Chapter 179
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Insle, Kelly sat on one side, her jaw clenched so hard it was a wonder her teeth didn’t crack.
“They’re traitors, Jasmine,” Kelly hissed, eyes burning. “Dirty, backstabbing traitors. And you know what we do with traitors?”
“We crush them. We make them regret the day they decided to cross us.”
Jasmine pressed two fingers against her temple, trying to will away the headache that pounded behind her eyes.
She’d had enough chaos for one day.
“I get it, Kelly,” she said in a low voice. “But we need a real plan.“.
Kelly’s eyes flickered with frustration.
“You want a plan? How about we start by tossing every piece of human trash that came out of Detroit or Winston? You heard that bastard Charles–he’s still got connections everywhere.”
A muscle in Jasmine’s cheek twitched.
If only she’d been more ruthless, if only she’d shut the door on Charles for good.
But regrets wouldn’t keep them safe now.
“Jasmine, Hesitation is the enemy of power. Strike first, or be struck down.”
“You know we can’t just massacre people,” Jasmine muttered. “There has to be some line we won’t cross.”
“Listen Jasmine, a ruler must choose: to be feared or to be betrayed. There is no third path.”
Across the aisle, Alex observed quietly. “Jasmine… your bodyguards. How well do you trust them?”
Jasmine replied. “I trust them with my life. They’ve been with me for ten years.”
“Where are they from?”
The question hit Jasmine like a punch to the gut.
“Detroit,” she said, heart pounding.
Something about Alex’s question twisted her stomach into knots. “You’re not suggesting-‘
But before she could finish, Alex’s head whipped toward the front of the helicopter.
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The two pilots exchanged a look–then, in a flash, they kicked the doors wide open and bailed out with parachutes.
“What the hell!” Kelly shouted, scrabbling forward.
She watched in shock as the helicopter continued on autopilot, no one at the controls.
Then the low rumble of rotors surrounded them, growing louder by the second.
Four military choppers appeared on the horizon, slicing through the clouds like predatory hawks.
Kelly spotted the missiles first.
“Missiles!” she screamed. “They’re launching!”
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Chapter 179
Twelve rockets tore through the sky, contrails scorching the air as they zeroed in on the lone helicopter.
Without wasting a second, Alex lunged into the center of the cabin.
He pulled Jasmine and Kelly close, securing them in each powerful arm as if shielding them.
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An invisible barrier flickered into existence, wrapping around the three of them like a bubble of condensed air.
Almost at once, the first missile slammed into the helicopter’s frame.
BOOM!
The explosion rocked them so violently Jasmine’s head snapped back, and everything went white for an instant.
Alex grunted, his energy shield sparking under the pressure. His entire body shuddered.
BOOM! BOOM!
Another barrage struck.
The cockpit disintegrated in a wave of flames, the shockwave nearly crushing Alex’s protective shield.
Sweat beaded along his hairline; he could feel his bones creaking under the strain.
It was like trying to hold off a charging freight train with nothing but willpower.
Kelly let out a strangled cry as unconsciousness seized her.
Her body limp in Alex’s arm.
The entire helicopter shattered into pieces, leaving only Alex and everyone else suspended in midair.
But Alex couldn’t give up. Steeling himself, he forced the shield to expand outward.
With a guttural roar, he redirected two incoming missiles turned them right back at their sources.
One, then another, exploded against the pursuing helicopters, sending flaming wreckage spiraling from the sky.
Smoke and shrapnel filled the air. Two choppers down.
Two still alive.
Alex’s heart thundered in his chest.
His vision blurred with the toll on his body, but he summoned the last vestige of his strength.
Another pair of missiles arced in.
He ripped them sideways with his energy, hurling them into the final helicopters in a storm of metal and fire.
A deafening bang shattered the sky as the remaining choppers erupted into blinding fireballs.
The sky was a bruised shade of blue, streaked with dying sunlight as Alex struggled through the air.
Kelly and Jasmine sagged against him on either side, unconscious and limp, their bodies draped across his arms like lifeless dolls.
Alex’s breath came in ragged gulps.
Every muscle felt like it had been hammered raw.
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Chapter 179
+25 BONUS
He was just a speck crossing from Vermont’s airspace into Vancouver skies, the promise of Vancouver growing more distant by the second.
“Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth, painting a dark red line down his chin.
Each breath stabbed at his chest like broken glass.
“Come on,” he rasped, his voice little more than a ghost of sound. “Just… hold on.”
His reserves of energy—whatever mysterious well he’d been drawing from–were nearly tapped out.
The wind whistled past his ears, mocking his desperation.
Everything in his body screamed for him to give in.
But Kelly and Jasmine were depending on him.
Despite his faltering lungs, despite the mind–numbing pain radiating from his shattered bones, he pressed forward.
Then it happened–a dreadful lurch.
His knees buckled in midair, altitude hemorrhaging in a sickening drop.
The black edges of unconsciousness crept over his vision, strangling out the light.
“Not… yet…” he snarled to no one, fighting the darkness.
A final surge of willpower let him angle his descent toward an empty stretch of road below.
The impact came like a thunderclap.
CRASH!
Alex tried to absorb the landing with his legs.
He staggered forward a few hopeless steps, his teeth clenched so hard it felt like they’d shatter.
Kelly and Jasmine tumbled from his grasp, his arms too weak to hold them any longer. The asphalt scraped painfully against his flesh.
He hit the ground with a bone–jarring slam. A strangled groan ripped from his throat as the world spun wildly, then went dim. Pain obliterated thought.
Darkness swallowed him whole.
When the dust settled, the three of them lay sprawled across the cracked asphalt–Alex, Kelly, and Jasmine, all unconscious and broken, silhouettes against a road that stretched on into nowhere.
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