At exactly the same time as all the years prior, her cell door opened and the seven who had taken her and her sisters so long ago filed in. The sight of them had become a part of the constant routine of life now and their entrance stirred nothing other than the fabric of their clothes. She did notice that their moldavite stones were impeccably polished today, and determined this was likely due to the significance of this particular visit.
They each positioned their gaze at the table where several pieces of papyrus and an ink bottle lay.
“I understand you are the last to complete the record,” said the one whose traditional dress included leather straps for holding up his clothes. Suspenders, as he had referred to them once.
“I be very close now,” the woman asserted.
Another one of them stepped forward, toward the woman, the gold-trimmed robe he wore skirting the ground. “Tell me when,” he demanded.
Calmly, she replied, “Nightfall.”
That seemed to appease him and his associates.
“Yu’d be releasin’ my sista’s then, as agreed on?”
The woman stared back, waiting for an answer.
One man stepped forward to place a hand on her shoulder. “As agreed on, Wilda.”
But his words did not correlate with the images rushing through her mind. These were the man’s thoughts, and they were strong enough that she had inadvertently detected them.
And they caused her to shudder.
He leaned his head toward her in mock sympathy. “Are you all right, Wilda?” His voice was now coaxing, reassuring.
She brought her hands up to rub her arms. “Cool down hea,” she responded. “Would like ta see the sun again.”
“Of course you would,” he said with a smile. “In due time.”
She nodded, managed a smile, and watched as he turned to leave the room.
“Nightfall,” he repeated in warning.
But when the door closed, Wilda did not return to the table. Instead, she pulled a long piece of string from her dress, recovered the needle she had used to mend tears throughout the years, and quickly began sewing the papyrus on the inside of her skirt. Her fingers moved swiftly and her eyes repeatedly peered at the door, while the images of what she had seen in the man’s thoughts haunted her. They were visions, expectations of what was to come, and they drifted through his mind tinged with a dark sense of excitement. As much as she tried, Wilda could not shake the images of her sisters’ doing the same as she was now, or of their bodies strewn on the street corners, or of the mobilization of an army designed to dominate the world.
When she finished, and several pieces of blank papyrus still lay on the table, she sat and conjured an entirely new fate of those who would soon be called The Sevens.
They would not know that she had deceived them. They would not prevent the two young lovers from setting their fate in motion. They would not take control over humanity. No, they would not learn their true fate until it was too late.
She set down her ink writing instrument just before the door opened again. And as it did, she waited patiently for them to enter and take possession of the records, a knowing, wicked smile rising slowly to her lips.
THE END
About the author
Laury Falter is the author of the bestselling Guardian Trilogy and other young adult paranormal romance and urban fantasy novels.
Find out more news and information about Laury and her novels at:
Website: lauryfalter.com
Twitter: twitter.com/LauryFalter
Facebook: facebook.com/pages/Laury-Falter/196033543803745
Goodreads: goodreads.com/author/show/4061922.Laury_Falter
Table of Contents
Copyright
PROPHECY
1 RALLY
2 REUNITED
3 ERAN
4 LACINDA
5 DISSENSION
6 BAD BLOOD
7 “BEDROOM”
8 SISERA
9 THE PLAN
10 REFUGE
11 FLAVIAN
12 VOODOO
13 REBELLION
14 CALIGULA
15 RESURRECTION
16 ARMY
17 TOURNAMENT
18 SACRIFICE
19 LINEAGE
20 UNBREAKABLE BOND
21 ATONEMENT
22 PROMISE
EPILOGUE
About the author
Prophecy (Residue Series #4) Page 26