Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
“Yes.” Did she hear what I said just before that, when I was begging for her life?
Her fingertips trace my lips. “Thank you.” She adds after a beat, “Again.”
“I will gladly save your life a thousand times. Ten thousand times.”
A screech sounds.
Destry scurries toward the tunnel. “The wyvern is back! This is our chance.”
“Please let this work so we can get out of this fates-forsaken world,” Annika moans.
Helping her to her feet, we rush to follow.
86
Romeria
Beads of sweat drip down my forehead as I battle against this never-ending wall of fire. But Malachi will not relent.
I understand what Vin’nyla meant now when she said his fire burned forever. She meant he would never yield and his well is bottomless.
I will break long before he does, and then he will destroy us all.
87
Zander
Romeria’s face strains with her struggle to shield Lyndel from Malachi’s devastation, even as Ulysede’s crown atop her head glows with a white light.
“How much longer can she hold this?” Fear and despair twists Jarek’s face. I have never seen the legionary reveal either.
Solange shares his worry. “Not forever.”
“We are useless here!” Abarrane scowls at me, and I know what she is suggesting without the need for her to say it out loud.
She is right. If we are to make a difference, we must be on the ground.
Romeria meets my gaze. She must see the reality of our situation. Her nod is barely perceptible, but it’s there. “Go,” she mouths.
My chest constricts. “Elisaf.”
“I will guard her with my life, Your Highness,” he swears.
Sparing her one last look, I bellow, “To the gate!”
88
Atticus
My horse charges through the throng, my sword slashing the Saur’goths with abandon. Everywhere around me, blades swing and bodies fall—both enemy and ally.
Wherever these beasts came from, they were built for war, and I know that if I relent for even a moment, I will be quickly overcome. But we are making ground, the casters in the towers delivering crushing blows to the hordes below them while the dragons devastate beyond.
That wall of fire still burns at Lyndel. I don’t see how Romeria can fight against that forever, but I know little of her abilities. I pray she is strong enough.
My horse takes a spear to its hind leg, toppling it. I leap off before I’m caught beneath its body weight and land on my feet, only to be swarmed.
Kazimir barrels through seconds later, driving several of the enemy back as I draw a second sword, fighting my way toward a tower. A bolt pierces the center of it, cracking it in half.
Two nethertaurs ram another tower nearby. The Saur’goths are beginning to use their brains.
Ahead, I spot King Cheral slashed in the stomach by a sword. Jimon is at his side, swinging his ax, but they’re precariously close to a fissure and losing ground.
I fight my way to them, just as a sword impales Jimon in the neck. A killing blow. He’s dead before he collapses.
I cleave his attacker’s head clean off its shoulders.
“Kaz!”
“I’m here!” he hollers.
I grab hold of a groaning King Cheral, hoisting him up onto the back of the horse. “Get him to safety, now!” There are healing casters behind that wall who can still save him.
Kaz purses his lips, not wanting to leave.
“Now!”
He charges off, racing hard so he can return to me quickly.
A shadow passes over me and I look up, spotting the purple dragon soaring past. “Bexley!” I roar, waving my hands.
The beast’s head swings my way. She dives, plucking me with ease in one claw while she snatches a handful of the enemy in the other. I watch as she squeezes and slices them apart, tossing their lifeless bodies to the ground below, all while she cradles me.
I will never not be in awe of these creatures.
“Take me to my brother!” I shout.
She banks hard to avoid a bolt and then carries me across the battlefield.
89
Zander
The Saur’goths charge Lyndel’s gate the moment it draws open, giving our army little time to advance. The Shadows fall into formation, launching an assault of everything from flaming bolts to flying boulders. The rest of us fan out with our blades.
But I have one purpose here.
One goal.
And he stands ahead of me, his concentration still locked on the rampart above.
Jarek and Abarrane guard my flanks as we cut through, their blades carving a path of bodies until I’m within range.
I don’t have to search for a flame source. It’s everywhere.
With grim determination, I aim to ignite Malachi.
A body slams into me, sending me sprawling as a burst of fire explodes.
My head is spinning. I struggle to regain focus, faintly aware of Jarek lying beside me, before I can make out Lucretia’s face. She grins at me through a bloodstained smile before dismissing me altogether, stalking toward Sofie.
90
Sofie
I nearly had him.
The exiled king of Islor would be dead if not for that creature—Lucretia—who appeared out of thin air to save him and the warrior, taking the brunt of my assault. She should be dead!