Read Ricochet Through Time (Echo Trilogy Book 3) for Free Online Page B

Kin’s numbers grew, so did Mei’s power. Gen claims Mei had no interest in freeing Apep—”
    “Then why hasn’t she gone back in time to stop it from happening?” I asked.
    “Unless she can’t,” Re-Nik said. “Because she’s dead . . .”
    I looked at him, eyebrows scrunched together.
    “Mei’s body was found only moments after Apep was freed,” Dominic said, confirming Re’s supposition.
    I felt sick, and slightly breathless. Just when I’d grown used to my current perception of the world, immortal beings with powers over time and all—godly children and all —the universe had to go and throw a viper into the mix. I was done. I didn’t want to know any more. No more surprises. No more revelations. No more.
    “From all that Gen and Carson have told me—we do not know how many people might be working with this Bree or how long it will take Apep to settle into her body.” Dominic looked at me, his dark, deep-set eyes filled with compassion. “Assuming Apep’s goal is unchanged and he will, once again, attempt to possess the being currently holding what was once his sheut, we must expect him to come for you, Lex. And as such, we must prepare for the worst—that Apep is only minutes from our gates now, and that his and Bree’s companions are numerous and possess every possible sheut ability imaginable.”
    My tongue turned into a cottony thing, so dry it stuck to the roof of my mouth. I wanted to throw up.
    “Do not fear, my Alexandra,” Re-Nik said, leaning closer and rubbing my arm in what I supposed was meant to be a comforting gesture. Maybe it would have been if I could still feel. But I was numb, absolutely and completely.
    I once had an odd conversation with an anatomy grad student over drinks, something that had stuck with me, though I hadn’t realized it until now. He told me that nature had the kindness of a mother, because when faced with deadly physical trauma, an animal—any animal—will go into shock. Their brain will sort of shut off the part of them that feels afraid, that worries, that thinks about the winter stash of nuts that will go uneaten or the babies that will starve in their absence. When faced with certain death, they go numb, mentally, physically, emotionally. Nature, benevolent mother that she is, provides them at least this comfort in the end.
    I couldn’t help but wonder if Mother Nature was reaching out to me now, a preemptive attempt to cloak me in peace before the inevitable.
    “Lex.” Marcus squeezed my other arm, not enough to hurt, but enough to shake me from my languid acceptance.
    Damn it, I’d never been a quitter. I wasn’t about to start now.
    “When the time comes,” Re-Nik said, his expression earnest, “the twins will protect you. They will whisk you off to safety. It is already written into the timeline. You must simply let it happen.”
    I drew in a shallow breath, then another. Another. I had a bone to pick with him, Aset, and Marcus, all of whom had lied to me about my supposedly fast-approaching travels through time, but this was neither the time nor the place for that. I shelved my hurt and betrayal, tucking this latest edition in beside all the others I’d collected this past year, and focused on another worry. “What about the rest of you?”
    While I might be whisked off to safety by the godly children in my womb, people I cared about would be left behind. Marcus and Dominic and the others—young, innocent Kat and poor little Tarset—they would be here, facing down an unknown number of super-Nejerets with unimaginable powers.
    I looked at Marcus for the first time since we left Tarset’s room, feeling like a doe staring down a mountain lion. “You have to get everyone away from here—away from me. You can’t fight these people, Marcus. Don’t fight them. You have to run.”
    A hard glint flashed in his eyes, a dark promise eclipsing their golden glow. “What would be the fun in that?”
     
    ***
     
    “Talk to me, Little