Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187754 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 939(@200wpm)___ 751(@250wpm)___ 626(@300wpm)
Khalil thinks about it for a moment and then sets aside the canteen he was drinking out of. “Right again.” He stands and takes one step before pausing to peer at me carefully. “You good here, Seth?”
I make a show of sitting down and getting comfortable. “Of course.”
Khalil hesitates a moment longer before making a decision and holding out his fist for a pound as he goes.
I give him what he wants and then watch over my shoulder as Khalil stalks through the trees where Aurelia and Thorin disappeared moments before. I wait a little longer to make sure they’re gone, and after a full minute passes, I suck in all the air my lungs can handle and exhale as I stand from the log.
Inching over to the van, I don’t give myself time to back out when I reach it.
The moment I yank open the rear doors, the stench of death and rotting bodies hits me before I even notice the cage. Khalil stacked them on top of the filthy twin mattress that’s stuffed between the cage and the cabin. The one I killed for stabbing Aurelia stares back at me through unseeing blue eyes.
Finally, I let my gaze travel to the black bars of the cage and the cramped space between them.
It’s the same size as the one Isaac kept Zeke in.
Seeing no lock, I curl my hands around the bars on the door and pull. When it creaks open, I take one last look over my shoulder for Aurelia, Thorin, or Khalil, and then I climb back inside my cage.
My nose starts bleeding the moment the cage door closes behind me, but I wipe it away and ignore what it means.
I have to do this.
For Sunshine. For me.
For Ezekiel, Thorin, and Khalil too.
I thumb the scar from an old puncture wound in the center of Zeke’s right palm, and like nerves that connect, the one on my neck throbs. Those scars are from the few that Isaac didn’t cause, yet are the ones that hurt the most.
I have to prove to myself that I’m not a danger to them.
God, it smells awful in this van.
I lean my head against the bars and take small breaths only.
Death is a friend. Pain is my enemy.
No.
I feel my hands quake with the need to reach for the knife hidden in my boot. If Thorin or Khalil knew I had it, they’d tie me up and tell me it was for my own good.
Maybe.
But I wouldn’t believe them.
Isaac may not have succeeded in converting Zeke—in convincing him to sacrifice himself for his brother’s immortality—but he did succeed in making Zeke want to die.
Zeke’s pain is so great that it bleeds over to me, and when the worst of it hits, I have no choice but to do what I was born for. Outside of Isaac’s compound, there’s no physical pain to take for him, only the one that torments his mind and soul.
I’ve tried to end it for Zeke many times, but Khalil and Thorin are always there, getting in the way. And when I nearly succeeded the last time, Bane stopped me.
Meddlesome fuckers.
That’s all past me now. I won’t let Isaac win anymore, and not because it doesn’t hurt anymore. It will always hurt. Pain lingers on the edges of our minds, waiting to strike the moment we remember it’s there.
Sunshine makes it better. With every smile and every touch, the shadows retreat a little further.
Maybe I should let Zeke meet her. Maybe I should let him see.
But not yet.
I’m not ready for her to look at this face we share and see anyone but me. And maybe that’s selfish, but I don’t care.
Somehow, I fall asleep among the rotting corpses. Perhaps because I once felt kindred with them. A walking, talking, rotting corpse.
I’m still dozing when I hear the others returning.
Khalil murmurs something, and then Aurelia says more clearly, “Green doesn’t look good on you, Khalil. Don’t hate.”
“Ain’t nobody hating. I’m just saying that it was a lucky shot.”
“Anyway.” I imagine Sunshine rolling her eyes. “Where’s Seth?”
My cheeks flush when I realize I’m still in the cage. I hadn’t meant to fall asleep or let them find me like this. I’d planned to be lounging by the campfire, waiting for their return with a smile in place, like this cage hadn’t nearly set me back nine years.
“I don’t know. He was here when I left.”
“Look, there’s his pack. Seth!” Thorin calls for me.
I don’t answer because I don’t want them to find me in here. Those two fuckers will never let it go, and Sunshine…
No, I can’t let her see me like this.
As if she hears my thoughts, she yells for me. “Seth!”
“Seth, you here?”
“Check the tent,” Thorin orders.
A few seconds pass, then Aurelia says, “He’s not in there.”
“Where would he have gone?”