Total pages in book: 241
Estimated words: 229266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1146(@200wpm)___ 917(@250wpm)___ 764(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 229266 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1146(@200wpm)___ 917(@250wpm)___ 764(@300wpm)
Her death was just? I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. And how had he gotten ahold of her when she had been in New Haven? And where was Tobias?
“But back to the issue at hand. The Maiden is very important to the kingdom. Worth more than every single one of you,” Chaney addressed the line of people. “Where is she?”
No one spoke.
Chaney looked at the only knight who spoke. Without saying a word, he lunged forward, thrusting his sword deep into the belly of a man standing in line.
Horror seized me as Casteel jumped up but stopped, growling under his breath. The air around him vibrated with rage, and my senses swelled as the man’s agony rippled out across the yard. My throat tightened as I fought back the nearly overwhelming urge to connect with him. I couldn’t allow that. It would be too much.
The man staggered, but he didn’t scream. He didn’t even shout from the pain. I imagined a giant pair of shears snipping away at all of the lines my gift was trying to connect to him…to Casteel…to all the others. Rage coated the air, falling heavier than the snow had, and I trembled with the effort to shut it down. To lock it all away before the need to ease the man’s suffering and the fear and anger of the others overwhelmed me.
Before I made things worse.
Not a single member of the keep standing by twitched a muscle as the man lifted his head and spat in the knight’s face.
The knight twisted the sword before tearing the blade free. Red spilled out of the man’s stomach, thick and ropey as he went down on one knee.
“Fuck you,” the man gritted out.
The second thrust of the sword was more of a swipe, cleaving the man’s head from his shoulders. There were gasps. At least I thought there were, but the blood was pounding too heavily in my ears. It could’ve been me who reacted.
Casteel rose once more, his hands opening and closing at his sides. A muscle flexed along his jaw, and then he stretched his neck to the left and to the right before returning to kneel beside me.
Bile crept up my throat as the knight wiped the spit from his cheek with the back of his free hand.
“I will kill that one,” Casteel vowed quietly, his voice colder than the air we breathed. “I will kill that one slowly and painfully.”
One of the other knights stepped forward, grabbing a boy—the one who’d run from house to house when we first arrived in New Haven. He pressed the point of his sword under the child’s chin.
My heart stopped.
“This is what they are truly like.” Casteel curled his fingers around my chin, drawing my gaze to his. “That is what you once believed would be easier to manipulate, to escape.”
I shuddered.
Casteel’s gaze searched mine. “I know. I understand. Even after everything I’ve told you about the Ascended and what I’ve shown you, seeing it is still a shock.” His voice softened, loosening some of the ice. “It’s always different when you see it.”
It was.
Chaney had turned back to the line. “If you’ve hidden the Maiden somewhere, you only need to tell me where. If others left with the Maiden, then you simply need to tell me where. Tell me where she is. It’s that simple. Prove to me that you value your lives.”
“And then what? You will leave this place? As if you’d let us live if we told you,” Elijah snarled. “I may have moments of profound stupidity, but I’m not that dumb.”
Chaney chuckled. “I believe that is debatable.”
“Perhaps,” Elijah replied, and I could practically hear the smirk in his tone. “But I’m not the one hiding behind a child.”
The Ascended grew very still as the hairs on the back of my neck rose. “Are you suggesting that I’m a coward?”
“You said it.” Elijah unfolded his arms. “Not me.”
Casteel tugged my eyes back to his as he reached for his boot with his other hand. “I wish you’d never had to see any of this.”
He didn’t give me a chance to respond. Rising so quickly, he was already near the edge of the trees in the blink of an eye.
It took me a moment to realize that the space where he’d knelt beside me wasn’t entirely empty.
Lying on a cushion of dead leaves and snow was a blade the color of blood, and a handle made of smooth, ivory bone. A wolven dagger—my wolven dagger.
Slowly, I picked it up with a trembling hand, the weight familiar and welcomed. I looked to where Casteel moved like a shadow between the trees. How long had he had it with him, and why had he given it back to me now?
Because bloodstone could kill an Ascended.
He’d left me with a weapon that I could use in case the Ascended made it to me.