Phoenix Rising: A Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure (Girl on Fire Book 4) by Eden Hart

Author:Eden Hart [Hart, Eden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Phoenix Flame Press
Published: 2024-05-25T00:00:00+00:00

48

“What?” I mumbled. “How?”

“Fate, you traitorous bitch. That tank blasted a nice hole in the tower’s prison cell. Bad news for those who died. Justice for me.” He raised a hunting knife. “This payback will be as sweet as your spilled blood.”

His arm swung down. Desperately, I grabbed his wrist with both hands. Tried to push him away. He swore. Punched me in the head. More starbursts, sharp and painful. But I hung on to his arm.

He wrestled for control of the knife, grunting and swearing. Slowly, the blade moved closer and closer to my breast.

I couldn’t push his arm away. He was too strong. Rabidly determined.

Could I—?

Impossible. Hybrids couldn’t mind-blend with normal humans, only with babies or weak-minded adults. Thorne was strong. Savage. And about to kill me.

I had only seconds left to live.

Ohgodohgodohgod.

I had to try.

But what if he kills me first, before I can—?

Dammit.

I focused on Thorne. Threw my mind forward. Plunged into a mass of brilliant stars. Ripped through a soft gray wall. And then I was there. Inside a hideous blackness. Surrounded by shock and rage and hate. Thorne’s mind felt like a steamy swamp, full of poisonous mists and dark waters. If I relaxed for even a moment, my consciousness would drown in this vile, sludgy mess.

Focus.

Through his eyes, I saw my body go limp beneath him, my face pale and lifeless. No, not lifeless. Not conscious.

Mind-blended with Thorne, I gripped the hunting knife, whose tip was about to plunge into my breast.

I squeezed Thorne’s hand. Tight. Began to pull the knife back.

*Get out of my head, bitch.* Thorne’s mind smacked against my consciousness, trying to shove me toward that soft gray wall. If I pierced it, I’d be locked out of his mind forever—and dead a second later.

Somehow, I stayed in his murky swamp. I refocused on the fingers gripping the knife. Slowly, I twisted the hand around and, with a massive effort, thrust the blade upward, deep into the man’s chest.

Agony blazed through Thorne-me, unbearable—

I threw myself out of there. Away.

Back into my own body.

Sergeant Thorne slumped on top of me, beady eyes frozen in death.

I shoved his body away, wincing at the warm blood that stained my clothes. His blood.

Dazed, I struggled to my knees. Stared at the knife sticking out of the man’s chest. Waited for guilt to overwhelm me.

Somehow Thorne’s death was different from the Brethren I’d killed today. His death felt more intense. More personal.

I’d just killed a former colleague, a human, in cold blood—

—a man who’d attacked me first, intent on murdering me.

Sure, I felt some guilt—

—but I felt more relief at surviving.

A dark shadow fell over me. Looking up, I jerked in shock, then hurriedly crawled behind the water tank again.

A large gray tumbleweed terra dropped toward the vegetable garden. A smaller tumbleweed, snagged on its rear branches, was being towed along by the first. The pair of rattling tumbleweeds landed in a garden near Lightning One and opened their curved woody branches.

A cadaverous man in gray clothes and a red armband stepped out.

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