Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Movement caught her eye as she tried to lower herself little by little. The curtains of her balcony shifted. A hand speared between them, moving toward the side and pulling the curtains with them.
“Shit,” Daisy whispered. A cold sweat broke over her forehead. Her hands were slick against the metal as she quickly crouched down. The computer pushed up, threatening to break free from her pants and fall.
She’d rather it hit the ground than her. She didn’t let it distract her.
Curtains were ripped out of the way. Light washed over the balcony floor, with the shadow of a man positioned at the door, trying to get it open.
Shit, shit, shit! She braced herself and let her feet fall. Nearly at the same time, she lowered the rest of her body, her arms shaking with the effort to go slowly.
The lock on the sliding glass door clicked over. Her feet dangled over empty air.
The door opened as her hands slid the rest of the way. She barely kept the panic at bay as she took a moment to ensure her body was swinging toward the balcony below, still a couple of feet from her toes. This was not a good time to be on the shorter side. With her momentum going in the right direction, she held her breath and let go.
Her body fell. Her feet missed the balcony. She knew a moment of abject terror before her hands were racing toward the railing. Reaching out, she grabbed it just in time. Her weight yanked at her grip, but she held on and scrabbled up and over. The computer broke free, clanging against the metal. It followed her onto the balcony, where both of them were dumped onto the floor.
The slide of shoes echoed against the ground above her. Hands slapped down onto the metal railing. The person was trying to get a glimpse of her. From that vantage point, there was no way.
The clock was ticking. They’d wait a second before running to get to this floor. She could either try to drop down to another floor, or race him.
She dared not try dropping down again. She was nowhere near as good as that fae. The next time she might not be so lucky as to grab on, and if she did, her grip might give out.
A slice of light outlined the heavy curtain on the sliding glass door. Someone was probably inside.
Something popped as she rolled to her knees and then crouched to try the door. The curtain parted before she could. A confused man looked out. He must’ve heard the thumping of her body landing. Upon his seeing her, surprise and increased confusion creased his face.
Seeing an opportunity, she forced terror to bleed into her expression and crawled toward him. She reached out, a young woman in trouble needing a savior.
The action worked immediately. He quickly reached for the lock on his door before sliding it open. She grabbed the computer before stuffing it back into her pants. Still no footsteps sounded from above. The guy was trying to figure out what was going on below.
“Are you—”
“Help!” she said in a frantic whisper, cutting the man off. Her words tumbled out, aiming to confuse him further. “I fell. He’s after me. The mob. It’s danger—”
She launched forward. Her two hands hit the center of his chest, shoving at an upward angle. His weight went off balance and then the force of her push moved him backward. She clamped a hand over his mouth to muffle his outcry of surprise.
A shock of magic blistered the air. The hotel room shimmered until ridged mountains topped with snow took its place. An illusion. She’d gotten lucky this guy’s magic wasn’t something painful.
She kept pushing until his feet caught, and he tumbled over. His body disappeared into a crystalline lake with a mirror-glass surface.
“Sorry, but he’s after me,” she said with a frantic edge to her voice. She hit a solid but soft shape that her eyes didn’t see. The bed. “My ex-boyfriend. He’ll kill me if he finds me.”
She felt her way toward the end as the mountains disappeared and the room clicked back into reality.
“Wait, calm down.” The man was struggling to right himself.
She jumped onto the king-sized bed and ran across.
“Wait—just wait a minute,” the man said as she hopped off the other side.
“Thank you for helping,” she said, grabbing the door handle and yanking it open. “Thank you!”
In the hallway, she pulled the computer from her pants and sprinted for the elevator alcove in the center of the floor. The hallways existed on either side of it. It would be faster to take the stairs, which was why the guy from a floor above would likely be in the stairwell.
Instead, she crossed through the alcove to the other hallway, passing a very confused woman in a bright pink dress. Once there, she turned right and aimed for the stairwell on the other side of the building. The building had four, one in each corner. By the time the guy on the floor above realized she’d fled the room, he’d have no idea exactly where she’d gone.