Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
He took a step into the light, his body framed by the closed library doors. His pale face was all sharp angles, hard edges, and dark shadows. His cheekbones were high and cut out of marble, while his eyes were carefully shrouded in the dimness. He had hair as dark as pitch, so dark it nearly blended in with the surroundings.
Kierse took a slow, deep breath, shifting her weight to the balls of her feet. She was closer to the window than he was and thanking whatever god would listen that she could make it there before him. Time to employ the second rule of thieving: run.
She darted across the open length of the library. Where before the window had been a dozen long strides away, it now seemed an interminable distance. But as adrenaline kicked in and her blood pumped faster and faster through her veins, everything else slowed down to a crisp, clear picture as if in slow motion. She was still quick, moving at lightning speed that hours and hours of training had prepared her for, but this was something else. Something that Ethan always said was her unfair advantage when they were sparring. It got her out of most situations.
Kierse focused on the approaching window she’d unlatched earlier. Her gloved fingers dug into the bottom of the window and wrenched it upward. The well-oiled gears made no noise. She looked down at the two-story drop to concrete with growing dread. She’d done worse, but she hardly enjoyed it.
As she climbed onto the sill, she ground her teeth. The height was dizzying. She remembered her former mentor’s training sessions, when he’d tried to break her irrational fear of heights. It wasn’t a good look for a would-be master thief.
Jason had made her walk on every skyscraper in the city.
He’d had her jump rooftops.
He’d pushed her off of rooftops.
It wasn’t the worst thing he’d ever done to her, but it brought back the old feelings of righteous anger.
In this moment, only this moment, Kierse thanked him for allowing this drop to not completely paralyze her, and with a breath, she released.
She went weightless in midair. She was flying and braced for her landing. On concrete, it would be a bitch to roll out of. Just last year, she’d wrenched her knee on a misjudged fall and hobbled around for weeks. She couldn’t afford the same misstep tonight.
She’d just cleared the ledge, gravity pulling her down hard and fast, when a hand reached out from above and grasped her arm. She heard her shoulder pop and screamed. She prided herself on her stoicism, but she’d had no warning. No expectation. No one, no human, could move as fast as he had. It just wasn’t possible.
She dangled helplessly in his grasp, then gritted her teeth against the pain, and to her dismay, she was hauled back through the window. Even worse, he was using just one arm to lift her. Once she crossed the sill, he threw her across the room. She bounced and bumped her way down the carpet. Her earpiece was torn from her ear on the way, radio smashed under her hip, disappearing into the depths of the library—so much for radioing Ethan when she was in trouble—before she jarringly collided face-first into the back of the couch in the central seating area hard enough to see stars. She bit back a groan. Her dark hair came free of its tie and sprawled across her face. She jerked her head to get it out of the way but had to close her eyes against the pain.
Fuck. This wasn’t supposed to happen. It had all gone to shit so fast that reality was just now catching up with what her body knew from every bump and bruise.
So much strength. So much brutality.
In her world, that meant just one thing. One horrible thing—monster.
Nope, not the easy route tonight. Not even close.
Sometimes it was unfathomable to think that she lived in this world with monsters. When she was a kid, living off the south Manhattan streets, monsters had been nothing but a scary bedtime story. Men were monster enough for her.
Now, all the stories were true.
Thirteen years ago, they came into the light, as swift and furious and brutal as the stories imagined them to be. Suddenly, monsters and humans were forced to coincide. It was about as bloody as imaginable, and the world collapsed practically overnight.
Every manner of beast roamed the streets, killing humans at will. Monsters destroyed large swaths of cities. Shelter became scarce. Food even more so. Police, firefighters, healthcare—all of it became nearly impossible to navigate. Humans fled the cities in droves, heading into old bunkers and trying out rural life. But monsters weren’t confined to Manhattan, and the world quickly narrowed. Kierse’s parents were already long gone by the time the monsters appeared, and she survived by ingratiating herself into the thieving guild of her late mentor—Jason. But the population had been decimated, and if it weren’t for the recent Monster Treaty, no one would be alive today.