The Deadliest Earthling
Page 39
Somewhere, Hamiad cried out for her and then went silent.
She urged herself to rise, but the Ascendi had locked her body down. Her eyes met his with a surge of hate.
“Don’t give me that look. You were the one who informed her of New Bagram. Once that happened there was no way she’d ever give me the location.”
“You’re insane,” Sarah muttered in disgust.
“Actually, it’s pronounced Ascendi.” His foggy grey eyes lingered over her for a couple of seconds with the same disgust. “If you weren’t her daughter, I’d kill you right now. But you’ve been inside your stepdad’s study, haven’t you? And with far less emotional baggage.”
Sarah focused on that memory of Tobias strangling her. His hands sliding around her throat, her mad desire for air, the rush of death taking her. Panic. But the experience hadn’t numbed her as years of restraining Tobias had numbed her mother. She could feel the thoughts slipping away, siphoned right out of her mind like worms plucked from the dirt.
She thought of Tobias’s study and the Conifer he must’ve guarded during the Shroud War. Her body filled with terror. She began trembling feverishly.
“My mom wouldn’t talk.” Sarah’s words came out sluggishly. She knew how meaningless her resistance was, but she had to try. “Why would I?”
“You already have,” the Ascendi said mirthlessly. And in one devastating instant, the word popped into the forefront of her mind. Nagarkot. The town her mother visited. Was that where one of the Conifers was hidden away?
How ironic, the Ascendi’s voice echoed callously in her. Her body went cold from her heart outward. Nagarkot was once a Naga shrine.
Thank you for reading.
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About the Author
Gibson Morales is the award-winning author of the sci-fi action novels The Deadliest Earthling, The Boy Who Wields Thunder, and Aladdin: The Genie’s Keeper. He publishes these under his imprint, Mo Bros Books, which he formed with his brother. Gibson graduated from USC and lives in Los Angeles. When not writing, Gibson enjoys boxing, most things geek-related, computer science, and traveling.
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