Kholvaria (The Color of Water and Sky Book 2)
Page 46
The President slowly pulled his hand back. It seemed his second thoughts were getting the better of him.
Sanja could not take this anymore. They were so close to destroying the enemy. She would not let Sandra Walter fuck it up.
The desperate cleaning woman pushed through the crowd. With most of the attention on the drama with the President, nobody paid her much mind. She moved through the people rather easily. When she finally reached the front, all eyes seemed to turn to her in an instant.
“Sanja?” Jordan asked in shock.
“Dr. Parnel?” the President added.
“Oh no, holy shit,” added Baltir.
But as they spoke, Sanja was already making her way up to the console. Two guards rushed forward and tugged on her arms, trying to restrain her. Sanja fought through them, amped up with adrenaline.
Two more guards pushed the President out of the way, trying to get him to safety. Conveniently, they provided Sanja with a clear path to the terminal. She reached forward and pressed down on the launch button as hard as she could, making sure it went all the way down.
Guards grabbed her by the feet and pulled her back. She fell forwards and smashed her face against the keys. She held her hands out, trying to push herself back up, but more guards rushed in and grabbed her by the arms. They pulled her up until she was standing.
Cold cuffs enveloped her wrists as white-coated men pulled her arms behind her back. But Sanja did not pay them any mind. Her eyes were transfixed on the monitor hanging above the desk.
It was beautiful.
The 52-year-old woman grinned at the glowing words on the screen while chaos erupted all around her. Hands tried to grab at her clothes, coated in soap suds. People shouted. Some spat. The guards did their best to hold them off. All the while, she could not look away from the text.
I did it, she thought. She felt her grin grow wider. I just won against all these fuckers.
“I did it!” she said aloud. “I did it!”
“Quiet! There will be order!” Jordan shouted.
Sanja had single handedly destroyed the UBE city. For the mere fraction of a second, she was the most powerful person on the planet.
Eye for an eye, city for a city, she thought.
A world for a world.
It took a total of four guards to finally pull her away and several more to block the crowd from killing her. Once outside the President’s suite, Sanja no longer had a care in the world. She blindly followed the guards wherever they led her.
The most powerful woman on Earth followed the whitecoats down a dark hallway, then down a staircase. At the bottom of the stairs was a small empty room. They tossed her inside like a piece of garbage and closed the door. Her handcuffs were still attached.
The room was completely black. Not a single light shone, not even through the crack beneath the door. As far as she could tell, she was the only one here.
The destroyer of an entire city found a comfortable place to sit and closed her eyes. She could still feel the grin on her face.
Sanja Parnel, for a few seconds the most powerful person on Earth, now sat inside a cold, dark prison cell.
“You fools, you think you’ve stopped me,” she said aloud. She laughed. “I’m just getting started.”
I WANT TO THANK ALL the fans of the series, whether you’ve been there with Iris from the beginning, or whether Kholvaria is your first foray into this world. It’s great to have such a passionate community that cares about these characters. Know that the journey continues with Veznek.
If you enjoyed reading Kholvaria, a review on Amazon.com or Goodreads.com would be greatly appreciated.
For more, follow The Color of Water and Sky on social media:
Facebook: @thecolorofwaterandsky
Twitter: @TCOWAS
ANDREW GATES WAS BORN AND raised in Wilmington, Delaware. He now resides in northern Virginia, but frequently revisits his hometown.
Andrew has enjoyed writing since high school but did not start writing seriously until college. He enjoys writing anything from short stories to full-length novels. His favorite book is The Lord of the Rings.
When he is not writing, Andrew is also an avid runner. He works for a local Virginia-based running company and participates in a variety of races from 5Ks to Marathons.
He hopes to one day share his love of running with his future dog, yet to be named.
Table of Contents
Contents
The Color of Water and Sky
Copyright
Copyright
Dedication
Dedication
Prologue: Prisoner
Chapter One: Surface
Chapter Two: Family
Chapter Three: Speleogenesis
Chapter Four: Hunters
Chapter Five: Revelations
Chapter Six: Fear
Chapter Seven: Legacy
Chapter Eight: Afterlife
Chapter Nine: Humanoid
Chapter Ten: Marauder
Chapter Eleven: Pregnancy
Chapter Twelve: Spire
Chapter Thirteen: Rivercross
Chapter Fourteen: Chieftess
Chapter Fifteen: Megastructure
Chapter Sixteen: Powerless
Chapter Seventeen: Mortality
Chapter Eighteen: Death
Chapter Nineteen: Traitors
Chapter Twenty: Factions
Chapter Twenty-One: Westward
Chapter Twenty-Two: Retaliation
Note from the Author
About the Author