Seconds Before Sunrise (The Timely Death Trilogy) by Shannon A. Thompson Read Free Book Online

difference in their eyes.
    The Light took advantage of it. They depicted themselves as holy, and the people followed them, believing every word about the evil cr eatures that came out at night. Unbeknownst to them, we were the innocent ones, and when we confronted their lies, they slaughtered us. They wanted power, and they did anything to achieve it. If it weren’t for a select few − the oldest ones who stripped everyone’s powers − the war would’ve continued, and the Light would’ve succeeded. But the power couldn’t stay dormant forever, so it followed two bloodlines. I was one of them. Darthon was the other. The separation of balance created Jessica’s.
    “Were you exi led?” I interrupted his history lesson.
    “I’m sure that’s what they’d say,” he said in a half-grunt. “But I left.” His lips pulled into the largest grin I’d seen him expose. His teeth were crooked. “After I did as much damage to them as I could.”
    My throat tightened as I pictured a much younger version of Luthicer, but my imagination was halted by a lack of information.
    “What did you do?” I asked.
    “I killed fifte en of them. Maybe more.” His voice dropped. “I was thirty-five.”
    I didn’t know Luthicer’s age, but I wished I did. I wanted to do the math to figure out if it had to do with my birth.
    “It had nothing to do with your birth or Darthon’s,” he said, hinting at my existence. “I had a daughter with a human.”
    This was news to me.
    “She’s human, of course,” he said, raising a finger. “But the Light didn’t care.”
    “They wan ted her to fight?” I asked, thinking I had to have heard him wrong.
    A hum an couldn’t fight a shade. They would simply be a body to clean up, but he nodded.
    “I could not allow that to happen.” Luthicer pulled his sleeves down. “But my abandonment didn’t come without a price.”
    I didn’t ask what happened after. I didn’t need to. The point was in his physical and mental torture handed to him by the sect, not the details of how it happened.
    He continued to fiddle with his sleeves as if he could retract his honesty. “I know you don’t like me, Eric,” he said, standing up. “But I am on your side, and I have been my entire life − even when I didn’t know it.”
    I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that I liked him, but I couldn’t. Although I’d heard his story, my emotions had yet to catch up, and I needed time to reflect on everything before I’d be more comfortable with his dedicatio n.
    “And I want you to believe me when I say they are evil − all of them,” he continued. “They aren’t evil as humans. They are people just like us. But, unlike shades, their conscience disappears with their transformation,” he lingered on his words as if it were the first time he’d spoken them. “It’s one of the reasons half-breeds struggle so much. Half of ours disappears.”
    “Do you struggle?” I asked, wanting to know how my enemy’s mind worked.
    Luthicer’s face twisted, and he turned his torso away as he opened the door. He left, but his last words echoed behind him, “Not anymore.”

     
    Jessica
     
    Minutes ticked by, but the sunset remained above the plains of the Midwest. The sky was plastered with stormy clouds, and the wind pushed against the glass near our table. We had gone a town over to eat at La Bella Luna , but I had barely given the building a glance. The setting sun was enough.
    “How’s your dinner?” Zac’s voice sounded too close.
    “It’ s fine,” I brushed him off.
    Crystal bumped her ankle against mine. I didn’t have to look at her to know what she meant. I was being rude.
    “How’s yours?” I asked him.
    Zac waved his fork over his empty plate. “ I love this place,” he said.
    I laid my hands on the oak table. The wood was cool beneath my wrists, but the restaurant seemed warm. The golden lighting spread across the red floors and blackened walls like a sunlit river.
    The restaurant