Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Badr flicked from me to my hand. “Everything you’ve said is terrifying, Volana. That my brother was murdered. That our father sanctioned it. That he planned to get rich and powerful from the spilled blood of his own kin. That there’s some mysterious shadow person at the heart of all of it,” he said. “It’s all horrific and it has to be stopped—”
“Yes, exactly. That’s why—”
“—or it would if any of it were true.”
“What?”
Badr picked up the shovel.
“Wait, no!” I cried, shooting back. “It is true. Every word I said was the truth!”
“You were very convincing, Volana,” he said, towering over me. “You had me hanging on every word, but there’s only one problem. If any of this happened, I wouldn’t have heard this for the first time tonight because my brother—my friend—would’ve told me.”
“Badr, listen—!”
He swung the shovel. The last thing I saw was metal before pain burst in my skull.
I WOKE UP MINUTES—HOURS—DAYS later under a mound of crushing darkness.
I screamed.
Chapter One
Oh, no. No! No, no, no, no, no! I screamed down the bond—pure and unadulterated panic overwhelming me. “Help! Edric, help me!”
Nothing.
Not one word or a stir came back. Not even a stray passing thought. Was he asleep? Was he still passed out from Badr’s hit? Was he... ignoring me?
Choking, chilling horror froze my veins. Was this it? Was this how Edric decided to solve the me problem? Someone else went through the trouble of killing me, so why not look the other way... and let them?
No! I cried, slicing that horrible thought off at the knees. Edric was an irritating, rule-twisting hypocrite, but he wasn’t a monster. I’d seen deep enough into his mind to know that. He’d never abandon me to die a slow, dark death, and neither would his wolf. If he wasn’t responding, it meant he couldn’t hear me—
—and I was screwed.
No, another voice shouted at me. You’re not going to die here. You’re not abandoning Hope to the horrifying future in store for Wolf Nation. Get up, and get out of here!
I repeated those words to myself, over and over, sounding the battle cry that propelled me up even as tears flowed hot and free down my face. Cold and dark—that’s what I remember most of when I lost Mom.
She was already sick and dying when vampires busted through the door and came for me. We ran but Mom was slow. Weak. She screamed at my father not to stop and to get me to safety no matter what.
He did so. Throwing me over his shoulder, he sprinted upstairs and tossed me in the safe room, shutting me inside before I knew what was happening. But he didn’t come in with me. Of course he didn’t, he went back down to help Mom.
Dad didn’t turn on the lights before he shut me in, and I couldn’t find them in the dark. So there I sat in the chilly blackness, crying and praying to Luame that my parents would come back for me... and only one did.
But that’s not happening to Hope! Her mother is coming back for her, so get up. GET UP!
Phasing through the crushing dirt, I got my feet solid and firm beneath me.
I had no illusions. The only reason I was still alive was because of my wolf healing, but that wouldn’t save me forever. The vicious ache in my head was a backdrop to my fear. My feet felt like they were being crushed by two anvils. And it was dark.
So very, very dark.
Think, my internal voice called through the pain. You can get out of this, you just have to think!
Sluggish, groaning brain cells struggled to come together and form a coherent plan. I was on my feet, but now what? There was nowhere to go!
“Reach,” I rasped. If I couldn’t go forward, maybe I could go up.
Stretching my arms as high as they’d go, I reached with the vague notion of finding the surface and pulling my way up. It was possible that could work, and I needed possible.
Stretching, reaching, groaning, crying—I felt for the barest brush of air on my fingertips.
Nothing.
Desperate, I grabbed fistfuls of dirt—trying to heave myself up that way—but the loose dirt shifted and crumbled in my grasp—giving me no purchase.
“Help!” I screamed, white-hot terror taking over. I swiped and flailed uselessly through the dirt. “Oh gods, help me! Help!
“Heeelllllppppp—!” My fingers caught on something soft and warm.
Is that—? Can it be—?
It closed over me, holding me tight. A hand.
Hope lodged in my heart. Someone was there. Who? How? Was it Edric? Had he woken up and found me? Did Badr’s wolf force him to come back and save me?
I felt the dirt shifting and moving. Cool air washed over my fingers, then my palms, then my forearms. The phantom hands clasped mine and pulled. Without word or instruction, I knew what to do.