Adventurer (The Nova Chronicles Book 7) by S.J. Bryant

Author:S.J. Bryant
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Published: 2015-12-01T19:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

Blood coated Nova's arm, dribbling in a thick river to her fingers.

She squinted in the darkness.

A bloody cross-bow bolt sprouted from her upper-arm, surrounded by loose flesh. She winced and squeezed her other hand above the wound, slowing the flow of blood. Each beat of her heart brought a new wave of pain that washed through her arm and spread to the rest of her body, joining her other aches. She struggled for breath, to stay conscious.

She used a tree to get to her wobbling feet and stumbled forward.

"Nova, Nova, Nova. How far do you think you'll get?"

She ignored the voice, hobbling forward with one hand still clutched around her injured arm.

The man behind her chuckled. His footsteps made a steady rhythm, barely faster than a shuffle, but they were getting closer.

She drew a rasping breath, her feet dragging across fallen leaves and catching on twigs. Drops of blood fell from her fingers and left a dotted trail behind her. At least with the Hunter preoccupied with her, the others had a chance of getting away; the thought gave her a small flush of comfort in the cold darkness.

A branch snapped behind her and her heart fluttered. She could hear the man breathing, air grating in his throat, and imagined she could feel the warm puffs of it tickling the back of her neck. She shivered.

The Hunter chuckled. "To be honest, I had hoped you'd put up a better challenge. I'd heard that you are formidable."

"Maybe try when she hasn't been shot, you bastard," Aart bellowed from the shadows and a plasma bolt burst through the trees.

Nova stopped, turning to watch the blast. "Aart… No."

The green ball lit up the forest and slammed into a tree a few metres behind Nova. It burst into flames and the flickering glow lit up their attacker.

He stood a foot taller than most men, with scars covering most of his body. Mods sprouted all over him, from enlarged ears and glowing eyes, to bulging muscles. In some sectors he wouldn't even be classed as human anymore. He held a cross-bow in one hand as if it weighed little more than a stick.

"Brave and stupid. You, Artemis Goldson, fit your description perfectly," he said, lifting the crossbow and aiming into the trees.

"You seem to know a lot about us," Aart said from another area of the forest. "Don't you think you should introduce yourself?"

Nova's knees gave out and she slid to the ground, dark shadows passing over her vision. Her uninjured arm fell away from the wound and landed on her gun. Her blood-coated fingers slipped on the holster.

The Hunter peered into the trees over the top of his cross-bow, squinting against the bright firelight.

More shadows, people, flickered before Nova's vision. She squeezed her eyes shut, begging them to go away. She'd held back the visions, the time slips, for almost a year, but when things got bad they surged back, shattering her control.

The shadowed people ran back and forth through the trees. Some of them looked familiar, one in particular she recognised, much as she didn't want to.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.