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)
I stop breathing. It was Marcus. He made the volcano do that. Niran calmed him into stopping it. Realization washes through me. I remember what he said about not deserving me, about being a terrible person. What has he done with the powers aromium has given him that I don’t know about? Whatever it is, he wears the guilt of it like a lead vest.
Virginia and Pax are gone. They seem to have escaped when Marcus, Niran and Amira were distracted.
My canvas bag of flowers isn’t more than a dot on the ground now. It fell from my shoulder when the ravens grabbed me. At least Virginia won’t know we found the flowers and were bringing them back.
Hopefully. What if they’ve been following us this whole time and we led them right to the flowers? They could destroy all of the remaining ones.
The raven with my leg in its talons clamps down and I yelp, pain searing all the way to my bones. It’s my only distraction from the terror of what’s happening to me. My life depends on these two birds, who may be carrying me out to sea and dropping me. Or dropping me a quarter of a mile to the ground to the Rising Tide camp, where my body could be dinner tonight.
I close my eyes, fighting a powerful wave of nausea. At least my aromium is on. It’s not much, but it’s an advantage.
Virginia might put me back in that deep hole, where I was helpless. She could let me die there slowly. Or she could kill me in front of everyone.
When the Rising Tide camp comes into view below, I swallow against the bile in my throat. I see the skulls and bones outlining the circle, and the roofs of the camp’s buildings. The birds start to descend, the camp getting closer.
Nothing good is waiting for me down there. I steel myself, knowing I may have to start fighting for my life as soon as I reach the ground.
47
President Whitman,
I’m pleased to report the birth of the first baby born to aromium-enhanced parents. The girl weighs nine pounds, three ounces and is healthy in all measurable aspects. At just three days old, she already shows neck control and motor skills that measure in the nine-month range for human infants.
Peace, Order and Prosperity,
Dr. Randall McClain
“No one’s here to save you this time.”
Virginia’s icy tone sends a tremor from the tip of my spine to the base, my breathing the only thing I’m completely in control of right now.
Emaciated Tiders in numbered bracelets are gathered on both sides of the main pathway through the camp. Rona is there, her expression calculating as she watches us.
“You’ve been lied to!” I look from one side of the path to the other. “Look at me. I’m not starving. We have—”
“Shut up.” Virginia walks closer to me, her fingers wrapped around a spear with a tip that looks razor sharp.
I ignore her. “She doesn’t want you to know the truth. You’re all being used by her and Whitman.”
“Briar.” I turn to find Pax, one of his eyes blackened and swollen and his nose crooked and bloody, holding his hands out to me in a calming gesture. “It doesn’t have to be like this.”
“Oh yes, it does.” Virginia narrows her eyes at me in a murderous glare. “She was on the beach that day when eleven of our people were shot. They didn’t even fight fairly. They just shot them.”
“It was them or us,” I say. “They were running toward us. We didn’t attack first.”
One of her ravens dips and dives down, the tip of its beak spearing me in the back. I slash at it with my knife, but it’s gone before I can get to it, the fresh wound in my back burning.
“Don’t worry.” Virginia’s tone is sickly sweet. “You aren’t dying yet. Even though I’m eager to wipe that smug look from your face forever, I have to wait until Marcus gets here.”
My eyes widen, my pulse pounding with worry. I so badly want to tip our hand. To tell her we just found the key that will help us keep people sent here from becoming mindless killers.
“Cut her head off!” someone yells.
“Great idea.” Her toothy grin is evil. “But not yet. Marcus will come for her, and then we’re going to kill them both.”
No, I won’t let her do this. Marcus is protecting more than a hundred people in our camp. He means too much for me to let him sacrifice himself just to save me. I’m only one person.
“He won’t come.” I shrug, acting nonchalant.
Virginia’s laugh is a shrill cackle that grates on every nerve in my body. “You saw what he did to the volcano. That’s a new one. Honestly, I didn’t realize he could do that. If he can control the volcano, he’s too powerful to live. He’s not one to leave anyone behind, and he seems to like you for some reason. He’ll come.”