Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
“Maybe the magic changes when you merge with the ring,” he says.
“Maybe.” His body is so warm next to mine under these blankets, and I focus on that instead of how real the dream seemed.
“So nothing happened last night, huh? Is that how you remember it?”
My cheeks heat. “Well, it’s certainly nothing I’m going to talk to Remme about.”
His eyes go dark as he skims his gaze down the front of me. “We need to get that ring off so I can kiss you again.” Sitting up, he unravels the towel connecting our hands.
“What are you doing?” I’m so weak. How will I fake enough strength to get through the day?
“You don’t feel well.” He flicks his gaze to mine before focusing on our bindings again. “So we’re going to have breakfast and then figure out how to get rid of this ring. Natan should hear back from his source this morning. I need you to tell him everything you can about the ring so we can figure out how to destroy it.”
“Okay,” I whisper. Could destroying the ring give me back all I traded for it?
The thing clutching me by the chest feels a little like hope with claws. It hurts to want something with this kind of intensity. And I’m a fool to have ever given so much away.
I let myself imagine days at Kendrick’s side learning to stop judging myself for the fear. I let myself imagine how good it would feel to face my demons without this horrific crutch.
We’re quiet when we climb out of bed. Kendrick turns away while I put on my riding pants and another one of Skylar’s tops. He scribbles in his journal while I brush my hair into a high ponytail, but he watches me while I buckle into my boots.
I catch his gaze and wonder if he’ll ever understand what he’s done for me in our short time together. How hard it was for me to have someone so much as touch my arm before he came back into my life. How it’s only because of him and his friends that I would even wish for a different set of stars instead of none at all.
How could I doubt him after all that?
The knock on the door pulls me from my thoughts.
“Hale, I need to speak with you.” It’s Natan, and he sounds unsettled. “It’s about the ring.”
Kendrick opens the door for him, and Natan comes into the room but slows when his eyes meet mine. “Jasalyn, how are you?”
I swallow hard. “I’m okay. Have you figured out a way to destroy the ring?”
He gives a jerky shake of his head. “Is that what you would like? I can go work on that right now.”
“We need to know what you found out,” Kendrick says, an impatient growl rumbling beneath his words.
Natan ignores him, his full attention on me.
“Look at Kendrick and tell him what you know about my ring,” I instruct him gently.
Natan pulls in a deep breath before nodding and turning to Kendrick. “We used the ring’s echo to track its match, and traced it to the Eloran Palace.”
“Who’s wearing the other one?” Kendrick asks.
“I don’t have that answer, but I have my suspicions.” Natan toys with the braided leather on his wrist, his hesitation like a piercing wail in the silence. “Princess, when did those scars of yours start appearing?”
I frown. “A few months ago, maybe? Did you find out more about the blood magic?”
“Did the scars appear before or after you got that ring?” Natan asks.
“They . . .” I search my mind to recall the first one. I was so exhausted because I’d stayed up late using the ring, and when I saw that first mark across my stomach, I felt nothing. No vanity, no surprise, no curiosity, nothing. It seemed fitting that the mark Mordeus had left in my mind was finally showing on my skin. “It was after.” My words are too quiet. Suddenly, I want to end this conversation before he can say any more.
“Do you ever find yourself in two places at once?” Natan asks me. “Seeing through your eyes and another’s at once? Do you find yourself knowing things—things you shouldn’t know?”
My pulse skips a beat. Then two. I feel frozen and as helpless as I was at Mordeus’s table, a prisoner in my own body as he used his magic to feed me.
Could Natan be referring to something like my dreams?
Kendrick’s blue eyes are alight with fury. “Mordeus is pulling power from her, isn’t he? He’s using the ring to amplify the blood magic. That’s why he needed her alive.”
Natan gives a pained nod. “I don’t have all the answers. This kind of magic is different than anything I’ve seen, but it seems the false king knew. Somehow he knew he needed Jasalyn—knew that there would come a point that she would be his only way to return to this world. Every bit of torture she endured in his dungeons was done to make her fear him and every faerie in that place. He needed her fear to be so great that when the time came and this witch found her, she would be desperate for a way to escape it.”