Chapters (53)
- Front Cover
- Letter from the Author
- Title Page
- Copyright
- Contents
- • One •
- • Two •
- • Three •
- • Four •
- • Five •
- • Six •
- • Seven •
- • Eight •
- • Nine •
- • Ten •
- • Eleven •
- • Twelve •
- • Thirteen •
- • Fourteen •
- • Fifteen •
- • Sixteen •
- • Seventeen •
- • Eighteen •
- • Nineteen •
- • Twenty •
- • Twenty-One •
- • Twenty-Two •
- • Twenty-Three •
- • Twenty-Four •
- • Twenty-Five •
- • Twenty-Six •
- • Twenty-Seven •
- • Twenty-Eight •
- • Twenty-Nine •
- • Thirty •
- • Thirty-One •
- • Thirty-Two •
- • Thirty-Three •
- • Thirty-Four •
- • Thirty-Five •
- • Thirty-Six •
- • Thirty-Seven •
- • Thirty-Eight •
- • ∞ •
- • Thirty-Nine •
- • Forty •
- Epilogue
- Acknowledgments
- Excerpt from Be Dazzled
- One
- Two
- About the Author
- Back Cover
“Run.” She squeezed so hard he was surprised his bone didn’t snap.
“Just break the bars,” Kane begged. “I know you can do it.”
“I can’t.”
“You can.”
“I mean of course I can, Kane, but I can’t.”
“Why?”
Ursula huffed. “It’s not ladylike.”
A crack rang out like a gunshot, and Kane’s arm erupted in pain. He was dragged to the ground, the whip of braided hair burning around his wrist. It yanked hard as the leader rounded the cart, grimacing at Kane, his pupils two black pits bored into irises of cloudy white.
“Hands off the meat,” he slurred.
Pain fuzzed Kane’s vision as he tore uselessly at the tether, which only bit deeper into his wrist. The cage ground to a halt and the boys huddled over their new capture. The stink of them was real. This was all real.
“Found this one prodding around,” said an underling, a sophomore Kane recognized from his lunch period last year, except in this world his cheeks were covered in bright scars. Unlike the leader, his eyes were their usual blue.
“Cut out his jaw!”
“Smother him with his own guts?”
The leader knelt over Kane. “Where’s the rest of you?”
“Rest of me?”
“The other Keologists.”
“I don’t—”
The leader nodded, and two boys pinned Kane down while a leader wrenched the whip back, pulling Kane’s arm. Someone handed the leader a gigantic axe and took the whip from him. He lifted Kane’s chin with the serrated tip, gently, showing his exquisite control of the weapon.
“Tell me.”
“I said I don’t know!”
The leader backed up, raising the axe, and then took two quick steps as he brought the axe down toward Kane’s limb. Kane screamed and jerked against the weight of the boys holding him, but the bite of the blade never came. When he opened his eyes, he saw shock eating away at the leader’s bloodthirsty grin. One of the other barbarians had intervened, catching the ax’s handle.
“Enough.”
This boy was unlike the others. He wore matching harnesses of leather and bone, but his status was marked by an elaborate mask of bone shards fastened to his brow, cheeks, and nose, as though his skull lay exposed. There was a deadliness to him that the other underlings lacked. An authority that even the leader felt compelled to obey despite the boy’s youth. The axe was lowered.
“You must go to the ceremony. Leave this one,” commanded Kane’s savior.
Thank God.
He unsheathed a blade from his harness.
“I wish to slaughter him myself.”
• Nine •
Parasites
Oh shit.
The brigade simmered with irresolute whispers. Kane looked from the boy to the leader to Ursula, but he didn’t see any of them. He saw only the numerous ways he could—and was probably going to—die.
“Why should I leave this Keologist to you?” asked the leader.