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

The only reason a rotter wouldn’t act according to its own basic instincts was because it had been given a more specific directive.

These rotters were being controlled by someone, and he cursed himself for not realizing this would be the Dark One’s next move against him. He should have known better than to leave Zoe behind. He should have gathered up all his supplies and food today and taken her with him when he did his recon. As long as they were together, they could have stayed hidden inside a building for months.

Split up, though, they were in trouble.

He couldn’t even contact the others and tell them what was going on. Without Zoe, the connection between them all was too weak. He could still feel their energy and sense their location, but he couldn’t speak directly into their minds. Not without a direct connection to Parrish’s bloodline and power.

He needed to be physically touching Zoe’s body to make that connection, and the dumbest thing he’d ever done was leave her behind.

Parrish and the other guardians would be waiting for him already. He wasn’t wearing a watch, but he guessed at this point, they’d been waiting at least an hour. Maybe longer.

He just hoped they were patient and trusting, because the dumbest thing they could do would be to come up here to New York without working through a specific plan with him first.

If they tried to come to New York to find the two of them, it would be like searching for a needle in a haystack. The Dark One would find and kill them all before they ever got to think about going to the island together or reuniting Parrish with her sister.

He hoped they would wait for at least a few days before they made any sudden moves, but he had to admit, he didn’t think Parrish seemed like the patient type when it came to her little sister.

Which made some sense after everything she’d been through in her first life. Even if she didn’t remember that life anymore, some part of what had happened with her sister must have still been imprinted on her soul. No one ever really forgot a heartbreak like that, even after being rewritten dozens of times.

Zoe would be worried by now, too.

He wanted to wait for dark to see if he could evade them better at night, but he wasn’t sure he had that kind of time.

As if to prove his point, a fluttering movement across the way caught his eye, and he stiffened.

Don’t do it, Zoe.

But it was too late.

Zoe had done the one thing he’d begged her not to do. She’d moved the curtains to look outside.

The zombies on the rooftops noticed the movement just as quickly as he had. If she’d just looked but not exposed her face, it might have been okay and he could have bought them all some time, but Zoe pulled the curtain all the way back, leaned out the window, and looked down at the sidewalk below.

When she stood upright again, the silver in her necklace caught the light just right, and the zombie nearest to him on the roof touched its hand to its forehead. Its eyes lit up from the inside, a deep blood red that flickered like candlelight.

The Dark One had found them, and he didn’t have a second to waste.

He took a deep breath and jumped.

Thirty-Two

Crash

Afew years ago, Left 4 Dead was one of Crash’s favorite games on XBOX 360.

He played it all day and night, grouping for co-op with random strangers online, until he’d earned every possible badge in the game.

But the truth was, fighting zombies was a hell of a lot more fun when you had the option to restart every time you died.

As he hovered over maps of New York and tried to come up with a strategy that wouldn’t get them killed, he yearned for those days when his worst fear was running out of Red Bull after the stores closed.

“Something’s got to be wrong,” Parrish said, pacing the floor near the windows.

She’d been doing that for the past hour, muttering to herself.

Noah had managed to calm her down several times, but Crash could feel the tension rising with every minute that ticked by. It was about two-thirty now, and they’d heard nothing from David.

They’d managed to use the delay as wisely as they could, riding their bikes out to the marina to choose a good, speedy boat and load it up with supplies. They also raided some of the houses further down the strip and came up with a gold mine of tech at the big white house on the end.

Bluetooth earbuds.

Enough for their whole party, which meant Crash could connect them all together so they could chat without trying to use mind magic or be limited to holding the stone.

He was pretty excited about that, so he’d spent a bit of time setting it up before he’d gone back to the satellites and video feed.

Crash wasn’t too worried about David and Zoe. The city was a shit-show, and there were all kinds of things that could have delayed the kid.

In fact, Crash was pretty sure the rotters on the rooftops were the main source of the delay. He’d been keeping his eye on David’s building and the surrounding areas, and he currently had an iPad he’d found in one of the houses propped up against a bag on the kitchen counter that was cycling through the four cameras that faced David’s street.

From what he could tell, there were now one or two rotters on top of every building in that area. Planted there by the Dark One? Or by Lily?

Maybe, but he couldn’t be sure.

They weren’t there last night when he’d looked, but they were there today, and after what David had explained to them about the way he liked to travel, that had to be costing him time.

The good news, though, was that none of the rotters seemed