Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112287 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 561(@200wpm)___ 449(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
“How bad?” he asked the man the others in the Seven called the Barbarian.
Shoving back the thick red of his hair, Galen met his gaze with eyes of a pale and striking green. “The disintegration of the Mantle has sped up. Naasir had the idea to nudge a pair of tiger siblings into the area accessible to mortals, and that’s worked to keep them away for now.”
“How long until Refuge structures become visible?”
“If there’s no further escalation in the speed of the disintegration, then eight or nine days at the latest. But the Mantle is now the least of our problems—we’ve lost the School as of moments ago. The sinkhole beside it expanded at violent speed to swallow it whole.”
Galen’s muscled shoulders were locked, his biceps bulging against the metal armband that carried Jessamy’s amber. “I don’t know if anything of the Refuge will be left by the time the Mantle fails completely.”
“Wait,” Raphael said, as his screen began to light up with red alerts sent through by Vivek and Dmitri.
He scanned the subject lines.
Life-threatening dust storm.
Raging forest fire.
Category 5 hurricane.
The Ancestors help them all.
39
Beth had baked a cake for this gathering of sisters that she’d organized after declaring they needed to spend time together outside of the hospital; she’d set the cake up on a wicker table on her patio. That patio was covered by a clear roof over which grew masses of roses that Elena had helped Beth plant—and that she still dropped by to deadhead with her sister.
Alongside the cake was a pretty floral teapot as well as four matching cups and saucers. “Where’re the kiddos?” Elena picked up a cup by its fragile-seeming handle to examine the flower pattern.
“School.” Beth’s dress—white with red hearts—flared gently around her as she turned; her cardigan was a matching red, as was her headband. “Maggie’s staying late today because she’s in the play they’re putting on. Lead role.” Her face glowed. “My baby girl enchants people.”
Placing the cup back onto its saucer with care, Elena smiled. “She definitely enchants me.” Beth’s firstborn was as delightful and as sweet as her mother, with a face lovely with its soft curves and big brown eyes.
“And your favorite nephew is at soccer practice,” Beth added. “He got your rebel genes, Ellie. Told me yesterday that he plans on getting a full-sleeve tattoo soon as he’s an adult.”
“Hey, don’t blame me.” Elena held up her hands, palms out. “Also, most of the hunters I know have tattoos. I always figured I’d eventually get one—I mean, Jason has a facial tattoo, so there must be a way to get permanent ink even with angelic healing. I might ask him the details.”
Beth pretended to glare at her. “Do not say that in Laurent’s vicinity. You know he thinks you are the number one most ‘fly’ person in the family—though I don’t think kids use the word fly anymore. Both tell me I embarrass them when I talk to their friends.” Good-natured laughter. “I tell them that’s a mother’s job.”
Elena grinned. “You should talk to Sara. Zoe’s talking piercings.”
“We need a mothers-of-tweens-teens-and-young-adults support group.”
Laughing, Elena took her sister’s hand. Beth’s skin was warm and soft. “You’re looking better, Bethie.”
“Now that Dad’s out of the worst woods,” Beth said, “I feel like I can breathe again.” She squeezed Elena’s hand. “I know he wasn’t much of a dad to you, Ellie, but he’s the only one I had as a parent for years and years. Even after Gwendolyn came, I looked to him first.”
“I know.” She touched her sister’s perfectly curled and set hair with the gentleness of an elder sibling used to caring for a sister who was smaller, weaker. “I was worried about him, too. It must’ve been a thousand times worse for you.”
Beth gave her one of those suddenly wise looks, unexpected in a sister who tended to float through life on laughter and joy, not paying too much attention to the unpleasant. “No, Ellie. I think it was the worst for you, because he’s always loved you in a different way from the rest of us.”
“Beth—”
“Hush.” Beth shook her head. “I don’t mean that in a favoritism way. I mean you’re the one most like him, the most stubborn, the most sure she’s right. And because of that, he has a totally different relationship with you than he does with us. For better or worse, you’re his equal, while we’re his children.”
“I’m not sure I like that,” Elena murmured. “I needed a father when I was young.” She’d long moved past that stage, but that didn’t erase the wounds left behind.
“I know.” Beth squeezed her hand again, her eyes soft when she looked at Elena. “After I became a mother . . . I began to understand things I never before had because I was the baby of our little family, and even you babied me.”