Total pages in book: 72
Estimated words: 69909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 69909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 350(@200wpm)___ 280(@250wpm)___ 233(@300wpm)
I’m sure every heart is pounding as Girard raises the ax with his one arm. His face is a mixture of fire and ice, his rage palpable. Augustus stares up at the man or the ax, I’m not sure which, and I don’t know which of them screams louder as Girard brings the ax down severing the right hand of the Councilor.
For a moment, all goes silent. Eerily so. Then Ines rises to her feet and begins to clap as if it’s the end of a great opera.
Augustus is whimpering, cradling the bloody stump of his arm, his hand lying uselessly on the block, a ring on one finger glinting in the spotlight.
The cameras shut off.
Car engine’s start.
An explosion comes from the direction of the main house and Jericho, and I leap to our feet. Windows blow out and smoke begins to pour from the structure.
But Girard isn’t done yet. He tugs the ax out of the block and nods to a soldier who knew what was coming. We all knew, didn’t we?
The soldier grips a handful of Augustus’s hair and pulls him forward.
Augustus stares up, bewildered momentarily, before he understands. Before his throat is set in the groove on the opposite end of the block from where he kneels, the back of his neck bared to the ax.
“For the heinous nature of your sins, your betrayals, I, Antoine Girard, condemn you, Lucius Augustus, to death!”
Hildebrand is on his feet, mouth agape and we all watch as Girard raises that ax once more and this time, when he brings it down, there is an earth-shattering thud as it slices through flesh and tissue and bone and lodges itself in the wood of the block. In the midst of all this commotion, I hear a thunk. It’s the dropping of the severed head on the wooden dais, the undignified rolling of it off the platform.
It comes to a stop a foot away and I stare at it. At the open eyes. The bloody neck.
A second explosion comes, and I look up to watch the main house become fully engulfed by flames. Girard lets go of the ax, strips off his executioner’s robe and takes Ines’s hand. The two of them walk away. They’re not running even though all around them soldiers move quickly. A smaller explosion comes from the guest house just as he and Ines disappear from view.
“Blue!” I run toward the house, into it. Smoke fills the now empty great room, the television replaying the scene, the watch count rising exponentially as I cover my mouth and nose and run down the hall where they took Blue. “Blue!” I call louder over the roaring sound of fire. I cough, grab handfuls of the robe and press it to my nose and mouth as I try the first door which opens but the room is empty. Same with the second. Another explosion somewhere behind me propels me forward and sends me crashing into the final door.
“Help. Zeke. I’m here. Help,” I hear the muffled sound between hacking coughs.
“Stand back!”
I throw my full weight against the door, but it doesn’t budge. I do it again and again, and when it begins to give, I stand back and kick it in. The door splinters. I force it the rest of the way and rush into the bedroom, finding Blue on her hands and knees on the floor.
“Blue!” I get to her, drop to my knees before her and take her face in my hands. Her eyes are bloodshot. Smoke makes it impossible to breathe. “We need to get out of here!”
I pull her to her feet but another explosion sounds, this one from the hallway outside her door. The heat is intense. I rush to the window dragging Blue with me.
“Locked,” Blue manages.
I set her down, look around for something to break it, pick up a brass lamp and tug it out of the outlet. I smash it against the glass again and again until it finally shatters and turn my shoulder into it to break out the glass.
“Zeke!” Jericho calls from outside.
“Here! We’re here!”
My brother runs toward the window, and I gather Blue up in my arms.
“Take her!” I call out, following Jericho’s gaze over my shoulder to the fire that’s swallowing up the door, the table just inside the room. “Take her!” I lift Blue up, using the gown to protect her against the shards of glass still hanging from the window. Jericho takes her from me, and I smash out more glass, another explosion coming, hurling me out the window with the force of it.
28
BLUE
I open my eyes to distant, unfamiliar sounds. It must be nighttime. It’s dark and for a panicked moment, I think I’m back in the trunk of that car. That within moments, Wyatt Hoxton will haul me out. But no, my brain catches up. It’s not pitch black where I am. I’m not lying in the hard trunk of a car. I’m in a bed. My head lies on a pillow and the mattress beneath my body is soft. My head hurts and my body feels bruised and beaten. Am I still at the guest house? Did I fall asleep in all that commotion? That insanity?