Dawn by S. J. West Read Free Book Online

queen.”
    “Where are Jace and the babies?”
    “Where do you think?” Freddy asked with a tilt of his head like he was wondering just how stupid I was.
    “I think they’re with her.”
    “And the little lady wins a damn cupie doll for guessing the obvious,” Freddy said snidely.
    “How did you find this camp, Freddy?” I asked.
    Freddy smiled, something I never liked to see him do.
    “Lawrence,” he said simply.
    “How?”
    “Idiot was like a dog he was so obedient to the queen.”
    “Was?”
    Freddy shrugged. “He’s dead. The queen figured you might not kill him since you didn’t finish the job back in Roanoke. She laced some food she gave him with nanites programmed to release a high dose of radiation at a certain time. She simply followed his radiation signature to this camp.”
    I realized then I should have listened to Jace and killed Lawrence when I had the chance. If I had done that one simple act of cruelty, none of this would have happened. Now the lives of more innocent people would mark a permanent stain on my hands.
    I let my hands fall to my sides.
    “Take me to her then,” I told Freddy.
    I had no other alternative. It was my only way to find Jace and the kids.
    I turned to face Ian who still had a hand pressed against his shoulder where Freddy shot him. I walked directly in front of him and placed my hand over his wound to heal it.
    “Get away from him,” Freddy ordered harshly.
    “I will as soon as I heal his wound. Or are you stupid enough to shoot me in the back, Freddy?  What do you think the queen would do to you then?”
    Ian looked at me. “You can’t go back to her. She’ll never let you leave this time.”
    I looked into Ian’s eyes and saw his genuine concern for me.
    He and I didn’t start off on the right foot back in Alliance, but since then we had become closer than I ever thought possible. I was touched by his worry over my welfare, but he had to know I didn’t have any choice.
    “I have to get my family back and end this,” I told him, knowing Freddy was listening. I knew Ian understood the only way to end things was to kill the queen. All I had to do was convince her she truly had her daughter back. It would allow me to get close enough to kill her.
    Once Ian’s shoulder was healed, I turned to face Freddy.
    “You can put the gun down,” I told him. “I’m coming with you willingly.”
    Slowly, Freddy lowered the gun.
    “Come on then,” he said turning and walking out of the house.
    “Skye,” Ian called out.
    I turned to face him.
    “Be careful,” he pleaded. “Your mother is one crazy bitch. There’s no telling what she has waiting for you.”
    I nodded because if anyone understood just how insane the queen was it was me.
    I followed Freddy out of the house and through the field of wheat towards the outer edges of some woods. As I passed through the wheat, I let the tips of my fingers glide across the stiff tassels crowning the stalks. I closed my eyes and inhaled the rich fragrance of life. Jace’s last words kept me from completely losing my mind, and I did what he asked me to. I held onto the one image I had been allowed to see when my future self and Rose time jumped me to show me a glimpse of the life I would eventually have. It was like a movie inside my head where Jace was playing with the children on top of a hill and I joined them. The sun had been high in the sky and the trees bursting with the colors of fall. The air had smelled so clean and fresh it all seemed too perfect to be real.
    I kept that image in my mind as I joined Freddy in the black hawk helicopter waiting for us in a clearing just past the stand of trees near the house. I replayed it over and over in my mind as we flew through the sky towards the queen. When we landed in the Roanoke Camp, I tightened my hold on the image and refused to let it go even after Freddy lead me through a large mansion, down to the basement and into a room much like the cells I saw at the Biltmore