Page 176
Desperation poured from my throat. “Michio! Don’t…don’t let him do this. Fight him. You’re strong…dammit, you’re stronger than him!”
The Drone’s smile oozed with calm confidence. “Dr. Nealy believes he can outsmart me by not thinking about rescue attempts. But how does one make plans without thoughts?” He studied Michio’s impassive expression and looked back at me. “I’m afraid he has nothing to offer you.”
The Drone hadn’t broken him. Not Michio. Maybe he’d found a way around the mind-reading? My head spun, my breaths wheezing. The only thing I could count on was death if the Drone let go.
I closed my eyes to fight down the urge to puke, certain he would drop me if I spewed on his cape.
After a few heavy breaths, I glared up at him, my skin tearing in the grip of his claws. “We wouldn’t be here, on the brink of this cliff, if you didn’t know about the prophecy.”
“Are you certain? I determined this location long before I discovered the predictions. Whether or not I would’ve killed you here is a matter of assumption. But think about it, Eveline. If the cliff or the child are necessary causes of your death, then your death necessarily implies the presence of one or the other. I can’t ignore the fact that both the cliff and the child happen to exist, right here, beneath my fingertips.”
My insides revolted, shooting acid up my chest and into my throat. I gagged and lost the battle with my stomach as vomit trickled over my cheek and fell into oblivion.
He released his claws from my face and stepped away. The world moved in slow motion as I suspended there, my legs clenched around the edge and gravity pressing me backward. My muscles strained and my stomach contracted against the gorge’s determined pull.
Michio grabbed the rope on my arms and swung me up, stabilizing my body on the ledge. Dizzy and terrified, I gasped, panting for air. I didn’t fall. I didn’t fall. For a hopeful moment, I thought Michio had snapped his invisible chains to save me, but one look at his empty face told me otherwise.
The Drone curled his disfigured lips, letting me know I was still alive because he willed it. “The prophecy is either something or nothing. Which leaves me with the conundrum of Plato’s Beard that argues nothing is something.”
Fuck, was this why he’d left me in that room for so long? Had he spent all that time talking himself into tangled circles?
Saliva collected in my mouth, my stomach threatening to heave again. I spit on the ledge, breathing past my lips, and glared at him out of the corner of my eye as I wiped my cheek on my shoulder.
His smile flattened, and his pupils dilated. “The fetus in your womb will not be born.”
My heart stopped.
He glanced at my neck and returned to my face. “But before I destroy it, I will drain it of its power. And yours.”
“She’s a her, you sick son of a bitch.” Horror trembled through my body and quivered my voice. “She’s stronger than you. She’ll kill you. Stick your fucking fangs in me, and we’ll see who’s left with the power.”
It was all conjecture. I didn’t know shit, and my fucking panic was seeping through the cracks of my composure.
“Once I bite you and pull the power from your body, you’ll become infertile, weak. You’ll no longer be of any use to me.” He stretched out his arms and looked around the canyon. “So here we are, fulfilling the prophecy. No matter what becomes of the bite, Dr. Nealy has been ordered to push you over the moment I release your vein.”
I shook my head in denial, even as I knew I’d reached the end with no way out. It didn’t matter if the bite backfired and I imbibed his power. I would already be on my way to the bottom of the cliff. He probably would’ve flown me over the gorge and bitten me high in the air if he was certain he wouldn’t lose his power. But he didn’t know.
Which was why he’d chosen this location to do it. Bite me and push me.
My fear was sudden and manic. Ferocious energy pummeled through my limbs as I thrashed forward, bucking against Michio’s hands on my hips. I needed down, needed off this fucking ledge. “Let me down. Let me the fuck down!”
I had no defense. No mobility. No weapons. I was out of time and out of options. Feverish breaths pumped my chest as desperation seared my nose and closed up my throat.
The Drone stepped toward me, his fangs pushing past his lips and his jaw stretching open. Fucking hell, he was leaning toward my neck. I tucked my chin and jerked away, swaying on the narrow peak, my hips pinned down by Michio’s unforgiving strength.
Table of Contents
- Page 1
- Page 2
- Page 3
- Page 4
- Page 5
- Page 6
- Page 7
- Page 8
- Page 9
- Page 10
- Page 11
- Page 12
- Page 13
- Page 14
- Page 15
- Page 16
- Page 17
- Page 18
- Page 19
- Page 20
- Page 21
- Page 22
- Page 23
- Page 24
- Page 25
- Page 26
- Page 27
- Page 28
- Page 29
- Page 30
- Page 31
- Page 32
- Page 33
- Page 34
- Page 35
- Page 36
- Page 37
- Page 38
- Page 39
- Page 40
- Page 41
- Page 42
- Page 43
- Page 44
- Page 45
- Page 46
- Page 47
- Page 48
- Page 49
- Page 50
- Page 51
- Page 52
- Page 53
- Page 54
- Page 55
- Page 56
- Page 57
- Page 58
- Page 59
- Page 60
- Page 61
- Page 62
- Page 63
- Page 64
- Page 65
- Page 66
- Page 67
- Page 68
- Page 69
- Page 70
- Page 71
- Page 72
- Page 73
- Page 74
- Page 75
- Page 76
- Page 77
- Page 78
- Page 79
- Page 80
- Page 81
- Page 82
- Page 83
- Page 84
- Page 85
- Page 86
- Page 87
- Page 88
- Page 89
- Page 90
- Page 91
- Page 92
- Page 93
- Page 94
- Page 95
- Page 96
- Page 97
- Page 98
- Page 99
- Page 100
- Page 101
- Page 102
- Page 103
- Page 104
- Page 105
- Page 106
- Page 107
- Page 108
- Page 109
- Page 110
- Page 111
- Page 112
- Page 113
- Page 114
- Page 115
- Page 116
- Page 117
- Page 118
- Page 119
- Page 120
- Page 121
- Page 122
- Page 123
- Page 124
- Page 125
- Page 126
- Page 127
- Page 128
- Page 129
- Page 130
- Page 131
- Page 132
- Page 133
- Page 134
- Page 135
- Page 136
- Page 137
- Page 138
- Page 139
- Page 140
- Page 141
- Page 142
- Page 143
- Page 144
- Page 145
- Page 146
- Page 147
- Page 148
- Page 149
- Page 150
- Page 151
- Page 152
- Page 153
- Page 154
- Page 155
- Page 156
- Page 157
- Page 158
- Page 159
- Page 160
- Page 161
- Page 162
- Page 163
- Page 164
- Page 165
- Page 166
- Page 167
- Page 168
- Page 169
- Page 170
- Page 171
- Page 172
- Page 173
- Page 174
- Page 175
- Page 176 (Reading here)
- Page 177
- Page 178
- Page 179
- Page 180
- Page 181
- Page 182
- Page 183
- Page 184
- Page 185
- Page 186
- Page 187
- Page 188
- Page 189
- Page 190
- Page 191
- Page 192
- Page 193
- Page 194
- Page 195
- Page 196
- Page 197
- Page 198
- Page 199
- Page 200
- Page 201
- Page 202
- Page 203
- Page 204
- Page 205
- Page 206
- Page 207
- Page 208
- Page 209
- Page 210
- Page 211
- Page 212
- Page 213
- Page 214
- Page 215
- Page 216
- Page 217
- Page 218
- Page 219
- Page 220
- Page 221
- Page 222
- Page 223
- Page 224
- Page 225
- Page 226
- Page 227
- Page 228
- Page 229
- Page 230
- Page 231
- Page 232
- Page 233
- Page 234
- Page 235
- Page 236
- Page 237