chambers. Wrathelder has called a snap meeting. He says he’s ready to launch his ships.”
“Ships?”
“They’ve built a fleet, Ark. They’ve been hiding in plain sight, manufacturing dozens of human transporters. I need you up here to argue against this now, or the council is going to authorize a mass evacuation from Earth.”
“Get in the vehicle.” I snap the order at Jen as we reach the shuttle. My tone is sharper than it needs to be. Between Zain being the same stubborn fool as always, and Wrathelder making trouble, I am beginning to lose patience with everything and everyone.
She does as she’s told. I hear her voice, small next to me. “Are you mad at me?”
“No,” I say, distracted. This is all happening so quickly. It is typical of Wrathelder to strike without warning. He is an absolute monster, and if I am honest with myself, I have allowed him to gain ground. I am responsible for this, and I am going to take care of it. I am going to take care of all of it.