Uprising (Alternate Earth Series, Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page A

points her staff directly at the oncoming cluster of birds. As I study their approach, I have to admit that I’m scared. My heart is beating so fast I have to increase the pace of my breathing just to keep up with it. As they get closer, the screeching becomes deafening, filling the air with deadly intent. Their unnatural, glowing white eyes don’t help matters much either. It just adds to their unholy creepiness.
    Leah grabs one of my hands for added support, before she calls on her power and releases a long stream of fire from her staff. I cross my fingers, praying that our little experiment works. As I watch expectantly, I see the birds fly right through Leah’s fire like it isn’t even there, and, worse of all, they change their trajectory slightly downward, heading straight for us.
    “Crap.”

CHAPTER THREE
    “I think they can see us!” Leah yells to me over the ear-piercing shriek of the birds, pulling back her flame since it’s obviously not having any effect on them.
    “Jess!” I hear Mason scream.
    I look behind us to see my husband and Daniel running on the walkway, desperately trying to reach us before the birds do. Obviously, Daniel has never been up to this particular pavilion before, or he would have just phased to us.
    “Go back!” I scream at them, having already come up with my own plan of action.
    I instantly grab Leah around her waist and order her to, “Hold on!”
    As she wraps arm around my back, I fly us straight up into the air like a rocket, a second before the flock reaches us. I look down long enough to see them crash through the glass of the pavilion. I send out a silent prayer that Leah’s mother isn’t harmed, but immediately return my attention to the task at hand. I end up wondering if my prayer is being answered when I notice that the flock changes its course. To me, they look like thousands of very tiny, pissed-off, heat-seeking missiles as they veer up from the temple grounds and head straight for us.
    “Crap!” I exclaim, leaning us to the right and flying away from danger as rapidly as I can.
    Over the past few years, I’ve become quit adept at flying, one of Michael’s gifts to me. I use everything within my arsenal of practiced techniques to maneuver us away from the drove of birds doggedly following our trail. Unfortunately, they prove to be tenacious in their pursuit, even as I weave in between the mountains to lose them.
    “ Jess… ” I hear Michael say inside my mind. “ Combine the flame of your sword with Leah’s fire, like you did to forge the daggers. ”
    “ Do you think that will work? ”
    “ I don’t know, but you need to try something before they reach you. They’re catching up fast. ”
    I chance a look behind me, and see that Michael is right. The birds are definitely gaining ground.
    “ I need you to fly us ,” I tell Michael. “ Position us behind a mountain so they have to slow down to make the turn. Maybe it’ll give us enough time to catch them off-guard .”
    While Michael takes partial control of my body, I reach over my shoulder to grab the hilt of my sword. Leah’s eyes follow my motion. I see a look of understanding pass across her features as she figures out what we need to do next. I always knew she was a smart cookie.
    As Michael zooms us around a mountain, he brings us to a halt just on the other side of it, as I requested. Without me having to say anything, Leah points her staff out to the point where the birds will have to fly around the mountain as I pull my sword out of its sheath. When my flaming sword meets Leah’s stream of fire, the flames crackle with electricity as they turn blue, burning with the strength of Heaven itself behind it.
    When the flock of birds flies around the mountain, they’re met with the combined power of our fire. As the first wave of birds encounters our flame, it seems to catch like wildfire, swiftly consuming those directly behind them. In a matter of seconds, nothing is left of the birds,