Total pages in book: 86
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 80829 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 404(@200wpm)___ 323(@250wpm)___ 269(@300wpm)
Adaline turned toward Leo and stared at him. The dog at her feet rose, looking at Leo as well. It was like they were in sync. She would kill them all to keep this dog. Elias knew it but he wanted to see what she would do.
“That dog is the property of Cold Chaos,” Leo said.
Adaline leaned forward. It was a tiny movement.
The fur on Bear’s back rose. A terrifying growl rumbled in the shepherd’s throat. The dog snarled and erupted into barks, biting the air with huge fangs.
Leo took a step back.
“Back,” Adaline said.
The shepherd stopped barking and sat at her feet.
“Does she seem like your dog, Vice-Guildmaster?”
Leo opened his mouth. Elias shook his head.
Adaline turned back to him. “The dog is mine. It’s non-negotiable. I cleared the cave-in London caused. The adamantite is marked. The way to the anchor is open, and resistance should be minimal. Give me the dog, and you can be mining all that adamantite in half an hour while I sing your praises to the DDC. Or I will make sure you lose the gate and three days from now you will be testifying before a congressional committee. You might keep the guild, you might not. Your choice.”
Elias stared at her. “Are you threatening me?”
“Yes. That’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“Hmm.”
He looked into her eyes and saw steel-hard resolve staring back. She wasn’t bluffing. He knew that if he tried to contain her, she and that so-called dog would explode with violence. A part of him wanted to do it just to see how strong she was.
He hadn’t felt so alive in years.
“But will Mellow be okay with it?” He couldn’t resist baiting her.
“What happens in my family is none of your business, Guildmaster. Do we have a deal?”
“We do,” he said. “The guild record will reflect that K9 47 died in the breach with her handler.”
Her posture eased slightly.
“We’re going to give you everything you want,” Elias said. “As a gesture of goodwill, would you tell us more about what we can expect from this breach?”
“Stay away from the flowers with mauve petals. The pollen goes airborne quickly and will kill you. Stay away from red coral growth. Their thorns secrete poison. It will kill you. Any water source larger than a small pond might have dragons in it. They wait under the surface, ambush you, and will kill you.”
What the hell happened to her in that breach?
“Malcolm marked his route in white. Stick to it, don’t deviate. You won’t encounter resistance.”
“Even at the anchor chamber?” he asked. Did you reach the anchor?
“Even at the anchor.” Yes I did. Don’t worry about it.
He almost asked her to go back in the breach with him.
“If you see the spider herders, you’re going the wrong way. Leave them alone and backtrack…”
What in the world was a spider herder? “Or they will kill us?”
“Not unless you piss them off. They keep to themselves, but I have seen their war spiders, and it will be a hard fight even for you.”
The doors of the library opened, and Tia and Noah ran inside.
Adaline spun off her chair, so fast, he barely registered the movement. The hard mask on her face broke. Her eyes shone, and she smiled a beautiful, glowing smile, as she threw her arms around her children.
Twelve hours later
Elias stood on a stone bridge. Below him the recovery crew bagged the last of the assault team’s bodies and loaded them onto a mining cart.
Adaline’s prediction proved correct. Less than an hour after she exited the gate, the DDC arrived and whisked her away. He led the new assault team into the breach five minutes later, right after he’d informed London that he was fired with a Sontag code. Alex Wright didn’t even argue. He seemed shellshocked, as if the world had suddenly kicked him in the face.
True to Adaline’s word, they encountered no resistance in the breach. The way to the anchor chamber was well marked and deserted. They reached the anchor in three hours.
Considering the chamber’s proximity to the gate, he made the decision to shatter the anchor. They had three days before the gate collapsed, more than enough time to remove all of the bodies and mine the rest of the adamantite. The miners were already working, under much heavier guard this time and with all three northern tunnels collapsed to ensure their safety.
While the mining and recovery crew worked, he scoured the area around the anchor. Something had happened to Adaline in this breach, something that turned her from a regular person into a dangerous, calculating… he didn’t even know what to call it. Survivor seemed inadequate. Combatant didn’t do her justice. He wanted to know what she went through.
They’d found a cavern filled with dead monsters and some sort of weird device. He tried to detach it, and it disintegrated into dust. They found a pile of ash in the anchor chamber and the body of a massive feline-looking monster. He had seen hundreds of creatures in his time in the breaches, but nothing quite like that one. Jackson informed him that it died from being repeatedly stabbed, and that the puncture wounds all over its body came from canine teeth.