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)
“I’m not talking to you,” Veses snapped.
“Exactly,” replied Bele.
Veses rolled her eyes before refocusing on me. “I was right, you know. About you. I knew you weren’t her.” Her lips spread into a cruel smile. “Let’s not forget what Kolis promised if you turned out not to be Sotoria.”
My fingers straightened as Ehthawn growled.
“By the way, does Nyktos know how that one was freed?” she asked, nodding at where Rhain had come to stand a few feet behind me. “Have you told him how far you were willing to go to convince Kolis that you were Sotoria?”
My heart stopped, barely aware of the curse echoing from Rhain.
“I heard all about that.” She tsked under her breath as she stepped forward. “So don’t pretend you’re better than me. You’re nothing more than a caged whore.”
A storm built inside me as the wind picked up around us, playing with her ringlets. It wasn’t even the whore part that caused my skin to feel as if it were suddenly too tight. It was the caged part. Because, in my mind, I saw bars made of the gilded bones of the Ancients, and my heart lurched, then sped up. My fingers curled, pressing into my palms. Eather hummed in my ears, and my throat shrank—
The clean whisper of shadowstone swords being drawn pulled me from my thoughts. Time slowed. Or maybe my thoughts raced too fast as the scene taking place around me became clear. Swords were being drawn in the courtyard below and before the Rise. Bowstrings were pulled taut, and the crushing feeling of suffocation shifted deep inside me, coming from the same area in my chest that had cracked open the night I’d attempted to flee the Shadowlands. What seeped out was hot, endless fury.
I caught the slight twitch of the muscle above her right eye as dark, ominous clouds gathered overhead. I saw the unconscious flinch as the air around me charged, filling with the luminous, silver-tinged gold light. And I…
Gods, I wanted to lash out. To make her eat her words. To level her.
“Now,” she continued smugly, her chin rising once more, “I’ve come to speak to Nyktos and hopefully talk some sense into him. Because despite your failure to realize how this will end for you, it doesn’t change reality.”
Eather throbbed beneath my skin as Ehthawn’s spiked tail thumped off the road.
“And in case you don’t know how this will end, let me break it down for you,” she said, her voice dripping with false sweetness. “It ends with you on your knees and every hole being used to serve every god, draken, and dakkai.” Veses winked, and I heard a swift inhale behind me. “Maybe you’ll like it.”
I laughed, and the sound reminded me of a summer storm. “You silly bitch.”
Her brows shot up. “Excuse me?”
I shot forward. Veses threw out her hand as silvery streaks of eather poured into her veins, but I was the true Primal of Life, and I knew how to fight dirty.
Catching her arm, I grabbed a fistful of those blond ringlets and yanked her head down as I raised my leg. My knee connected with her face, and the sound of bone crunching sent a surge of satisfaction through me. She yelped, the shock of pain causing her to lose her hold on the essence.
I jerked her head back. Shimmery bluish-red blood gushed from her now-crooked nose. “I think you forgot something.” I jerked her head back until we were at eye level. “I’m no longer caged.”
Her eyes flashed pure silver a heartbeat before I twisted, lifting her by the hair. I spun and threw her. She screamed, hitting the stone of the road and rolling in a tangle of red and long limbs.
Blond strands dangled from my fingers, burning away as eather crackled over my hand.
“Ouch.” Bele laughed.
I stalked toward Veses as she rose onto her hands and knees, tendrils of eather dripping from my fingertips. I drove my booted foot into her side, knocking her down. I grabbed her hair again, flipping her onto her back as I moved to stand over her. She grunted as I knelt, digging my knee into her chest.
“I could forgive you for your poor choices in men, your pathetic insults, and even for loving someone as hideous as Kolis.” Currents of raw, powerful energy built inside me, fueled by rage. It was the kind of power designed to create life, but that was not what I intended to use it for. I inhaled her rose scent as I lowered my head to her blood-streaked face. “But I can never forgive you for how you hurt Reaver, and I will never forgive you for what you did to Nyktos.”
Her all-silver eyes widened as I felt her essence. This time, it wasn’t anger that threaded through the eather in her. It was fear.