Total pages in book: 34
Estimated words: 32156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 32156 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 161(@200wpm)___ 129(@250wpm)___ 107(@300wpm)
“Erving is alive. Sekkad is with him. Erving has been…instructed to teach Sekkad every secret contain in his head about the formula he uses that is so popular.”
“Sekkad?” Gathred rumbles with laughter. “How long are you planning to stay here?”
“You weren’t here. Sekkad is good with chemicals.”
“For cleaning the floors, yes.”
“You weren’t here,” Ragned repeats, more sinister this time. “Thought you had one of your headaches and laid down and cried. Died in the storm, perhaps. Weakness is failure. Failure is death. Only a weak orc has headaches. But, I will give you a chance for redemption, Gathred. Only because your intellect is unlike others in our clan. Now that you are back, Erving will teach you, or his daughter will die. Both his daughters will die.”
I clasp my hands over my mouth as my blood turns cold. He has Katya.
Gathred turns to me. “You have a sister?”
“Please don’t let him hurt her. She’s only thirteen.”
“You touch either of them, Ragned—”
“You want to stop that happening, you’ll do as I say. You work with Erving, learn the formula, let me know when I can kill him. You do this, maybe you’re family again. Maybe I let you keep your…mate. Clear?”
“Where’s Katya?” I plead.
Ragned turns to me. “You will see her now.”
“No! I said fifteen milliliters, not fifty! You idiot, you’ve ruined the whole fucking batch!” My father’s voice echoes down the corridor as we get closer. Ragned had two guards come with us, and there are more on standby.
“We can take some out,” an orc grunts in response.
“Really? How are you going to do that, Einstein? It’s mixed already.”
“I am Sekkad. You don’t even know my name yet?”
“It’s an expression. God, you’re fucking stupid.”
There’s a smash as Ragned pushes the door open, and we enter the room to see glass exploded over the floor, a liquid pooling around my father’s feet as he stands beside an orc with a traditional Mohawk hair cut.
“He dropped the bottle,” the orc says.
“No, I threw it on the fucking floor—”
“Aleena!” Katya cries out from where she’s been left on the other side of the room, and my father looks up, meeting my eyes and stopping short.
But orc guards or not, I’m out and away, running across the room to Katya. I wrap her in my arms and hold on like she might try to slip away from me. Just having her here, knowing she’s all right, is enough to have tears starting in my eyes.
“Thank God,” my father mutters. “Did they hurt you, Aleena? Are you all right?”
I shake my head. “They didn’t hurt me. I was trapped for the night and couldn’t get back, but I’m here now.”
“Enough,” Ragned grunts. “Erving, this is Gathred. You teach him now, not Sekkad.”
My father shakes his head. “Just when I’m getting somewhere with this idiot, you want to replace him?”
“Gathred is smarter than Sekkad. He will learn faster.”
“It’s true,” Sekkad says amiably, apparently not offended by the comparison.
“No, Ragned, this is unacceptable. I need human assistants. Why not let Aleena help? She knows what she’s doing.”
Ragned shakes his head. “You teach Gathred, he can make it himself. Then we don’t need you.”
Way to tip your hand, asshole.
The thought runs through my head as I glare. As soon as they have what they want, they’ll kill all three of us, I’m certain of that. Except…
Except there are chemicals on this side of the lab. I know them, and I know what will happen if they’re mixed. It’s a desperate plan, but what choice do I have?
“What incentive do I have to do it then?” my father asks. “I teach him and make myself redundant? Are you just going to let us go? I don’t think so.”
“You teach him, or I kill your daughters.”
Gathred growls. “No killing. Ragned, they go free.”
“Oh, what’s this? Good cop, bad cop?” My father puts his hands on his hips and sidesteps away from the equipment. “I’m supposed to believe that you’re the one good orc in this universe, I suppose?”
“No cops,” Gathred says. “We don’t work with them.”
Ragned nods, his lower tusk cutting into his upper lip. “Agreed. No cops. Bad or good.”
I turn to Katya and lower my voice. “Cover your ears, close your eyes and get ready to go.” Then I stand and step toward my father. “He helped me,” I tell him as I get closer to the beakers I need. “We can trust him.”
“We can’t trust any of them,” he replies. “They’re all the same, Aleena! All any of them want to do is kill and maim!”
Sekkad nods with a grin. “Killing and maiming are fun—”
“Gathred, brace yourself!” I shout. “Dad, get down!”
His eyes go wide as I pick up one of the test tubes and pour it into a beaker. Then without hesitating I lift the beaker and throw, dropping to the ground and closing my eyes as I wrap my arms over my head. The explosion happens in the air, heat bursting from the mixed chemicals as the force of the blast shatters the windows outward.