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)
“I have a goblin bracelet.” I shove out my hand and brush my fingers across the invisible threads on my wrist. “I snap a thread, and my goblin comes right away.”
“But if you’re truly in peril, he can’t come,” Skylar says.
“What? That can’t be right.”
Kendrick frowns at my wrist. “Didn’t he tell you when he gave you that bracelet?”
I vaguely remember there being an explanation of rules when Abriella introduced me to my goblin. But everything was so foggy back then—the world muffled under the heavy blanket of my memories. It was hard to listen for details when I was focusing on taking my next breath.
“Why not?” I ask.
“The goblins’ code forbids them from interfering with fate. So when you snap a thread on your bracelet and you’re captured without a path of escape . . .” Remme says.
Skylar nods. “If death is imminent, they can’t interfere.”
“But Brie’s goblin—Bakken?—he saved her once.” I look at each of their faces, desperately wanting them to be wrong about this, and not just because I want to go with them to have my chance at finding Mordeus. This bracelet has given me a certain sense of security for years, and if they’re right, I never should’ve trusted it to get me out of a mess. “She’d stolen something from a Seelie castle, and the guards were coming for her. She snapped a thread on her bracelet, and Bakken came and got her.”
“And this Bakken is still around?” Skylar asks, brows high.
“He’s her goblin to this day.”
Remme shakes his head. “Then either those guards would never have laid a finger on her or she somehow proved that she could handle them herself.”
I smile. I might not love faeries or magic, but I always enjoy stories of my sister being a badass. “She threw a blanket of shadow on all of them before Bakken would take her.”
“Then he didn’t break any rules,” Kendrick says, his words so measured I know doesn’t like having to break this to me. “The only way goblins can work around the rule is if the person they come for has a clear path for escape—or if they call for the goblin before death is reaching for their hand.”
“What keeps the goblins from breaking the code?” I ask.
“They have free will, just like we do,” Remme says, “but they can’t break the code without consequence.”
I frown down at my bracelet. My goblin can be a know-it-all jerk, but I thought he cared about me. It hurts to think he’d leave me at the will of my enemies because of some code. “What’s the consequence?”
“They cease to be,” Kendrick says. “Their lives are ended.”
Remme holds Kendrick’s gaze, and his voice is soft as he says, “We need to find somewhere for her to stay while we evaluate the situation at Feegus Keep. We can’t risk losing her on a simple perimeter breach when we need her for Erith.”
“I can help,” I say. I sound like I’m begging, but if they’ve increased security at the keep, I wonder if it’s because Mordeus is there. “I can get us in.”
Remme frowns. “Say that again.”
“This is a big compound, right? Like if we can get past the guards at the gates and maybe put on the appropriate uniforms, no one will know we shouldn’t be there once we’re inside?”
“It’s not that easy,” Skylar says. “These aren’t some easily distracted boys sitting at the gates. They’re sentinels that are trained to kill first and ask questions later.”
I swallow. When she puts it that way, it sounds terrifying, but it’s no different than any other time I’ve put on the ring. “I can do it. I can get us in.”
“You’re going to have to give us more than that, Slayer,” Kendrick says.
If I don’t tell them now, I could miss my chance to get to Mordeus. “I have a magic ring. I got it from a witch in Elora. I wanted to be able to come and go from the Midnight Palace as I pleased, and I needed to be safe doing so—for people to do as I said and not remember that I’d been with them.”
Kendrick studies me. “What happens when you put it on?”
“People do as I say.”
“Bullshit,” Remme mutters.
“Not likely,” Skylar adds. “No offense. I’m sure it feels like it’s working. But magic that powerful isn’t that simple.”
I sigh. “Fine,” I say, pulling it from my cloak. “I’ll show you.”
Chapter Sixteen
Jasalyn
WHEN I TAKE THE RING off again, I’m wearing a satisfied smirk. And a few other things as well.
“Are you going to show us?” Skylar asks.
“I already did.”
“But you didn’t do anything,” Skylar says.
I arch a brow and wave her earrings in the air. On my wrists, I’m wearing Remme’s beloved leather cuffs, and I have Natan’s glasses perched on my head. “Didn’t I?”
Her jaw goes slack. “What kind of witchery is this?” She spins on Kendrick. “She does have magic.”