Eternity Crux Read Online Free PDF Page B

We came to an arrangement. If you backed off and left them alone, they’d leave you alone. Let us live out our lives in peace.”
    “And what about Sayer?” I don’t know why I bothered to ask. I already knew the answer. I’d seen it play out before my very eyes. I just needed to hear him say it out loud. Confess what he’d done to insure our safety.
    “The boy is not my responsibility. You are.”
    “ Sayer! His name is Sayer. What did you do to him?”
    “There was nothing I could do for . . . Sayer . They wanted him. And truthfully, I didn’t much care. He got you into trouble. I was getting you out of it.”
    “No.” Rage swelled in my chest like a balloon filled with the fires of hell. “You tell yourself that, but it was Sayer who kept me safe. You . . . You sold us out. The only family I’ve ever known and you sold me out!”
    “Not you. Never you, Auralia!”
    “You’re a fool if you believe anything the Legion tells you. And an even bigger fool if you believed I’d stop going after them while they have him.”
    Ballard shook his head, showing the first signs of regret I’d seen from him, thus far. “The boy is probably already dead.”
    “Sayer is alive. And I’m going to help him. Get out of my way.”
    Ballard didn’t move a muscle. I was a trained security officer. It wouldn’t have been difficult for me to make him do as I said, but I loathed the idea of hurting the man I’d once loved.
    “You’ve broken my heart, but you will not break my will. You can’t stop me. Last warning. Get. Out. Of my way.”
    Genuine sorrow clouded Ballard’s eyes, gutting me. This was the man who had taken me in when I had no one. The man who had raised me as his own and done everything in his power to protect me. Even if he’d been foolish and wrong, his heart had always been in the right place. But I couldn’t think about that now. All I could think about was what Sayer was suffering because of him. Because of me .
    “I am sorry, my girl. I’m sorry it’s come to this. That I didn’t take better care of you. But you’re right. You’re not a little girl anymore. I can’t stop you. I can’t protect you. It’s up to you now to protect yourself.”
    He stepped aside slowly, clearing the way to my exit, and before my temper could get the better of me, I took it.
     
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    Stalking a Legion officer was easier said than done, and probably just about the dumbest thing I could be doing at the moment. So, of course, there I was, slinking down some back alley behind some boot-stomping, uniform-clad patrol officer. If he caught me sneaking up on him, I was absolutely, positively one-hundred-percent screwed, but that was a problem for if that happened.
    So far, so good. I was closing the distance between us in small, evenly spaced increments not to draw attention, just like I’d been trained to. The Legion’s own training meant to enforce their power, serving to bring them down . . . There was something poetic about that.
    The final five feet were the hardest. There was no more hiding, no more sneaking around, no turning back. It was do or die time, and I was really hoping for the former of those two options.
    “Hey, officer!”
    Surprise widened the rookie’s eyes as he spun around, morphing to shock when he clocked my face. I must have been public enemy number one if even the newbies were looking for me. Some sick, twisted part of me took pride in that fact.
    “You!” He was clearly delighted to see me. Why not? An arrest of this caliber would surely cement his entire career.
    “Me. Listen, I need to borrow this.” Before he could react, I twisted my fingers in the leather cord hanging around his neck and tugged.
    “Hey, you can’t do that.”
    Eternity crux dangling from my finger, I fell into an offensive stance. The reason I knew he was a rookie was because he carried himself all wrong. He hadn’t been trained nearly as long or as hard as I had, and it wouldn’t take much effort to