Chapters (132)
- COVER PAGE
- CHOSEN: LOST BOOK 1
- BEGINNINGS
- 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
- INFIDEL: LOST BOOK 2
- BEGINNINGS
- 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
- RENEGADE: LOST BOOK 3
- BEGINNINGS
- 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
- CHAOS: LOST BOOK 4
- BEGINNINGS
- 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
“If you kill them you might as well kill me too,” Johnis said, biting off each word with conviction.
Teeleh studied him as if trying to determine his true intention. If Johnis was willing to die rather than tell Teeleh the book’s location, Teeleh would be lost. And Johnis was now certain he would do just that—if the beast killed Billos and Darsal, he would refuse to give up the location, no matter what else happened.
Teeleh steadied himself and nodded. The Shataiki immediately cranked the wheel, pulling Billos and Darsal from the water. The two recruits sputtered and gasped for breath.
“Well?” Teeleh said.
Johnis shook his head. “No, turn them right side up.”
The black bats looked at Teeleh, saw some signal that Johnis missed, and turned the wheel right side up. Water drained from Billos and Darsal’s tattered tunics and splashed into the water at their feet.
“Now let them go,” Johnis said.
“Am I a fool?” Teeleh growled.
“I don’t know, are you? Let these three go, and you’ll have me.”
“I already have you.”
“And you’ll get nothing from me,” he cried. “It was me who got them in this mess. I’ll get them out by giving you the book, but they get out first. All the way out, into the desert.”
The stadium echoed with his last words, then fell quiet.
“Are you going to die with us, Scrapper?” Billos asked. He’d lost his mind to the disease, Johnis realized.
Darsal wasn’t so far gone. She looked at Silvie and started to cry. “I’m sorry, Silvie. I’m so sorry.”
Silvie hurried to Johnis’s side, eyes flashing with fear. “You can’t do this,” she breathed. “Once you tell him, he’ll kill you. What do you think you’re doing?”
“Thinking with my heart,” he said. “Is it better for all of us to die?”
Her eyes brimmed with tears. Blue eyes, just starting to gray. He leaned forward and kissed her lightly on the cheek. “Take the book with you,” he whispered in her ear. “And when you reach the top of the cliff, blow your horn.”
All Forest Guard carried thin horns made from the gourd reed, which, when blown, carried for miles on the still air. Silvie’s was still under her belt.
Then he pulled back and faced Teeleh. “Do we have a deal?”
“Even if we do,” the beast said, “how do I know you’ll keep your end?”
“You don’t have a choice. If you don’t let them go, you’ll never see the book. Kill us all, and the location of the book will die with us.”
Teeleh thought about the proposal for a few seconds, then faced the eight Shataiki who stood around Billos and Darsal. “Let them go,” he growled. “Today we will kill only one, not four.”
TWENTY-TWO
TWENTY-TWO