Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
The palace walls suddenly shook with a force like a mountain crashing into it. The lights overhead flickered wildly, and plumes of dust fell. A stream of fiery eather sliced through the hall we’d just come from, followed by a high-pitched shriek of pain.
“Careful!” Ash yelled in warning.
I gasped as the wind caught the fall of shimmery blood, spraying it in every direction. I shadowstepped back, knocking into Ash as a few drops splashed against the calves of my boots. Tiny holes immediately formed. I hissed, gritting my teeth as the blood burned my skin.
“Fuck.” Ash snared me around the waist, lifting me off my feet. “You okay?”
“Yes.” I gripped his arm with one hand. “It’s not that bad—”
The golden draken crashed through the ceiling several feet away, sending large chunks of stone flying. Ash swore, darting to the side with me in his arms. And not a moment too soon. A chunk of red stone nearly the size of a draken’s head slammed into the wall behind where we had just been standing. My chin jerked up to see Nektas veering back up into the air as another draken with honey-brown scales erupted from the clouds. I looked down to see a nude male lying in the rubble, his body bloody and broken. I knew he was dead. I’d felt it the moment the blood hit the air. I still winced.
“What a waste,” I murmured.
Ash started to respond, but he felt it the same second I did—the sudden change in the air. It was as if energy were being sucked from it. We turned a second too late.
At the end of the hall, the Primal Goddess of Rites and Prosperity stood, draped in a gown of glittering diamonds. Behind her were at least a dozen guards.
Her red-painted lips curved as she threw out a hand, releasing a stream of eather that split into several smaller branches and moved through the air in a distinctively serpentine manner…because, of course.
Ash turned sharply, all but winging me backward. My stomach dropped as I yelled. Ash raised his arm, a wall of shadowy essence appearing seconds before the eather slammed into it. My feet skidded across the marble floor. A pillar stopped me as a bright flare of light erupted from the impact, and slivers of the eather pierced the shield, striking Ash. He staggered with a grunt.
Ash staggered, going down on one knee.
My heart stopped as he pitched forward, planting a hand on the floor. A sound like tinkling windchimes scratched at my nerves.
Veses was laughing.
For a moment, I stood frozen, barely hearing Ash as he said he was fine, that only the air had been knocked out of him. My entire being zeroed in on the Primal bitch.
Smirking, Veses stepped back, and the guards rushed forward.
A terrible sound came from me, a scream of rage as I pushed off the pillar. I flew past Ash as he rocked back. I knew he would be okay, but a part of my brain had simply clicked off. Veses had hurt Ash.
And that would be the last fucking time she did.
Essence roared through me, matching the terrifying sounds coming from above as Nektas fought in the sky. An orb of crackling power burst forth from my palm, and the guard who had been charging me slumped to the ground, an unspoken scream frozen on his lips. Another guard neared me, shadowstone sword raised high. Flipping my dagger, I ignored the scalding heat of the bone burning my fingers and slowed, sliding under his arm as I threw the weapon at the female guard. The blade slammed into her chest, piercing her armor. I popped to my feet and spun, grabbing the other guard by the hair. I jerked his head back and turned, shoving him into the path of a shadowstone sword. Death echoed in my chest as I prowled forward. Gold-and-silver eather powered down my right arm, streaking out and slamming into the stunned guard who had just taken out one of his comrades. I stopped at the female guard. Her skin was doing something strange, flaking off. Dipping, I tore the bone dagger free, then rose, the corners of my vision filling with eather. Two guards in front of me dropped their swords and ran. I started to pull on the eather but stopped myself at the last minute as words Holland had once spoken to me in training resurfaced. There’s no honor in striking those who run. Air hissed between my clenched teeth, but I shifted my attention to those who’d decided to die today.
My dagger sliced through the air, meeting an attacker’s flesh. It sang a quiet song of ending, one I had heard many times before. Maybe too many times. But it would continue singing as I snapped under the swing of a blade and slammed the dagger into a guard’s back.