Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90672 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 453(@200wpm)___ 363(@250wpm)___ 302(@300wpm)
He’s not wrong.
The room quiets.
Cody bites his bottom lip. “I know it sucks, but we can’t sit around and do nothing because it’s dangerous.”
Seth’s gaze wavers. “I get that, and I’m assuming he can breeze through the first three tasks now without issue.” He looks to me, and I nod, having already tested them during our fuck-fest over the weekend. “So he needs to have the Moment.”
Cody eyes me, and I figure we’re thinking the same thing even before he says, “That took me months. And you guys even longer.”
“Wait. What’s a moment?” Luke asks.
“Not a moment. The Moment,” I explain. “Remember when I told you about the way we’re in sync with the Rift? We each remember that distinct moment when it happened. Think of it as an epiphany. It’s like you suddenly have another sense. It’s hard to explain beyond that, except to say you’ll know when it happens.”
Luke’s narrowed eyes suggest he doesn’t really get it, which I understand, since I doubt any of us would have before it happened.
“Cody couldn’t navigate his visions until then,” Seth explains. Seems like the first time he’s talked to Luke without being a total ass to him. He turns his attention to Cody. “Once he has the Moment, we’ll know he can at least do that, and then maybe it’s worth the risk.”
Now I’m getting pissed. “Are you even going to ask us how we feel about it?”
Seth and Cody seem taken aback.
“As I mentioned before, Cody, you’re not gonna sit on Luke’s face while we’re doing that.”
“No, that would be too dangerous,” Cody says, clearly missing the point. “What if because he’s so strong, I won’t have to touch him like I do with you guys? What if I did it from here, on the pentagram, like that day after the pickup game? I mean, he could blow me away from the dorm showers, so it might be enough to give him the vision.”
“Worth a try.” That’s an experiment I’m far more comfortable with than Cody trying to sit in on one of our fuck sessions.
Seth’s jaw tenses. He’s not sold, and I don’t blame him. This is dangerous. And it’d be foolish to jump the gun. But given the stakes, can we simply sit around and do nothing when people’s lives are at risk?
“It’s definitely the safest way to go about it,” Seth concedes. “And I’ll feel better once I know he’s had his Moment. It’ll convince me he has some control over this.”
“Yeah…” Cody drags out. “But we need a backup plan, in case it doesn’t happen in say, the next week or so.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“The vision suggests someone will be dead by the week of the twenty-first. We don’t have a lot of time. And considering the first vision changed…” He trails off, clearly unwilling to state what we already know—that someone could die at any moment.
“We can burn that bridge later,” Seth says. “Right now, let’s show Luke how to perform the ritual to connect to the Rift. And hope for the best.”
Hardly anything in the way of a plan, but it’s something.
Luke’s quiet, his expression tense. This is a lot of pressure on him.
“How do you feel, Luke?” I ask, since he should get a say in all this.
“What choice do we have, right?”
Fuck.
This must’ve been a lot to hear, but I have to believe, given everything we’ve already seen he’s capable of, that the Moment will come easier to him than it did any of us.
At least, I have to hope.
19
LUKE
“In…and out…” Brad says.
With my eyes shut, my legs crossed in a meditation pose, I focus on my breathing.
After the meeting, Seth and Cody headed out, leaving Brad and me alone in the cellar. Considering the shit we’ve done throughout the weekend—moving objects with my mind, levitating, though not as impressively as I did the first time we fucked—I was expecting the next task to be something a little more interesting than a guided meditation.
“In and out…”
How does he think I’m supposed to concentrate on my breathing when I have so much on my mind? And it’s not just the meeting and the chatter about the Moment and the changing visions that are spinning around in my head, but everything I’ve learned I can now do by messing around with Brad.
As he starts to prompt me again, I open my eyes. He’s sitting cross-legged between me and the mirror. “Brad…please tell me there’s more to this than concentrating on my breaths.”
“You want me to lie?”
“That’s what causes this big moment? Some dumb meditation?”
“You seem skeptical, but it really does work. It’s how all of us were able to quiet enough to have the experience.”
“Can you stop acting like the Moment is an actual thing?”
“Okay, this was why I thought we shouldn’t jump right into it.”