The Destiny (Blood and Destiny Book 4) by E.C. Jarvis Read Free Book Online Page A

one
person.”
    “Explain.”
    “Holt’s cell is empty.”
    “Empty?”
    “As in he’s gone.
Disappeared.”
    “Oh.” Kerrigan heard
the growl emerge from the back of his throat before he had a chance to suppress
it.
    “What now?” Saunders
asked.
    “We stick to the plan.
Holt, if you can hear me, don’t fuck everything up.” Kerrigan rolled his eyes
as Saunders’ brow furrowed. “It’ll take too long to explain. Time to go.”
    As his foot hit the
first step, an enormous boom sounded from above, rocking the ship from stern to
bow. Kerrigan gripped the step for balance and toyed with the idea of staying
behind with the others and waiting it out. He shook his head, physically
shaking away the fear shuddering through his veins, and took another step
upwards. His foot slipped as his stomach dropped down into his toes and he hit
his chin on one of the steps. More explosions followed, the bracing sound of
cannon-fire echoing down to the brig. Saunders had fallen onto his backside. Kerrigan
exchanged a worried glance with the man before he turned and climbed the steps.

CHAPTER EIGHT
     
    Larissa’s arm ached. As odd as it seemed
in the utter chaos erupting around her, all she could focus on was the pain
caused by the Admiral’s iron grip on her upper arm, his fingers sticking into
her skin and branding her with marks. Despite knowing the marks would heal
quickly, it didn’t stop draining her focus away from the more pertinent
situation.
    The pirate airships reacted
slowly to the Eagle’s arrival. One by one, they turned in the sky, their
crews nothing more than fast-moving dots in the distance—dots which
determinedly rushed about the decks and prepared for battle, much like the Marines
on deck behind her.
    “You’re not going to
fight them all, are you?” she asked Vries.
    “I will fight until
every last ship is nothing more than a burning wreckage on the ground.”
    “Over the city?” She
felt her lower lip wobble. People had died when Doctor Orother destroyed the Hub,
and even more people had died after her disastrous escape from Aditona. She
simply couldn’t stand the thought of knowing hundreds, if not thousands, of
people in the city streets and buildings below might perish in this crazy
situation—another situation she seemed to be stuck in the middle of with no
control.
    “You are leaving me no
choice,” he barked in her ear as he shook her slightly.
    “I keep telling you I
have nothing to do with this. Can’t you draw them out somehow? I understand if
you insist on fighting them, but surely it can’t be acceptable for the military
to show no concern over hundreds…thousands of civilian lives. Please, for the
love of the Gods, tell me the President wouldn’t sanction such measures.”
    Vries looked down at
her, his brow mottled with deep lines.
    “Ready, Admiral,” the
ship’s Captain called from somewhere behind them.
    “Head west,” he called
back.
    “Sir?”
    “You heard me. Away
from the city.”
    “We’re running away?”
    “Are you questioning my
orders? We’re drawing them out over the plains. Ready the gun decks and travel
slow.”
    “Aye, sir.”
    “Thank you,” Larissa
whispered.
    “I’m not doing it for
your sake, Miss Markus. I’m banking on the arrogance of pirates to think they
have us on the run. You’re going back to the brig until all this is over.”
    He turned, dragging her
with him, then stood for a moment, scanning the men on deck. Everyone appeared busy
with some task, rushing to and fro. Vries grumbled under his breath.
    “You don’t trust the
task of returning me to the brig to anyone else, do you?”
    “I don’t trust you,
no.”
    “And you don’t want to
leave the deck yourself?” she asked, glancing in the distance. The nearest
pirate airship closed fast; they would be in range within minutes. Her free
hand dipped into her pocket and fingers brushed against the invisibility stone,
a slight spark of heat emerging from it the moment she