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)
“Who’s the queen here?” I say glibly. With a nod of thanks to him and a flat glare for Oredai, I walk past the guards and descend the spiral staircase.
I’ve taken this path and visited Lucretia at least a dozen times, and yet the moment my feet touch the stone floor, I have no idea where I am.
Once a dark and dank circular underground tomb that housed ancient statues, obscure carvings, and a devious serpentine creature, it is neither dark nor dank nor circular anymore.
I’m outside. Where, I can’t say, but it feels almost ethereal, with a hazy blue sky for a ceiling above and grand white stone pillars lining a stretch of plush grass the size of a football field, each blade the same length as if by design. If there’s anything beyond the pillars on any side, it’s hidden by a dense fog.
Where are the portal doors? The ones to connect me to other places in this realm? Where is the door to Cirilea?
It’s a fleeting thought as my focus gravitates to the forms who occupy four matching stone thrones at the center of the space.
Lucretia stands beside them, her lengthy auburn hair collected in a delicate chignon, her typical choice of lewd attire replaced by a modest, high-collared ivory ensemble. “Come forward.” Her voice carries as if caught on an eerie wind.
There is an elder for each version of nymph I’ve come across in Ulysede, from wisp to Cindrae to whatever the goblins and gargoyles are called, and they’re all layered in silky robes of muted colors. Bony, skeletal hands that peek out hint at their age, but nothing about them seems fragile.
There are no gestures of deference, no hint of emotion of any kind as I approach, feeling the weight of their hard, measuring gazes with each step. It’s unnerving. Even my old crime boss, Viggo Korsakov, would smile before he raised his gun.
But I am their queen, I remind myself again.
“Your Highness, it is so kind of you to finally grace us with your presence, after my masters have saved your people from a fate’s curse. Two fates’ curses, if one considers the toxin.” There’s no mistaking the disapproval in Lucretia’s tone; it’s in direct contradiction to her address.
If Jarek were here, he’d yell at her. If it were just the two of us, I’d toss a snappy response. But the four ancient nymph elders stare at me, saying nothing, unmoving, and all I can focus on is the sound of my pulse in my ears. Maybe that’s their goal—to rattle me. Either way, this feels more like a day of judgment than a greeting between queen and subjects. This crown on my head is pointless, a trinket. Lucretia may as well call me an impostor, nothing more than a naughty child playing dress-up.
Remember who you are.
I take a deep breath and let Jarek’s words sink in. Even if I don’t feel like a queen, I can play one. I’m a chameleon, after all. “I needed rest, but I’m here now.”
“And how is my favorite servant? He must be thankful for the aid he received.”
She means Jarek, of course. The sylx has an odd infatuation with him in particular. I don’t need to ask how Lucretia knows about last night. She was being creepy again, floating around the castle, unseen and listening to conversations she shouldn’t be hearing. “He’s waiting in my throne room. Why don’t you go and ask him yourself?” He’ll likely choke her. It wouldn’t be the first time.
She grins, showing off her perfect teeth. It’s all part of the form she’s designed—so much more appealing than the snake we first met. “I will do so later.”
I make a point of looking around. “Where are we?”
“In the place where my masters congregate when they must congregate.” Lucretia waves a hand at the nymph elders. “You see the healing brought to your world with my masters’ return, have you not?”
“Yes.” The nymphs’ power is impossible to ignore. All I need to do is look outside Ulysede’s gates.
“There is more yet to come. Wonders you cannot yet see.”
Gracen’s question stirs in my mind. It’s one of many unknowns I want answers for. “A baby was born in Ybaris with an affinity.”
Lucretia dips her head. “The first of a new age.”
“Before Hudem, though.”
“Before Hudem, but after you unsealed Ulysede, when my masters began restoring balance to the realms.”
I glance around us. “What about the stone doors? You said they might work again when your masters return. They’re gone.”
“They are not gone. They are just not here.”
Whatever that means. “Will they work again?”
“Some may. Some may not.”
I clench my teeth. Thirty seconds here and Lucretia is dancing around her answers.
Taking a calming breath, I meet the four sets of cold and calculating eyes that bore into me. I came here with my thoughts in order and questions to be asked, but as I stand beneath their harsh study, I wonder if there’s some formality Lucretia neglected to mention. “Thank you for your help with ending the blood curse.”