Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79726 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 399(@200wpm)___ 319(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
The woman looks at me. “Vlad must have figured out that feeding off a plane-crosser might give Phoenix the extra juice she needed.” She gestures wildly behind her. “To help the spirit she contacted on the other side make its way across the barrier between worlds.” She shades her eyes with her hands, looking up in horror and pointing, “Oh my god, she did it. Look!”
I blink against the otherwise white-gray sky, and just beside where I see Phoenix at the top of the funnel cloud, yes, I can make out something emerging. A very big something.
“Is that a whale?” I ask in absolute shock.
“I didn’t think they were real,” the woman gasps, reaching out and clasping onto Layden’s arm as if for support. “What the hell did she think she was doing?”
“It’s done now,” Layden says grimly.
The huge gray whale emerges from the top of the funnel, and then I see another follow it, and another and another. But no, as they separate from the funnel cloud, I can see that “whale” isn’t quite the right descriptor. It’s just the closest thing I have to describe what I’m seeing. They’re creatures of some kind, I think, because they’re sort of swimming or wiggling, and they’re huge.
But when sunlight hits them, they don’t look quite solid. Instead, they’re almost translucent, like jellyfish.
“What the hell is that?” Remus asks, finally rejoining us.
“Devourers,” the woman whispers.
“Sabra,” Layden chides her.
“What?” the woman I assume is called Sabra snaps back. “It’s the truth. I never thought she’d be able to actually bring them through.”
“Then why did you help her with the circle?”
Sabra tosses up her hands. “It sounded like the end of the world!”
“So what’s different now?” Layden asks. “Maybe now we have a chance.” He gestures toward the sky-whale-jellyfish creatures that are starting to move more quickly and taking off in many different directions.
“How does averting one apocalypse make sense if we invite another one?”
“What do you mean?” Remus demands.
“When it was just circle magic, we could contain them. As in, we could call them back after we were through with them and send them home. With what Vlad did by juicing Phoenix up by feeding on a plane-crosser, they just got transported permanently here. Get it? Now we’re stuck with the Devourers on this plane.”
“Fuck,” Layden and Remus say together, staring up as the sky-whales scatter.
“I don’t get it,” I say. “Why would you invite anything called a Devourer here in the first place?”
Sabra puts her hands on her hips. “What else would you suggest doing in a pinch to stop a nuclear apocalypse? Those guys eat nuclear energy like it’s candy.”
“How exactly do we know this?” Abaddon asks.
Sabra waves a hand. “That’s the theory anyway, from the information we’ve gathered. They eat every source of energy starting with radioactive material until a particular plane is bereft of life, then they lie dormant for ages until they find a new source.”
“So, what’s your great idea for getting rid of them?” Abaddon asks.
Sabra starts to open her mouth, but her and Layden’s cell phones go off, along with all of the guys in black suits. I left mine back at the castle, so I join Remus at Layden and Sabra’s side.
“What?” Remus asks.
“Time to see if our friends here work as advertised,” Sabra says, turning her cell phone out toward us.
I can’t read the text—what country are we in now anyway?—but the flashing red radioactive symbol with arrows pointing to a skull and a figure running away is pretty difficult to misinterpret. It’s a nuclear fallout warning. Nuclear missiles have been launched somewhere nearby.
I clutch Remus’s side in dread. “Oh my god.”
Did he know this was coming? Obviously, Layden and Sabra did. Is this what they talked about in the meeting earlier?
He just lifts me and runs toward the shelter of the buildings where the other women are.
Abaddon lifts off in the air. To do what, I have no idea. Layden just sprints beside his brother, hefting Sabra in a fireman’s carry when she doesn’t move quickly enough.
We pass by Vlad, who’s paused near the entryway with his hand shielding his eyes as he looks to the sky. I only now remember—Phoenix! Did she ever come back down? Or is Vlad watching for missiles?
I lift up and look back toward the courtyard just in time to see Phoenix land back in the center of the circle with the tornado completely dissipated. She looks so small for someone who just made something so big happen.
“How will we know if it worked?” I ask the hallway of people gathered anxiously once Remus sets me down.
“Online feeds,” Layden says, his phone already out, thumbing through sites.
Vlad, Phoenix, and a cadre of dark-suited men are pushing in the doors the next moment. “Out of my way,” Vlad demands. His arm is around Phoenix. She looks exhausted as her grandfather drags her past us, but she looks up, her eyes briefly connecting with Layden’s. He looks like he wants to reach out to stop her grandfather. Maybe pull her into his arms.