Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 167671 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 838(@200wpm)___ 671(@250wpm)___ 559(@300wpm)
“Fuck, Elliot!” I go to my knees in front of him. He’s been hit in the thigh.
“It hurts, it hurts so much!” He grips his leg in pain.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.” I rip off a piece of my shirt to wrap it around his leg. “I’m sorry.”
“They’re gone,” one of the other guys says, spluttering up blood. “They only came … to take the girls.”
“Silas, Heath!” I scream over my shoulder. “I need help over here!”
Heath and Silas rush in behind me, but their faces grow cold at the sight of all the bodies littering the halls.
“Oh fuck,” Heath mutters.
“Call an ambulance!” I yell.
Silas puts his phone to his ear. “Dad, the Skull and Serpent Society has been hit. I need help. Now.”
Heath runs to another student and pushes down on the open wound in the belly created by a bullet. “I don’t know what to do.”
“Keep pressing on the wounds,” I say. “Call more help.”
“On it.” Silas runs outside, where more people have finally gathered to see what’s going on.
But even as dozens of my fellow society mates have been injured in what is undoubtedly the most heinous attack on campus grounds, and I am doing my best to split my attention between all of them to keep them from dying on me, my mind still wanders off to Ivy and Cora, and how hard it hurts that I couldn’t be here in time to save them.
Ivy
I throw my body into the van’s doors, again and again, like a crazed bull ready to fight off those matadors in a ring. My shoulder is bruised, and my arm feels like it’s about to dislodge, but I don’t care about the pain or my ringing ears.
I have to get out of this van.
I have to get out and find Cora.
Because if I don’t … everything we’ve been through, everything we’ve had to endure, everything I’ve had to sacrifice will have been for nothing.
“Let. Me. Fucking. Out!” I say through gritted teeth, still hammering the doors. “Let me out!”
The doors open right when I was about to charge into them, and I fall onto the muddy ground instead, my face hitting the asphalt first. Blood rivulets down my forehead, and I groan from the pain of falling on my head twice in a single day.
“Get her up.”
Two strong hands drag me up by my arms, but the moment I lock eyes with Ivan, I completely forget any and all pain I felt before.
“You …” I hiss.
He throws me a disgusted look. “I told you, you can’t win this. You think I wanted to do this? You forced my hand.”
“I didn’t do shit. Where the fuck is Cora?”
He laughs. “Wouldn’t you like to know…”
“Tell me!” I screech, kicking and biting with every inch of energy I have left.
“Not a chance,” he replies, turning around.
“You promised! You swore you wouldn’t fucking rat us out!”
He shrugs and glances at me over his shoulder, winking. “Guess you shouldn’t trust just any man.”
That asshole!
“Fuck you, Ivan!” I yell, cursing the ground he walks on.
I look around and try to shake off the guards holding me back from jumping him and twisting his neck, but there are many more of them than there are of me.
“Bring her to the boss,” Ivan says.
Panic bubbles to the surface. “No.”
“Let’s go,” the guy behind me says, shoving me forward and dragging me along by my elbow.
“Tell me where Cora is,” I growl at the guy behind me, but of course he doesn’t reply.
That’s just how these men are. Exactly how I remember them to be. Ignorant, mindless drones who only listen to one man.
Dread fills my bones at the thought, so instead, I focus on looking for a way out. There must be something I can do. Anything.
I swallow away the lump in my throat as we approach the big mansion. The one I swore I would never come back to.
Fuck.
I dig my heels into the gravel, but it’s no use against this fucker’s strength.
“Keep walking,” he growls.
“If you hurt Cora, I will kill you,” I say out loud, hoping Ivan hears too.
I can hear Ivan’s laughter from inside the house. “You think you’re the one we should fear?”
Shit. This is getting serious now.
If I step foot inside that house, my death is as good as certain.
So I make one last ditch effort by shoving both feet into the doorjamb and then knocking my head against my captor, butting him out of the way. Finally, he loses his grip, and I bolt off back across the path.
I have no choice. I have to run. If he finds me, he’ll kill me.
I’ll come back for Cora.
Suddenly, two hands wrap around my ankles, and I’m tipped over.
No, no, no!
“You think you can run from this?” Ivan yells from the house.
“Fuck you, you know he’ll kill us both!” I scream.