Total pages in book: 137
Estimated words: 132491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132491 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Amira fires an arrow at him, and he veers to the side to dodge it so quickly I don’t even see the movement.
“What the fuck?” Amira mutters, nocking another arrow.
Marcus’s heat disappears from my other side. He crashes into Pax, knocking him to the ground.
Marcus gets on top of him, punching him in the face. An arrow whizzes past Marcus’s head, so close my heart nearly stops.
“Amira!” I cry.
“Got it.”
She fires, knowing where the other archer is from the trajectory of the arrow that narrowly missed Marcus. Her arrow is no sooner airborne and she lets another one loose.
A body drops to the ground from the tree line.
Pax roars, his arm muscles straining as he holds Marcus’s wrist, trying to prevent Marcus from sinking a knife into his chest.
We have to find a way to draw out anyone else who’s with Pax. I suspect Virginia is one of the Tiders hiding in the tree line.
“Amira, can you reach the ravens?” I ask.
She looks up. “I think so.”
“Take them out.”
I shield her body with mine as she takes aim, going for the lowest raven circling the clearing. It barks out a deep caw of pain when her arrow hits it in the chest. The bird is falling to the ground when an enraged Virginia flies out of the jungle, a raised spear in her hand.
Three more people follow her, and I steel myself. We’re outnumbered, but they only have spears. Amira quickly takes one of them out with her bow and arrow.
“Niran, she can’t fight hand-to-hand!” I yell.
“I’ve got her!” he says, racing to Amira’s side.
She lands another arrow in a man’s stomach, but he snarls and breaks it off, not slowing.
Virginia is coming for me. My heart races with worry. I can’t risk a glance at Marcus to see how he’s faring against Pax.
She stops about ten feet short of me, going still. I’m going for the gun holstered at my waist when another gunshot sounds. Niran just took one of the others down.
A vicious caw near my head makes me turn. It’s one of the ravens, its dark eyes wild.
I call my vines, begging them to hurry. But within a second, the raven opens its beak, and I’m looking into a cavernous, black abyss. Its black tongue is the last thing I see before it snaps my shirt into its massive beak, taking hold of me.
“No!” My gun drops from my hand as the raven takes flight, something sharp cutting into my left ankle.
Frantically, I turn my head and find a second raven has my lower leg clutched in its sharp, polished talons, the pointed hooks tearing my flesh.
“Briar!” Marcus’s roar of fury cuts through all the other sounds in the clearing.
I reach for him with the same mental pathway I have with vines, calling out to him for help. He’s getting smaller as the birds fly higher. I thrash, smacking at the birds.
My vines are on the ground, writhing and winding into towers in an effort to reach me. There’s a loud humming in my head that I somehow know is them, frantic to reach me.
The tallest vine tower reaches almost twenty feet into the air before it collapses, unable to get any higher. I feel the terror of the plants, their raw fear for me pouring through my body.
Marcus’s wolf pack races across the clearing, their bodies low to the ground and streamlined. They’re practically flying, their shoulders and back muscles rippling with each stride they take.
We’re so high in the air now that I’ve stopped fighting back, because if the birds drop me, the impact with the ground will kill me instantly. Pure terror races through my veins as the people and wolves on the ground get smaller and smaller.
When the wolves reach the spot beneath me, they snarl and jump, trying to reach the birds even though they can’t.
Blood drips from my ankle, the red drops descending from the sky like rain. Marcus calls for me again, my name a primal cry that tears from his chest.
The branches on the palm trees below start quaking. The wolves tear off toward the woods. The ground is shaking now, trees and bushes vibrating. The air is charged with something warm and still.
Something bright and orange in the air steals my attention. A new fear races through me when I realize what it is. Giant globs of molten rock and ash are shooting out of the top of the volcano. It’s the start of an eruption. Lava could quickly destroy this entire island, eradicating everything aromium has touched here, along with everything else.
Niran is standing in front of Marcus, his hands on Marcus’s shoulders. He’s saying something to him. Marcus’s broad shoulders heave with exertion, his face turned to the ground.
As quickly as it started, the ash and magma stop erupting into the sky. Nothing but steam is there now, the palm trees on the ground still.