Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 115860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115860 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 579(@200wpm)___ 463(@250wpm)___ 386(@300wpm)
“Any chance she’ll return?” I grill.
“Dunno. I think she left of her own free will. Nothing in my flat was disturbed. The air didn’t feel violent or scary. Lately, she’s been having dreams of a happier past. I offered to help her find the parts of her she lost, but she was afraid of Mathias harming me and the loved ones she’s convinced she left behind.”
“She left no note?” I ask.
Aquarius shakes her head. “She communicated most with Sydney, as if telling her everything was cathartic. Though she never told you her name, you helped her merely by listening.”
My stomach plummets. I taste the bitter bile of failure. Dear God, to have come so close to Anka, only for her to slip through my fingers.
I’ve failed Lucan—and everyone else.
“How long has she been gone?” I ask Aquarius. “An hour? Two?”
“No more than that,” she assures. “She’s still weak and hurting, so she can’t have gone far.”
Disappointment assails me. So bloody close. I suspected Sydney’s source of information was Anka. And I didn’t build trust with Sydney fast enough. I was too fixated on fighting my feelings. Then too consumed by transition. If we don’t find Anka soon, she and Lucan will pay the ultimate price.
“Unfortunately, she can go far, very quickly.” A fact I mourn, even as I speak the words.
“A pop here, a pop there.” Duke sighs. “With proper energy, she’s quite capable of teleporting to India.”
Or she could have already been captured by Mathias, and we all know it.
“Teleporting?”
“Later,” Bram growls.
Sydney turns back to me. “You were trying to save her all this time?”
I nod. “Though I told you all I dared, I know I didn’t give you much reason to believe me.”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice shakes. “I’m so sorry. Your brother must be beside himself.”
An understatement. I rake a tired hand across my face. There’s no time to mourn now. I have to keep moving forward and hope we find Anka before her trail goes cold.
I squeeze Sydney’s hand and turn to Aquarius. “Did she leave anything behind?”
“She brought nothing with her. The clothes on her back were bloodied shreds. I burned them.”
Duke claps me on the back, startling me. “We shall do everything possible to rescue her. I know what this means to you. But now we must leave here. We’ve tarried too long.”
Perhaps I’m overwrought and exhausted from the past two days, but Duke stayed by my side, no matter what. Like any one of my platoon buddies would have. I’m grateful.
“Agreed,” Bram says to the group. “Mathias is many things, but not stupid. It won’t take him long to track you down, Sydney. And then—”
“And then, we’ll take the Doomsday Diary and kill her,” says a frighteningly familiar voice.
Chapter
Thirty-Seven
Sydney
Aquarius gasps. I follow suit when I spot a familiar man leading a dozen vicious, berobed figures. “Zain?”
He doesn’t speak, just reaches through the crowd and grabs my hair in a firm fist, then yanks me against his chest and positions me like a human shield.
This isn’t a friendly hug. I’m now his captive.
Bloody hell. I thrash against his hold and a sudden accompanying bite of pain, but he’s wiry and deceptively strong. That’s particularly evident when he wraps his other hand around my throat and squeezes.
“Let her go!” Caden lunges for me, fury carved into his strong face.
Zain drags me into the cluster of hooded figures, his grip on my windpipe crushing as he runs his tongue up my cheek. “Of my little bargaining chip? I think not. She’ll make a lovely sacrifice.”
Panic sets in. I flail and scratch, but I can’t break free. Tears sting my eyes. Why didn’t I listen when Caden and the others tried to warn me of the danger?
With a growl, Caden lurches for me again. “You son of a—”
“He’s baiting you.” Bram jerks Caden back.
“You think?” Zain buries his face in my neck, inhaling long and loud, before he growls in disgust. “Ugh. You smell like him.” He tosses his head at Caden. “Every pore. Everywhere. The stench of integrity.”
“Enough with the games. What do you want?” Bram demands.
“As if you have no notion.” Zain’s laugh is humorless. “Give me that book you’re holding or the bitch dies.”
I go cold. At the office I got an odd vibe from Zain, but he’s a killer? Apparently yes, given his cruel grip and not-so-veiled threats.
Why would he kill me for a little journal that grants sexual fantasies?
Or is the book capable of more?
“Seriously evil aura,” Aquarius murmurs.
Caden escapes Bram’s hold and charges for me again, his expression fiercely determined. My heart leaps to my throat. He’s doing his best to save me, but Aquarius is right; Zain would think nothing of hurting him.
I can’t let that happen.
“Do I?” Zain asks Aquarius, again tightening his hands on my neck.
Panicked, I wheeze for air, but I can’t breathe at all. I flail as my vision begins to close in.