Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 141492 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 707(@200wpm)___ 566(@250wpm)___ 472(@300wpm)
It was odd that he could remember those details and even see their faces now, yet not feel emotion. Not feel the love he knew Adalasia would tell him she felt was in his heart for his family.
At first, when we set out on this journey, voices haunted me while we traveled, rising at unexpected times as that door in my mind creaked slowly open, again and again. I tried to sort through the memories to determine how real they were. In the beginning, the various battles were so dim and vague, I could barely make out any details. Eventually the specifics began to emerge.
Petru felt the memories weren’t his alone, and that was partially what made him uneasy.
There appeared to be a war going on between human factions, something not entirely unusual. In the middle of that, at night, vampires appeared, a coven of them, as if a great nest were concealed underground in the labyrinth of caves. They fell on their human prey, gleefully ripping them from limb to limb. As they did, grotesque creatures I was unfamiliar with clawed their way through the ground to devour the humans even while they lived. No one was spared—man, woman, child or even animal.
Benedek interrupted. It would be good to share as many impressions as possible so we can get an idea how these battles are fought.
Nicu agreed. If we face the same kinds of enemy, the knowledge of their technique will give us aid in defeating them.
We will face them, Petru said. I could not return to this place, nor would my lifemate be born again, until I was needed.
The moment he uttered the word again, there was a foul taste in his mouth. His lifemate had been alive during those horrific battles. That memory was there as well.
Again? Tomas echoed. She died and you survived her passing without turning?
The truth is far worse than you can imagine, Petru said. He couldn’t conceive of it. Were the memories even true? Could they be? If so, he would be the only Carpathian in all of history who had ever done such a foul deed.
He pressed his palm tighter over the scar that represented the Dellys harbor, needing to know if those details emerging were real or not. Had someone planted them? Instinctively, he knew the Carpathians in the battles were his family. He might not feel the loss of them now, but he knew they were his. He had known the others who had fought so valiantly to save humans and Carpathians alike, to stop the rise of evil, and had fallen.
Afanasiv’s lifemate, Vasilisa, read her tarot cards for me. These are cards that were handed down mother to daughter for hundreds of years. The blood of a Carpathian woman gave them power and longevity, and provided the ability to see into the seeker’s heart and character. He could ask a question and the cards might answer. In my case, I wanted to know if my lifemate was alive in this century. The answer was yes.
Petru paused, this time sliding his palm over his heart. It was beating, but very slowly, as if his body knew he had no business being awake yet.
While giving me this reading, she said there was betrayal and sacrifice. I thought the cards warned me of a betrayal once I reached our destination. I was prepared for such an eventuality as disloyalty and deception. We have dealt with such treachery on many occasions. As these memories have returned to me and I see the war raging between the human factions and then the vampires and demons joining in, I realize the betrayal and sacrifice happened in the past. I was the one who committed the ultimate betrayal. I betrayed my own lifemate.
Even as he told his traveling companions, his heart felt as if it were being ripped from his body. The pain was real, all-encompassing. The moment it happened, there was a stirring in his mind, as if someone shared his pain, if only for a brief second. That someone felt feminine.
Who was that? Benedek demanded, confirming that all of them had felt that piercing pain along with that other person sharing his mind for that fleeting moment.
Petru didn’t feel pain. He didn’t feel emotion. Who had managed to slip into his mind for just that brief instance? Had he connected with his lifemate? Was it her pain? He’d felt it before. Then she’d been a child. A little girl with intelligence shining in her bright green eyes. She had looked at him and then at her parents and grandparents, knowing . . . all too knowing when he hadn’t even known.
Betrayal. Sacrifice. Just as Vasilisa told me in her reading, but it was in the past. I was the one to betray my lifemate.
His lifemate had died once before. The memory surfaced fully. The choice had been his. Not only his but her mother’s. Her grandmother’s. Her family. His family. They had made that terrible choice with him.