12 Hours Novels & Stories

“One run. Just… one. Before Ravenwood, before the council, before all of it.” Zeviar met Orion’s gaze, a silent question passing between them. “We have four hours,” Orion pressed, the urgency clear in his tone. “Three of those are for the drive,” Zeviar countered, his voice measured. “So, one hour,” Orion declared, tilting his head. “Unless you’re going to tell me you don’t want to?” A beat of silence stretched, pregnant with unspoken thoughts. Something flickered across Zeviar’s face, a fleeting shadow of hesitation, then it settled. “One hour.”

Seventy-two hours to prove humanity deserved to exist. He'd better get started.

Of course, I had to say the exact number. Their jaws drop even further, but Luna Allison is just sipping her coffee, a proud, amused smile playing on her lips. Oscar is the first to recover, narrowing his eyes at me like I’ve just declared I can fly. "I can’t work out how you get that high. There are only two 2-hour sessions on the weekends. The total should be 24 hours like Zach said." His tone rubs me the wrong way, like he doesn’t believe me. I can feel my temper rising, my hackles up. Zanthe growls softly in the back of my mind. ‘Oh, he wants to question me? Fine. I’ll educate him.’

I ask. “No, of course not Ashley. We start training 2 hours before sunrise and then we break 2 hours after sunrise for breakfast, 4 hours later we break again for lunch, then 4 hours after lunch we end the day. Each teaching day lasts for 12 hours, meaning every 4 hours there is a 30 minute break. Dinner is always served 2 hours after sunset. During that 2 hours between end of day and dinner, is each of your free times to be able to shower, rest, talk with the others about what you learned, or go let your shifter side out.”

They found themselves able to easily sustain a Promethean Merge for a full cycle, while only needing an hour of rest. The Admiral had noted that there were diminishing returns after those ten hours had been achieved. “Our physiology simply can’t handle more than that,” she lectured. “I’ve been able to do ten hours for some time now, and only recently was able to reach eleven. I haven’t determined the exact reason why. I hypothesize it’s just some biological limitations we all have.”

In the next twelve hours. Starting now.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​..

The clock had started. Twenty-four hours.

Getting back inside, I had slept for an hour and then it turned to morning. “Can you stop staring at me? Others are going to notice.” I turned to the desk, packing my books. “I’ve missed seeing you in your uniform, you look fucking beautiful.” I turned to look around at his words, thankfully, no one was close. I turned and glared at him. “I missed school for just two days, stop overreacting.” I rolled my eyes. “That's 48 hours, 2880 minutes, and 172,800 seconds. That's a long time. ”

One finger taps his wrist, a silent countdown. Twelve days are over.

I dropped mine before it burnt my hands and Jean-Philippe dropped his on top. “Seventy-two hours,” I said and turned around.