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)
Abriella looks to Misha. “She’s just twisting what you learned from that witch.”
He stares at me. “I don’t know anything about a ring,” he says. “Or the details of what happened in the dungeons.”
“Tell us,” Abriella says.
“Why should I?” I ask. “Why should I reveal her secrets when you’ve already decided I’m a liar?”
“Why?” the queen asks, brow raised. “Because otherwise you’re dead before sunset.”
I’m dead anyway.
“I’m waiting,” the queen snaps.
“Do you even want to hear it?” I ask, voice hushed with the shame of sharing what Jas has spent three years trying to hide. “How scared she was to be in this realm? How she hated having to pretend she was okay each day but dreaded the nights even more? Do you really want to know that she hated being touched so much that even you—even her sister whom she loves more than anything—couldn’t touch her without her wanting to crawl out of her skin?”
The queen’s face crumbles, and tears leak from the corners of her eyes. “That’s enough.”
I lift my chin. “That’s what I thought. I guess Jasalyn was right to believe you couldn’t handle the truth.”
A ball of shadow lunges forward, fists in my hair, and yanks my head back until I’m meeting the queen’s gaze again. “What did they do to her?”
My eyes water from the pain but I don’t care. “They hurt her. They made her bleed—for the magic but also . . .” I shake my head. “I don’t know. Mordeus never explains it in her memories. He spoke like he knew she had magic and was going to be important to him—but I think he did everything he did to make her fear him, fear those dungeons, and fear everything about this court. I think he knew her fear and hatred would bring him back.”
The shadow queen grips the bars, her knuckles turning white. “This story feels too convenient. You haven’t told me anything to prove you haven’t killed my sister and hidden her body with plans to take over her life.”
Misha snaps his head to the side to stare at the queen. “Brie,” he says, his voice simultaneously censorious and soothing.
“My queen has a point,” Finn says, leaning back against the cell on the opposite side of the corridor and folding his arms. “We need more details. If you can’t lead us to the princess, then at least give us something more. Something you’d have no way of knowing.”
I throw up my hands. “How would I know any of this without her memories?”
“Perhaps you’re from the old race that ate the hearts of their victims to steal their magic,” Finn says.
I draw back in horror. “The princess was alive last I saw her. I don’t eat hearts.”
“So this magical ring my sister is supposedly using,” the queen says, “where did it come from?”
“She got it from a witch in Elora in exchange for her immortal life.” I look to Misha. “What if he could take over her life somehow? What if Mordeus is planning to come back through Jasalyn?”
“You’ve gone too far,” the queen spits.
“The witch made the princess get her a book—the Grimoricon—she said she needed it to create the ring.”
“That’s enough.” Abriella spins, and her cloak flares behind her as she storms away, her king consort right behind.
“I speak the truth,” I call to her back, determined. “There’s something about your sister that Mordeus knew he would need—something about her unique gifts that will allow him to do what only Mab has done before.”
Misha scoffs and pushes to his feet. “The Grimoricon doesn’t leave the Midnight Palace. Even the shadow princess couldn’t have gotten it out of there.”
I blink and he’s on the other side of the cell bars, staring at me with folded arms.
I jump to my feet and run to the bars. “My father will be coming for me. He’s wanted to kill me since before I was born.”
“Then I guess he’ll save me the trouble.” There’s anger in his eyes but hurt too, and the sight of it makes everything feel too heavy. He keeps looking me over, like he doesn’t understand me in my true form. At last, he leans closer—close enough to touch. “You better hope we find her fast. You better pray to whatever gods haven’t forsaken you that her deepest wish is for us to spare your life.”
I wrap my hands around the bars, framing his face. “I never meant to hurt you.”
His eyes flash, going hard in an instant. “I never meant to let you.”
Chapter Thirty-Two
Jasalyn
KENDRICK AND I WALK SIDE by side down the stairs. He’s careful to stay close, to keep the ring’s magic from making him forget anything.
I can’t think straight. I’m already so tired, my limbs so heavy—from the ring, from the truth. I don’t think I’ll have much time before fatigue turns to weakness, but I’m determined to make it to Feegus Keep today, even if I have to crawl.