The Ghost and the Darkness Volume 2 (The Fallocaust Series) by Quil Carter Read Free Book Online Page B

during the attack. Nico would make sure his father, the legion general currently in charge of Aras, would treat Reno like royalty.
    Elish and I started walking down the snow-covered highway, snow clinging to the spindly branches of the black trees. Elish had his blond hair hidden under a panama hat, and a grey duster over his Skyfall clothing. He was James right now, James the greywaster seeking out his travelling partner.
    We walked in silence, our strides long but slow enough that we could sentry the area. We didn’t exchange any words, both of us listening and paying attention to the world around us. Elish keeping an eye on the belt of trees to our right and me on the white and grey rocks below us, where the road dropped off into the valley.
    There were no signs though and I wished then that we had at least some caravan tracks to follow, but the snow had fallen long after the bosen had walked this highway. Elish and I had nothing to go on, just a long and lonely strip of road.
    The silence between us was consensual and fitted the quiet personalities I knew we both had. Though with the silence went my imagination and there were several things that kept creeping into my mind that had to be banished back down to the void.
    I entertained myself with how I was going to kill Hopper if he did hurt the boys in any way. Though without wanting it to... Hopper kept turning into Nero.
    A dark feeling gathered in my gut, a cancer that seemed to be growing its own blood supply.
    I reached into my cargo pants pocket for a reprieve. I took out my last baggy of powder and took a generous amount in each nostril. Killian had our heroin; I was looking forward to indulging on that when I found him.
    I could feel Elish’s eyes on me as I sniffed the opiate powder up my nose. I tilted my head back to catch the drip and tried to hide the sigh on my lips.
    “Do you want some?” I looked over at him.
    Elish shook his head. “Your friend Reno offered me some as well. I suppose it is a communal thing amongst greywasters?”
    I shrugged. “It keeps the edge off of... life. Keeps my mind from going to places I would rather it not go.”
    Elish nodded but kept walking. I swallowed down the weight of my own thoughts but Nero was starting to become an ember in my brain. The more I was quiet the more his face came into my head. Even though I knew I shouldn’t, I felt like I had to make my plans known.
    “When we figure out how to kill Silas... I’m going to kill Nero.”
    He didn’t even flinch. Not a single waver, not a twitch out of place. When we spoke about Jade I could see the small signs but not with anyone else did I see that frozen resolve thaw.
    “You will not need too. King Silas will permanently condemn Nero for taking what was his to take.”
    My... I didn’t even want to use that stupid word. It made me cringe just thinking about it like that. I wiped the expression of disgust from my face but the barbs were already on my tongue. “Silas wouldn’t have taken it either.”
    “Yes, he would have.” Elish’s face darkened. “Usually the day after his chimeras turn fifteen. You would be one of the rare ones to have to wait. I do not envy what consequences my brother will face for what he did to you. Rest assured he will be punished, severely.”
    “I want to be the one to punish him, and kill him,” I said, the emotion draining from my voice. I could feel the dark cancer in my gut grow even larger. “I will rape him, torture him... I will keep him alive for years until I decide it is time for him to die.” My hands clenched into a fist and without warning my breath started to become short.
    Nero... my hatred for him, I realized in that moment, was starting to become as strong as my hatred for Silas. What he had done to me... that festering pocket of rot in my brain. It put such a blind anger inside of me I didn’t think I could contain it in my head. How was I going to explain this to Killian? I couldn’t... ever tell