Fate's Surrender (Eternal Sorrows Book 3) by Sarra Cannon (android based ebook reader txt) 📕

the chances the people on that ship aren't infected?” Crash asked. “A million to one.”

“I remember hearing on the news that they were quarantining cruise ships when the virus first began,” Parrish said. “Keeping people on the ship for weeks until they knew for sure no one was sick. Maybe the people on this ship were lucky. Maybe they heard what was happening on shore and decided to stay on board.”

“I don't see anyone,” Noah said, handing off the binoculars to Crash.

The closer the ship got to them, the more uneasy Karmen began to feel. Nausea swept over her and she felt chilled, despite the heat.

What the hell happened to you? Don't come any closer!

A man's voice rang out in her head, and Karmen felt a stabbing pain behind her left eye. She winced.

Oh God! What are you doing?! Someone help me!

The voices grew louder. When she closed her eyes against the pain, an image appeared in her mind, as clear as a memory. A man, about her father's age, wearing khaki shorts and a blue Polo. His hair was black and curly. She didn’t recognize the man, but she could see what was happening to him, like a movie going across a mental screen.

Her head throbbed. A scream pierced her mind, so filled with horror that it sent her to her knees in the sand.

“Karmen? What is it?”

Crash knelt beside her, but she pushed him away and focused on the ship, instead.

She wasn’t sure what this new ability was, and it was killing her head, but she wanted to understand it. Parrish had said every battle was an opportunity to practice or develop new skills, right? She could handle the pain if it meant understanding what she could really do with it.

Karmen focused on the man in her mind. In a way, she was in two places at once. Her body was there on the beach, but another part of her, some part of her mind was with this dark haired man. All she saw were flashes of action, and each flash sent an awful pain through her.

The man backed into a corner. A figure limped toward him. A scream. Then blood. So much blood!

“What's happening to her?” Parrish asked. “Karmen, are you okay?”

But Karmen waved them away.

She was aware of the action around her, but she couldn't speak or respond. She gripped her head in her hands, trying to lock onto whatever images she’d seen.

She focused on the ship, and she could see the corridors. The dining hall. The casino. Zombies huddled inside in large groups, the walls and floors covered in blood.

The story of the ship’s demise came to her as if she’d lived it herself. A woman had been sick when she boarded the boat. Just a cough. It was nothing, really.

Only, she’d spread the virus to everyone else on that ship who’d gotten close to her, and when she died, just like so many others in this world, she’d come back to life as something different.

Something controlled by an ancient evil.

The man Karmen had seen in her vision was just one of many who’d been bitten, died, and turned out there on the cruise ship.

The ship had been the site of unspeakable horrors and bloodshed, and suddenly, she knew with utter clarity that there was no one left alive on board.

As quickly as the visions had come, they were gone. The pain in her head disappeared, and she collapsed onto the sand, exhausted.

“They’re all dead,” she murmured, trying her best not to let those breakfast cinnamon rolls come back up. “Everyone on that ship is dead.”

Twenty-Six

Noah

Noah got cleaned up and changed into some fresh clothes he found in the closet.

Karmen’s idea to go to the beach for a little while had been awesome. He’d allowed himself to forget about the world as it was, and that was priceless.

If that cruise ship hadn’t come along, they might have stayed out there for hours laughing and having fun, but what she’d seen on board that ship had sobered them all. And it wasn’t just the fact that there was a ship full of dead people. Hell, the whole world was full of dead people at this point.

It was also the fact that their powers continued to grow and shift.

How were they really going to fight some ancient, powerful evil if they didn’t even know what they were capable of? Or what hidden drawbacks there were that might get them killed?

So far, no one else had really come up against using their power and nearly dying because of it, but Noah had learned a major lesson back in Philly when he’d helped Stephen.

He’d felt something strange when he worked to heal that illness, but he hadn’t listened to his own instincts. He’d been more interested in learning what he was capable of, trying something new and helping out in the process, when he should have been interested in staying alive.

Karmen seemed to be fine after her initial nausea and dizziness out there on the beach, but embracing a new level of magic had definitely taken its toll for a while.

The visions had obviously caused her pain, and she’d been so consumed by it, she hadn’t been able to speak or respond to the rest of them while it was happening. That made her vulnerable to attack if and when it happened again.

Noah shook his head and ran a hand through his freshly washed hair.

They needed more time to train and explore any new abilities they could. He was grateful they were going to have a few extra days here, but then what? New York was going to be an extreme test of their abilities.

What if something new came up that got them all into trouble, just because they didn’t know how to control it?

“Hey, you okay in here?” Parrish asked, coming up behind him and wrapping her arms around his waist.

Her hair was wet, too, thanks to Crash turning on the power long enough for everyone to