Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75539 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 378(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
One jumped off.
“Dad.”
Joshua Baldree was not the same man I had met in the White House all those months ago. This man was gaunt with a beard that seemed unbecoming of someone who always wore tailored suits and shiny wingtips. There was another startling difference between this man and the one I’d been introduced to.
He had red eyes. Just like the dragons behind him. Just like the Carpenter, who stepped next to Joshua.
Same scarlet-red eyes. Same venomous aura.
Joshua looked to his son. There was nothing but coldness in his gaze. He placed his hands in the pockets of his dark pants, standing as if meeting with a colleague and not an estranged and betrayed family member. “You do not have to be here for this, Cassius.”
“What have you done? Why are you doing this?” Cassius moved forward, brushing away Blake as he tried to hold him back.
“I am following the will of the king. I am doing this to bring back what I’ve lost. I am doing this for our family.”
“You’ve destroyed our family.”
“I am healing it.”
Damien moved to his left, Maddox following. Warrick and Dawn shifted right. The Shade dragons twitched and snapped, watching. I knew what they were doing, but I wouldn’t follow. Not yet. I wanted to stand by Blake’s side, ready to take whatever came in his direction. Robby and Claire were also with me, flanking me.
Smoke surrounded them as they shifted into their dragon forms. We weren’t about to be outgunned. Joshua and Simon watched, amused. Joshua’s hand hovered over the sheathe dangling from his hip. The dagger’s hilt stuck out from the top, a slightly curved and ornate hilt created from some kind of sparkling onyx.
It must have been the starlight dagger. I had to make sure I stayed away from it.
Cassius continued, the pain in his voice a physical force. “You’ve ruined me. I trusted you. You were all I had left after Mom died. Why would you do this to me?”
The clouds dispersed, leaving my siblings matched up with the opposing force. The Shade dragons were nearly twice the size of even Maddox, the largest in the family. How had they created those monsters?
And would we be capable of taking them down?
“It isn’t just your father making these decisions,” Simon said. They weren’t alone. More Time Turners climbed off the backs of the Shade dragons. Two of them shifted—one into a snarling Bengal tiger and another into an angry-looking timber wolf—and three others toyed with sharp daggers and shining swords dangling at their waists. One moved with the same grace as Robby did and another had the jeweled eyes of a Fae.
“What do you mean by that?” I asked. It was time I attempted to take some control of the situation. Maddox’s tail whipped against the ground.
“I mean that we serve one god. One king. One ruler. And so shall you.”
“The Chaos King?” Blake asked. His voice was steady, even though I could practically taste the fear rolling off him. I had come to know him extremely well, and I could sense that he was scared. It pained me. My natural instinct was to keep him locked up in my horde, safe and sound, while we dealt with this.
Simon opened his arms and smiled, his teeth no longer human but wolflike. “The one and only.”
“You mean the one and only jailed ‘king’?” I spat out the last word.
Suddenly, both Joshua’s and Simon’s red eyes rolled back in their heads. Cassius gasped.
“You shall speak to me with respect.” The voice came from the two men simultaneously. It had the same cavernous echo as an expansive cave, with the cutting edge of a butcher’s knife. Chills multiplied down my back as though someone had dumped a bucket full of spiders down my shirt.
It couldn’t be. Blake reached for my hand. He was pale, his wide eyes glued to the two men.
“I am the stars and the dirt and the air and the blood. I am your nightmares turned true. I am jailed but free. I am Niazatos, the Chaos King, and you shall bend the knee under my reign.”
This couldn’t be happening. This had to be some parlor trick.
“You’re the one who manipulated my father,” Cassius said. He didn’t show any fear. I wasn’t sure if I could sound as brave as he did. This moment—it was unheard of. Niazatos never should have been able to communicate through his prison, much less take control of two individuals who were miles and miles away.
“It did not take much, child. A simple seed planted at the base of a tortured mind takes root with little care. All your father needed was a promise: bring back his wife. Reunite his family. I gave him that promise, and he gave me his servitude.” The voice seemed to echo through the desert. Damien snapped his jaws, fire brimming from under his lips.