Divided: The Alliance Series Book Four Read Online Free PDF Page A

stunner.
    A voice spoke. “Kay, what are you doing in here?” Carl, head guard. He must be leading a patrol. Before I could speak, the beast reformed itself from shadow in layers of rock, and Carl swore, shouting out a warning to the other guards. A concrete foot slammed down, and I ducked out the way as a guard fired his stunner, sparks of magic rebounding.
    “Don’t do that!” Carl shouted. “It’ll enrage it.”
    Too late. The beast roared, and charged. Carl was on the case, moving between the beast and a petrified-looking guy who was clearly a novice-in-training. Carl fired the stunner at the ceiling, forcing the beast to lower its head and giving him the chance to climb the monster’s back and stab it behind the neck. Instant kill.
    “You lot, clear this up,” he ordered the others, climbing back to ground level. The three novices all seemed to have frozen behind him, eyes wide with terror. “You get used to it or you get out. Kay, what are you doing in here? Is that blood? ”
    “Cethrax is using the hidden Passage,” I said. “That’s how the monsters kept getting out. It’s probably where the invisible ravegens came from, too. But it’s not them.” I paused for a painful breath. Like I needed to be incapacitated now. “It’s not them. Not Cethrax. I’ve never seen anything like them before, but they took Ada with them. They nearly killed me. I couldn’t save her.” I breathed in, fists clenched, trying to hold myself steady while the world tilted under my feet. “I have to go after her. They opened a doorway.”
    “Kay, slow down,” said Carl. “We need to deal with this situation first—why in the name of all gods didn’t you send in a report before running in here? You’re saying one of our employees is missing because you decided to take it upon yourself to enter a restricted area alone and unprotected?”
    Shit. “We weren’t unprotected,” I said. “We were armed. Those creatures are like nothing I’ve seen before. They’re made of—” I glanced at the novices, who were blatantly listening in. The information was probably classified. “I need to talk to you. Alone. This is urgent. The chalder vox can wait. We’re talking a legitimate threat to the Alliance here.”
    “Kay, did you get stabbed?”
    I’d reached to brush hair from my eyes and probably left a trail of blood. It didn’t show on the black uniform, but now Carl’s eyes widened. Dammit. The novices gaped at me.
    I shook my head. “I’m fine,” I said. “Look, I’m telling the truth. I realise I broke the rules, but they have Ada. They might be in any world, doing… anything to her.” Every second we wasted in here they might be torturing her. They said they needed her for some reason, but that didn’t mean they needed her in one piece.
    The walls were tight, confining. I clenched my teeth, willed the ringing in my ears to disappear. She’s not dead. Don’t think.
    “Go back to Central,” said Carl, his face tight. “You need the infirmary.”
    “You’re shitting me,” I said. “You’re not going to hear me out?”
    “I’ve heard enough to know I’m not talking to someone in their right mind. You’re covered in blood and talking like a lunatic. If what you say is true, I’m the head of the guards at Central, and it’s my job to clear away this creature before half of Cethrax swarms the Passage. I’ll let your boss know you’re injured, but there are stories of wyverns down in the—”
    “Those Stoneskins were worse.”
    “Those what?”
    “Stoneskins.” Each time I said the name, the very idea of those creatures sounded more absurd. If anyone had tried to tell me the same story, I’d have disbelieved them. Even the Passages had a limit. “If you see them, don’t fight, run. They’re—it’s like they’re made out of rock.”
    Carl’s expression grew even more incredulous. “Made out of rock. Kay, you’re dripping blood everywhere. You’ll draw every monster this side of