Spirits of the Earth: The Complete Series: (A Post-Apocalyptic Series Box Set: Books 1-3) by Milo Fowler (paper ebook reader .TXT) 📕

given these superhuman abilities. People rely on me too much to save the day, to go where others can’t. To spy and bring back intel—that’s how Luther first learned about the UW sending their people ashore. If it wasn’t for my ability to fly over the Argonaus and eavesdrop, Luther never would have known about the scouts heading to Eden.

Maybe not such a bad thing. He never would have gone to warn Cain, and Cain never would have gotten it into his head to terminate the unborn children in Eden. A decisive blow against the UW, but a horrifying solution: to kill the only new life this continent has seen in twenty-odd years.

I can’t let that happen.

Will the Julia-spirit intervene somehow—with or without me, now that I’ve turned my back on her kind? I’ll need the spirits’ help if I’m going to have a chance at stopping Cain’s advance on Eden. Alone, I’ll be no match for them.

When I stepped out of that whirlwind and sent them scurrying with their tails between their legs, I’d surprised them. That won’t happen again. Despite whatever legends are currently circulating about the flying man, I’m mortal, and I’m no one to be feared. I could be disemboweled as easily as any daemon. All it would take is a sharp blade across the abdomen. And Cain’s people are real fond of sharp objects.

Part of me longs for death. I deserve it, and I crave the peace and quiet it might bring. But another part of me has unfortunately reared its ugly head: the part that knows the only way I’ll ever find redemption for my past is by protecting those who can’t protect themselves in the present.

Maybe going after Cain’s warriors is a suicide mission, but at least I’ll die for a good cause. For the future.

“How much farther?” Victoria shouts, rushing air flapping the drapes against her.

“We’re here.” I catch sight of the Homeplace atop a sheer cliff, and I aim our trajectory straight for it.

Margo’s Hummer sits below with its driver’s side door open. Three bodies lie on bloodstained sand beside it. Broken bodies at the base of the cliff lie in pools of their own blood. Bodies of Cain’s warriors in tattered rags lie motionlessly across the ground, facing the cliff. I take in every detail as I descend onto the ridge. I set the pregnant woman on her bare feet just inside the mouth of the cave where shadows keep the ground cool.

There are no sentries on duty. They have fallen to their deaths. Beside them, I recognize the body of that kid Margo insisted on taking along, the one exiled from Cain’s enclave. Was he the cause of this slaughter?

I stumble forward a step as I survey the carnage. The bodies by the vehicle are those of the UW team. Gunned down, all three of them.

Victoria chokes as her gaze rests on Lemuel’s body. She staggers backward to brace herself against the cave wall.

“So much death...” she murmurs.

“Luther? Samson?” I enter the shade and tug my goggles up onto my forehead.

My heart’s racing. Where is everybody? Were they attacked by daemons? No, the freaks would’ve eaten the remains, and those corpses are untouched, left to roast in the sun. From their positions—Cain’s people facing the ridge below, Luther’s sentries lying in crumpled heaps at the base of the cliff—it looks like they fired on each other. If so, did Cain’s warriors decimate the Homeplace before moving on to attack Eden? Will I find the bodies of my friends inside?

I never should have left them. I should have been here. Silently, I curse the Julia-spirit for leading me off-course, taking me to the coast. What the hell was that all about?

“Nobody’s home.” I can’t bring myself to delve deeper into the cave. I stare at the dark interior, lit only by the sickly green of glowsticks mounted along the walls.

“No.” Victoria stands beside me, the curtains pulled around her shoulders like a cloak. Her locks of thick, golden hair spill outward around her flushed face. “She is here.”

Before I can reply, Margo materializes out of the darkness, her footsteps echoing. “We meet at last.” She stares at Victoria with those unnerving eyes of hers, devoid of emotion.

“You failed to protect him.” Victoria’s glassy eyes haven’t left Lemuel’s body. Her voice is thick with emotion.

“Your people killed him. There was little I could do.”

I frown at their interchange. “Where’s everybody else?”

“If you go farther eastward, you will see their tracks,” Margo says.

“Cain is taking them with him,” Victoria murmurs, as if she knows Margo’s thoughts.

“So, you both…” I tap my temple.

“We share a common gift.” Victoria gazes into the darkness behind Margo. “As does another one here with you.”

“Who else is there?” I glance from one woman to the other.

“Tucker hid us with his ability,” Margo says. “The two young ones in their incubation pods, as well as myself. Cain’s warriors passed us by as they went about rounding up all of Luther’s people and escorting them outside.”

“So…they’re alive.” I can breathe easier all of a sudden.

“For now.” Victoria narrows her gaze. “It is one of the infants I sense—a female. She is also able to send her thoughts into the minds of others.”

“Yes,” Margo says.

How is that possible? Inside its incubation chamber, the fetus would never have breathed the dust of this world. The spirits wouldn’t have been able to bless her with superhuman abilities. Unless the abilities were transferred through her parents’ DNA. If that’s the case, and if all of the unborn children in Eden are like this one, then they’ll be no different than anybody else on this continent. Infected by some kind of bizarre mutagen, according to the UW.

“But no one can know.” Margo faces Victoria squarely.

“Who would I tell?” Victoria runs a hand over the swell of her abdomen.

Someone in the shadows clears his throat. “So-uh, are you all that’s left from the coast?”

Victoria stares, eyes widening. “Who’s there? Show yourself.”

Tucker sniffs. “Kind of hard