Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52864 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 264(@200wpm)___ 211(@250wpm)___ 176(@300wpm)
“You saw him. Did he look normal to you?”
I blinked. “Well, no.” He’d looked surreal, like a dream.
“Exactly. And then he disappeared,” Draco added.
Jesus. If I’d been confused before, now I was lost. And none of this explained why Draco was involving me, other than I was a person who lived on this planet and didn’t particularly wish to see it destroyed. “Draco, I don’t get what’s happening. I only want to go. I need to see my family.”
He rubbed his chin and let out a deep breath. “There isn’t time, Piper.”
“So you are sick. The illness is real,” I said.
“No. I mean yes. The illness is Ten Club. They’re behind everything—what you can see with your own eyes happening all around and what you can’t see. That feeling in your gut is real. It is them.”
“But how…” I shook my head. “Never mind. Are you saying the world is really ending?”
“Possibly.”
My eyes filled with tears. “Don’t say that.”
“You asked, and it is the truth.”
I-I couldn’t believe it. “How do you know all this?” I snapped.
“I met the Ten Club’s current leader. She wasn’t shy about their plans, especially because they have been waiting for me to show up and take over. They believe I can unite them with the Seers, who are looking for a comeback. After King killed them off. Mostly.”
I stared blankly. King had mentioned “Seer” when he was here but hadn’t explained what it was.
“Draco! Stop talking like I’m supposed to understand what this stuff means. I don’t. I just want—”
“Seers are born in this world, some with extraordinary gifts of sight and healing; however, they consider this life to be a sort of training ground to hone their skills so that when they die, they bring as much power as possible to their people in their afterlife. It is more complex than that, but they have evolved over time and are now very dangerous. They believe it’s their time to reign over this world with my help. And Ten Club believes, as the son of King, that I am here to help them carry out their plans. Both want absolute power. Both think I am the one who can deliver it under a united front. Ten Club and the Seers together.”
This was…a lot. “The Ten Club lady told you all this?”
“Yes.”
“And what do you think about ruling them?”
A look of outrage exploded on his face. “I have had my entire life stolen from me, Piper. My father decided I was too evil to live, but my mother loved me too much to let anyone hurt me. So they put me to sleep to wither and die eventually.” He exhaled. “No one is going to decide my fate for me, Piper. Not King, not Ten Club, and not the Seers.”
This was good to hear, but I had no clue who all these people really were or if any of this was the full story, let alone why Draco thought he needed me.
“I do not know yet, Piper. That is the honest truth. But you are connected to this house and to the family who helped imprison me. You have a role in this somehow.”
“I’m not an actual Spiros.”
“What?”
“My parents died when I was young, and I ended up being adopted by Ruth and George Spiros—third-generation Americans.” I hoped telling him that would free me.
“It makes no difference. And you are not going anywhere until I understand why I saw you in my dreams.”
I thought it was the house he’d seen.
“It was both,” he replied to my thoughts. “I saw you first. Then the house.”
I swallowed hard. No, no, no. I wasn’t going to let him drag me into this.
“You feel our connection, too,” he said. “You don’t like it, but you feel it.”
I felt terror.
“We’re leaving. Now,” he barked.
“I’m not going with you,” I protested.
His eyes softened. “Piper, I am just as lost as you are. But I can tell you two things: I am not evil. And I want to stop whatever is happening as much as you do.”
“I don’t trust you,” I explained.
His pale gray eyes narrowed. “Give me a chance to change that.”
“How?”
“I give you my word I will not hide anything from you going forward. In fact, I will make you remember what I took from you.”
I frowned. He hadn’t taken anything from me except for my last sliver of sanity.
“I can make people forget things,” he said.
“People like me?”
“Yes. And now I want you to remember.” His deep voice vibrated through my ears, into my head, and out through my entire body.
“Remember what?” What the fuck was he talking about? What had he “taken”? Panic washed through me. I felt like an animal locked in a cage, trying to fight its way out.
“Draco!” a voice roared from the front of the house. “Show yourself!”