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)
“Jasalyn, are you okay?”
This time it seems like Misha’s voice is here and not just in my mind. I try to open my eyes to see if I’m hallucinating, but they won’t obey. I’ll just take a little nap. Just a few minutes and then I’ll get out of this cave and figure out why I’m hearing the voice of the male I’ve betrayed.
“We have to go.” Misha again. If I have to sleep in this awful place, at least I can sleep while hearing his voice. “You need a healer.” The panic in those words has me fighting sleep again.
The cave demon screeches in the distance, and I’m scooped up into a pair of strong arms.
Misha’s clean pine and rosewood scent fills my nose. I want to breathe it in, but don’t have the energy for that.
Another angry shriek of the beast, and the whole cave shakes around us, as if threatening to fall apart.
“She won’t make it if you don’t get her an antitoxin immediately,” a familiar goblin’s voice says. “Take my hand.” Nigel. Is he talking to me?
I want to tell him I’m fine. I’m just tired. If they let me rest for a minute, I’ll be okay. But I can’t find the strength.
“But you can’t—”
“You can’t outrun him,” Nigel says. “And if you stay to fight, it’ll be too late for her. I will return you both to Castle Craige. Now.” Why does he sound so sad. So resigned?
I open my eyes and see the demon from the cave with his red eyes, wings tucked back as he dives toward us. There’s a reason Shae wanted me to be cornered into a search before Hale could find the sword.
“He wanted me to die.” It’s the last thing I say before we disappear into nothing.
When the world reappears around us, I’m barely clinging to consciousness, and when Misha lowers me into the soft embrace of a down mattress, I loosen my grip on this world. All I want is to let sleep take me.
“It’d be best to stay awake, my child,” Nigel says, his voice weak. “Nothing good would come of dreaming now.”
My eyes fly open.
Nigel.
He was at the cave with Misha. Did he bring him there? Then the demon was back, and Nigel . . .
“You saved me,” I whisper, blinking my eyes and bringing him into focus. He broke the code.
He gives a sharp nod, but I see the fear in his eyes. Fear for me, for these injuries. And behind it, resignation for his own fate. Goblins aren’t allowed to interfere in moments of mortal peril. The only time I’ve ever known them to make an exception is when their ward is in danger, but that doesn’t free them of the consequences.
Tears burn my eyes, and I feel them streaking through the dried mud on my face. “Why?”
“You know why.”
Misha looks back and forth between us, confusion wrinkling his brow. “You know this goblin, Jas?”
“I’ve known him longer than anyone,” I whisper, even though I know it won’t make any sense to Misha. I reach out a hand, take Nigel’s, and squeeze.
“The girl needs antitoxin and a healer,” Nigel tells Misha.
“They can’t punish you,” I whisper, “if you let me die.”
“Not so long as I breathe,” Nigel says.
But I hear the sound of feet running in my direction. Misha’s healer is coming. They’ll save me, and then Nigel . . .
“This is my fault.” I squeeze my eyes shut and hold on tight.
“Fault is so sticky,” he says. When no action lives in isolation. The last words are only in my head, and when I open my eyes, Nigel is gone, and I know I’ll never see him again.
Where his fingers were clutched in mine, there’s only a single strand of hair I already know belonged to Jasalyn. He saved my life, and now he’s giving me another day. One more day before my secrets are revealed. One more day to save myself.
I twine the hair around my fingers and clutch my fist to my chest. “Let me sleep,” I tell Misha around a sob.
“The healer is here,” he says, even as I feel a needle sliding into my side. Antitoxin. “She’ll help with the pain.”
But she can’t. Not with this pain.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Felicity
“TELL ME WHAT IT IS you most desire, child.”
“I don’t want to be afraid anymore.”
The lady cocks her head to the side and looks Jas over. “So that’s all you want? Fearlessness?”
No. I want more. I want them dead. I want every one of Mordeus’s cruel and mocking guards gone from this world.
She doesn’t say the words, but the smile that curves the witch’s lips says enough. Somehow, through Jas’s mind—through the shields that she’s worked so hard to build—the witch heard.
“I can give you everything you want,” she says, “but this is strong magic you request. Stronger than anything the average witch could provide for you.”