Everywhere and Nowhere (Safe Haven Book 1) by Rebecca Royce Read Free Book Online Page A

watered—she wanted to find out.
    “Jeremiah, move—you need to take her through the portal.” Hadrian sounded annoyed.
    His facial features were all scrunched up and it felt as though his body temperature had risen in just the short time she’d been pressed up against him.
    “Send out the girl and we won’t box you, Hadrian.”
    A voice from the top of the stairs filled the room and Hadley gasped. There was something so inhuman about the way it sounded. Robotic in its makeup, as if it had never drawn a real breath. Hadley wasn’t sure what it meant to be “boxed”, but she was sure that these men, who were going to make her go to another dimension but who seemed to be genuinely concerned for her and her mother—except for the whole pain thing, she had to remind herself—did not deserve to have whatever it was happen to them.
    An orange glow filled the room and Hadley cocked her head to the side, wondering how much weirder this whole experience could get before her head literally exploded.
    Hadrian shoved her to the ground. She hit hard and her entire form shook from impact. Her body, already overdone from the heat in the room and also from Hadrian’s touch, felt as if it might implode from the sheer frenetic energy created by Hadrian’s body on top of hers.
    Smoke filled the room. Hadley tried to raise her head but Hadrian pushed it back down to the floor.
    “Jeremiah, for all that is holy, come here and get Hadley and go through the entrance.”
    Hadley squirmed under Hadrian. There had to be something she could do other than lie on the floor while Hadrian guarded her body as if she were some sort of valuable commodity he needed to get through the portal.
    As she watched, Jeremiah rose from the floor and ran toward them. He dropped to the floor and rolled next to Hadrian. Pulling the pin…no, beacon—that’s right, it was called a beacon—from his shirt, he shoved it onto Hadrian’s.
    Hadrian jerked as if Jeremiah had just stuck him with a sharp object. “What do you think you’re doing?”
    “Making you fulfill your destiny.”
    Hadrian snorted and coughed as he inhaled a ton of smoke-filled air. “What are you, some kind of prophet now?”
    “Exactly.”
    As they lay on the floor, she could tell by the sheer number of footsteps she heard that an army was amassed above them. The boat was sinking and the room they hid in had been fire-bombed. Hadley wasn’t sure how much more of this she could take.
    “Hadrian, while the two of you discuss these life-altering issues, may I remind you that I am still perfectly capable of dying?”
    “That’s why you have to go right now, my lady.” Jeremiah bowed his head. “And there is still the matter of your sister. We can’t let her die. This is where it stops.” The black smoke had gotten so thick she could barely see him. It was a good thing she could feel Hadrian’s heart beating or she would have thought it had stopped. “I’ve altered, Hadrian—I’m changing like the others started to. I’m seeing pieces of the future and I know you are supposed to take this woman through the portal. You, not me. So get moving before she dies in this heat.”
    “Jeremiah, how will you avoid being boxed?” Hadrian’s voice sounded rough.
    “Don’t worry about me, my prince—I’m more resourceful than you can possibly imagine.”
    For a moment silence filled the room, broken only by the sound of wood smashing as it split from the pressure of the water and the heat and flames of the fire. Hadrian cleared his throat.
    “All right, Hadley, I’m going to roll you under me and then you hold on to me tightly.” His strong arms maneuvered her under him. “Harder, Hadley.”
    Hadley wasn’t sure how much tighter she could hold him but she squeezed her fingers into the back of his shirt despite the pain in her gashed hand, hoping her nails didn’t cut into his skin.
    “I’m going to lift you onto your feet. Follow me.”
    She nodded. “Okay.” Whatever