Total pages in book: 144
Estimated words: 137871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 689(@200wpm)___ 551(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137871 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 689(@200wpm)___ 551(@250wpm)___ 460(@300wpm)
“Mortals are the least of my concerns.”
“I can help you escape whoever you’re running from.” The plebe’s gaze skittered to the blood-stained collar of Adriel’s dress. “I saw what he did to your house—the fire. They didn’t kill him. I saw him get away, and I imagine he’ll catch up with you soon. I know you’re scared. What does he want with you?”
Ice formed in Adriel’s veins as a chill raced down her spine. The urge to flee caused her knees to tingle. She looked east, fanning out her senses as she tried to detect footsteps. There was nothing.
“I can help you,” the witch urged. “It’s a big world out there—nothing like what you’re used to. I can drive a car, and I know how to talk to people and how to dress.” She glanced at Adriel’s long sleeves, grimacing at the primitive apron and Amish attire. “I can help you escape whoever you’re running from—whoever he is.”
Her eyes widened. No one could help her. This witch could never understand the heinous atrocities Cerberus was capable of. The girl lived in captivity for years, and now she was desperately trying to cling to any escape.
“You’re hardly a woman of the world—”
“What does my age matter after the things I suffered? I haven’t been a child in a long time.” She pointed a sharp finger toward the distant sound of civilization. “Everything I know is out there. I may look young, but I’m an adult who can help you.”
“Go home where it’s safe,” Adriel spat.
The witch snatched her arm. “I have no home! Your people saw to that when they murdered my aunts.”
“Exactly why I would be a fool to trust you!” She jerked her arm free. “Witches and immortals are natural enemies. Touch me again, and I’ll show you why.”
“I have magick!”
Adriel ignored her and headed north, but the girl followed, struggling to keep up.
“Do you hear me?” She yelled. “I have powers!”
Adriel’s blurry stare narrowed as she trudged through the trees. “If you had powers, you would have escaped long before tonight.”
“You saw how they kept me. Hands tied and mouth muzzled. Witches need to chant. When we lose our voices, our spells are hobbled.”
Cerberus was still out there. Adriel could not mend broken birds if she wanted to save herself. “I do not have time for orphaned witches.”
“Please. I have nowhere to go.”
Adriel pivoted, prepared to unleash on her, but hesitated when the moonlight caught the witch’s tattered smock. The dirty rag reeked of sweat, fear, and something unmistakably masculine.
Her gaze traveled from her mud-spattered calves to her long, unkempt hair. She’d suffered. Adriel could see it now, and empathy pulled at her heart.
“I’m sorry,” she said, forcing the words out. “Perhaps you cannot return to where you once lived, but you cannot come with me.”
The witch straightened her spine and lifted her chin. “I’m tougher than I look—”
“Enough! You’re free now. Have the sense to save yourself.”
“Can you?”
“Can I what?”
“Save yourself. I watched him take down several immortal men twice your size. You’re small and hurt—”
“You know nothing of the atrocities I’ve survived or the horrors I’ve escaped. Size means little when one is cunning and determined.”
“Exactly! So why would you dismiss me when I’m offering you help?”
“Because you’ll only slow me down—”
As she dropped to a crouch, Adriel’s words cut off with a gasp. A blast shook the forest floor, rattling the trees and propelling sleeping birds to flight.
“What is that?” Juniper gripped the trunk of a tree for balance as the earth quaked and roots rattled free of the soil, tipping trees into each other and sending creatures scurrying for shelter.
He was shaking her out. “That is what you claim you can protect me from.” More trees fell as another boom shook the forest floor.
Adriel had no guarantee she could outrun Cerberus or even cause him to flinch in combat, but she was certain such an enemy was well beyond the plebe’s abilities. The girl might be a witch, but she was young and untrained, still in the infancy of her shadow work. And while Adriel had never killed a living thing in her life, some primal part of her knew she would kill Cerberus if it came down to her survival or his.
“You will die if you stay with me,” Adriel shouted over the quaking rumble.
“You will die if I leave!”
Trees crashed to the soil as branches rained like meteors. Adriel clung to a vibrating trunk as tremors rolled like waves under the earth’s mantle.
“Juniper—that is your name, yes?” Adriel shouted, and the witch nodded. “It is not a matter of want. Do you see how powerful he is? No one can help me now. You must leave this place—”
They fell to their knees and gasped as another earthquake tore through the trees. A chasm ripped across the forest floor, loosening soil and sending them crawling for shelter, but nothing was stable.