Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
This time the climax comes almost immediately and it comes at the same time. We both moan, and gasp, and move even faster, desperate for each little wave of pleasure coursing through our bodies.
When she rolls off me, we’re both sticky with sweat and properly exhausted.
We huddle together, arms twined around each other, and start drifting.
I’ve never spent the night with Clara Birch and I’m sorry about that. Because we have no more nights together. Even now, there is a crack of light on the horizon outside her window. The dawn is breaking, the start of our last day together arriving.
The end is here.
But we’ve got this day, at least. So I hug her close to me, and kiss her hair, and let my heart slow down with hers. Realizing that at some point the Matrons have given up, because there is no more pounding on the door.
We sleep. Not in a bed, but on the floor.
Not through the night, but through the morning.
And when I wake, the sun is high above us—blazing down through a large, circular window—and Clara is sobbing.
I turn, trying to kiss her. Neck, lips, breasts, pussy—I want to kiss her all over.
But she pushes me away and gets to her feet, completely naked. And this time, when I look at her, she doesn’t even try to cover herself.
“What?” I ask, my voice groggy from just waking. “What’s wrong?”
She makes a face of confusion. Then she’s spitting words at me. “What’s wrong?” She pauses to let out an incredulous snort. “I’m going to the tower tonight, Finn. Are you really, really gonna let me do that?”
I get to my feet as well, and try to pull her into my arms. “Clara—”
“No!” She pushes me away. Two flat hands against my chest. It’s a not a hard shove, but I do take a couple steps back just to give her space. “I want an answer. I need an answer.”
I scoff. “Clara. An answer… to what question?”
“Are you sending me into that tower tonight?”
My mouth drops open and I point at my chest. “Do you think this is up to me? Because it’s not. I have no say in this. It’s the damn god. Do you have any idea what happens if the Extraction Master refuses to send a Maiden in when she’s summoned?”
“No. Because no Master has ever done it before! They’re all a bunch of cowards!”
Rage flares up inside of me. Because my father was the Extraction Master before me and he was not a fucking coward. But I force my voice to be even and firm when I speak next. “That’s bullshit. They have, Clara. Not many of them, because they learned pretty quick that the god in the tower gets what he asks for or else.”
“Or else what?”
“Or else he takes you all. Not just you, but Gemna too. And not just you and Gemna, either, but all those Little Sisters down there as well.”
Her eyes go squinty. She takes a breath. Lets it out. Then replies in a seething whisper, “That’s bullshit.”
“You say that because you’ve never seen it happen.”
“Neither have you.”
“No. But I’ve got a reliable source. Are you willing to chance it?” I’m looking her straight in the eyes as I say this, glaring at her. Pissed off, again. And hating this fact, because this isn’t me. But I don’t know how to feel any other way right now.
All I can do is try and explain. “Because I’m not, Clara.” It still comes out as a growl, but it’s not as harsh as it could’ve been. I am at least a little bit in control. “I’m not willing to chance it. Sending Haryet last night was bad, but you? This is going to kill me, Clara. I might be alive when those doors close, but inside, I will be dead.”
I pause here, waiting to see if she’s listening closely or not. If she’s taking me seriously, or not. And I think she is, because she doesn’t reply. Just stares at me with an open mouth.
“I can’t kill them all just on the hope of saving you! Because you won’t be saved, Clara. The god will compel you to walk through the doors. That’s why none of the Spark Maidens ever tried to run before. It can compel you. It can make you. And after it makes you do it, it’ll make all the others do it too. And there is nothing we can do to stop it. I’m not in charge of this.”
I pause again, but still she’s got nothing to say.
“So now, knowing this, what would you do, Clara? Go into that tower so they can all live? Or kill them, and yourself too? Because those are your options.”
She gasps. And then she slaps me, the cyan-blue light once again leaking out of her lit-up hands. There are hundreds of glowing symbols on them now, though. Not just her hands, either. I watch as the weird markings crawl past her wrists, past her elbows, over her shoulders—then her whole torso lights up. A moment later, it’s covering her whole body. She points at me, screaming. “Get out! Get out right now!”