Slayde, Book 2 (Chaos Time Serial) by Marie Hall Read Free Book Online Page A

of the letting the dumbass die. But he would let Slayde be the rat to the Lord’s snake.
    Sometimes time jumping was such a crazy paradox, the fact that the phoenix had done it in the future didn’t seem to matter. He’d studied how the two were interacting. Slayde would move, Sable would blink. Sable moved, Slayde was right there. Two separate pieces, but sharing part of a soul. The intensity of their burgeoning relationship was already strong and he doubted either one was fully aware of why yet.
    He found himself cursing the ignorant red headed asshole all over again. They needed to get to him to survive the position he’d put himself. That was just it. Not that he cared about the bastard. If he could, he’d have left Slayde to die. But she was too important. It was why he’d sent Sable to find Slayde in the first place, the bird had always fought better when the Hulk was around.
    He glanced over his shoulder and studied Synn whose legs were ripping up the turf.
    He wanted to help her. He wanted to hold her. To touch her. But he couldn’t. Not again. He clenched his jaw, reaching out his hand and scraping it down the rough edge of the pyramid, using the pain to ground him. He stopped running. They were here.
    A snapped twig sounded off to his right. Sable walked into a circle of moonlight. Her eyes danced with threads of spun silver, angry breaths scissored through her lungs.
    “Are you sure he’s here?” she asked forcefully, and he could still feel the sharp sting of her anger. “What if he got taken? Hunter,” his name ended on a wail.
    She seemed desperate to believe he hadn’t done what was so obvious to him.
    “He’s here,” he said slowly, his eyes intently focused on Synn’s curved high cheekbones when she stopped next to them. Her chest heaved and the whites of her eyes gleamed bright. Her honey skin was slick with sweat.
    “Follow me, don’t touch anything, don’t say a word. This place is booby trapped.”
    Sable wrapped her slim arms around herself, shivering for an instant. Synn stared at him; she nodded once, all of it mechanical. Automatic. She wasn’t hearing him. Not really.
    He walked around to the entrance of the pyramid. It wasn’t protected or guarded, didn’t have to be. There was a Lord inside, the people’s shaman. A man of awesome, fearful power. A being able to call the gods to them and say who’d live and who’d die. None dared to trespass here.
    None but them.
    He stepped inside as the darkness curled around them. There was no light, not even a tiny source of glow. He’d learned the route by counting his breaths. For the last two days he’d traced and retraced his steps, knowing when they came back they couldn’t light a torch.
    Two hundred and forty seven breaths forward and then turn left.
    He licked his lips.
    Ninety-three breaths and then right.
    His ears started to ring.
    Ten forward and stop to hug the wall as he walked forward for sixty-seven breaths to avoid the earthen hole full of writhing, hungry crocodiles.
    A pebble skidded and fell into the hole. Thudding slaps of tails and the snap of jaws was punctuated by a sharp gasp. It was Synn. He stopped moving, his pulse pounded so hard it threatened to burst a vessel. Had she fallen in? Adrenaline was pumping hard. His muscles ached and filled with blood. For two seconds he forgot to breath. He almost pulled away, almost called her name. Then he heard a whisper.
    “Grab my hand.” It was Sable who said it.
    The thunder in his ears quieted, he didn’t move, but took five deep breaths and willed the choking panic back down. Slowly the fear leeched out and he could breathe again. Once he was sure they were ready to follow, he began walking again.
    Down they went, deeper and deeper into the bowels of hell.
    He’d never told them the full truth. He couldn’t fight. Actually he could, but he wouldn’t fight. Because when he fought and he let the anger take him, he became a monster. A monster with no heart, no