Firestone Key
Page 45
She was here. She had made it back to Caleb. This was the place they had lain together in the wet leaves, making love. The Project was directly ahead.
Except that it wasn’t.
There was no gate, no walls, no building, only forest and darkness.
Leila wanted to cry out in anguish, but it was already too late. She fell, collapsing into forest leaves which would cover her body as it rotted and dissolved into the earth, leaving behind a warped, twisted skeleton.
* * *
Many miles away, in the centre of urban sprawl, a woman cried out in pain in her hospital bed. At 11.52pm she brought her baby into the world. Holding her blood spattered newborn son in her arms, she whispered his name, given in honour of her own, departed father.
“Caleb.”
* * *
All that remained of the Hunter’s touch was dust. The Firestone shattered into microscopic particles of malevolence that fought to find a new home. Swimming in the woman’s blood, they poured inside the cut that crossed her palm and flowed into her dying veins. The hag’s last few heartbeats spread them further into her failing body. There they sat and waited.
They waited as the scavengers picked the flesh from the body and spread them to the animal kingdom. They waited as they soaked into the ground, leaching into the water table. They waited as they spread, country to country; tourists of death.
They waited for the day when it would be too late: the day of disease.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It’s been said that there is a book in all of us. Thank you for taking the time to read mine. I can only hope that you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it. The road to this novel’s humble appearance would have been lonely and overwhelming, if not for the friendship and support of Angela Dunk and Linda D’Souza, whose encouragement to brave the whole digital publishing route brought me here. My thanks to More Visual Ltd for their beautiful cover design. My love, as always, to my family who continue to stay with me, despite the hard times. For Jesus, who never left my side through it all, teaching me to follow my dream and never give up, no matter the obstacles.
COMING SOON
CANELLIAN EYE
Driven to escape an icy doom, the youth of Canellia follow the charismatic Quaylan into space in search of a new home, believing him to be the Leader foretold by ancient prophecy. But is he? And what, exactly, is he leading them into?
Destiny can be slippery.