Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130081 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 434(@300wpm)
I just hope this song weapon is as powerful as they all seem to think it is, she thought to herself. She made certain to stay close to Nate so she could grab his arm and start belting out a melody if she needed to, but so far the Scourge soldiers hadn’t tried to hurt them—they were just herding them along down the twisting, dark corridors. Sonya wondered what waited for them at the end…but then decided she really didn’t want to know.
At last they came to a vast set of double doors right in the middle of the ship. They were four stories high at least—their tops disappeared into the gloom far above her head. They were made of some dark grey or black metal etched with glowing green lines. Sonya stared at them, wondering what was behind them. They looked like they led into some ominous version of a fairytale throne room…or else the lair of an unspeakable monster.
And then, the door creaked open and she saw that both her guesses had been right.
There before them was a vast, round, shadowy room. In its center was a set of broad, steep steps that led up to a kind of dais. And on the dais was a black throne, etched in the same glowing green lines as the doors.
Sonya didn’t want to see what was sitting on that throne. The moment the doors had opened a blast of pain, fear, despair, and sorrow rushed out to greet her. It was like stepping into a walk-in freezer and being suddenly surrounded by icy cold—the negative emotions nearly drove her to her knees.
Beside her she heard Nate grunt with effort and then he muttered to her,
“Not real—the bad feelings—they’re not ours! They’re coming from outside us.”
Sonya realized the big ex-Seal was right—she wasn’t the one feeling all the horrible, negative emotions—they were coming from outside her—from the being on the throne.
Knowing that gave her the strength to lift her head again and study what was happening on the dais. Sitting on the black throne with its glowing green markings was a creature that seemed to be wrapped in robes of shadow. Its face was hidden but the pale, white hands that protruded from its smoky sleeves were bony to the point of being skeletal.
The AllFather, she thought, feeling the pit of her stomach go cold. That must be him!
There had been stories on Earth ever since the Scourge invasion—nightmare retellings of the very few who had met the Scourge Overlord and lived to tell of it with their minds still intact. They spoke of his monstrous appearance and his endless hunger for pain and fear but now that she saw him in person, Sonya knew that none of the stories she’d heard had gone far enough—the reality of the AllFather was so much worse than she had ever pictured, even in her most vivid night terrors.
The black and green throne was surrounded by the same huge, Vat-grown soldiers but there was also another Scourge who looked more animated than the dull, empty-eyed clones. He was motioning for another group of soldiers to herd a group of prisoners up the steps to the dais. Sonya tried to see who they were herding, but the Scourge warriors were all too tall.
And then, finally, the prisoners reached the dais and the guards fell back and she could see.
Sonya bit her lip as she recognized Davrik’s tall form, standing straight and proud at the top step of the dais. Lined up beside him were three women she didn’t recognize. One of them was clearly human, with long brownish-blonde hair. The other two must be aliens—one had pearly gray skin like a Scourge and the other had light purple skin and long black hair.
She heard Nate take in a quick breath beside her. He was staring at the prisoners too, she saw.
“Which one is yours?” she murmured.
“There—the one with the purple skin and black hair. That’s my Lan’ara—my mate,” he muttered hoarsely. “God, I can feel how afraid she is! And that one is my little sister, Maddy.” He pointed at the girl with long brownish blonde hair. “We have to get to them!”
But the guards were still surrounding the two of them and anyway, Sonya didn’t think they were close enough to get a good shot at the AllFather. Not like she knew much about the ESR strapped to the ex-Seal’s back, but it seemed to her that the closer they could get, the better their chances of using it successfully were.
“Wait—they’re saying something,” she whispered back. “Let’s see what’s going on before we go charging up there.”
“All right—but I can’t wait much longer,” he growled. There was a look in his eyes, Sonya saw—the look of a man who will do anything to protect the woman he loves. Her heart fisted in her chest when she saw it because she recognized it—hadn’t she seen that same look on Davrik’s face? A look that had been directed at her?