Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
I understood your plan, Vasi, he countered, amusement in his voice. What do you plan on doing with our physical bodies while we travel? They would freeze to death in the snow. Or someone might run across them and move them, believing we were really dead. The other worry would be that Olga would be punished or, worse, beheaded. Where would that leave us?
She hadn’t considered those things, and they were legitimate worries. Do you have any ideas, Siv?
His nod was slow in coming. I think we should allow Olga to return on her own. We know where the demons are coming and going. This, to me, is the right time to slow everything down so we don’t make a wrong decision. I have memories in my head I seem to have misplaced. Whether it was done on purpose or not, I can’t tell you. I do know I sometimes get alarming images rising up out of nowhere, and I am aware I’m accessing those memories.
These are memories from when you were imprisoned in the underworld?
Now she wanted—no, needed—to comfort him. Once again, she slid her arms around his neck and pressed her body tightly against his. Afanasiv, we don’t have to look at those memories if they upset you. We can find another way.
I am your lifemate, Vasilisa. I provide whatever you need. Right now, you need to find a way to recover your brothers. We have no choice but to use every scrap of information available to us. He indicated the gorge with a jerk of his chin. There she goes. Are you able to follow the pattern she is using to open the fracture so she can use it?
Already he was taking them closer, giving Vasilisa every opportunity to study the specific spell her aunt was using so she could copy it when she needed to.
Olga looked as if she were climbing up the side of the wall, and then she slung one leg over the top of the fault and pulled herself up. She hesitated. The interior suddenly glowed orange and red. When it did, Olga leapt down out of sight.
Vasilisa let out her breath. “That was unexpected. Do you think she jumped into a furnace of flames?”
“No, I believe that was a signal to allow her entrance. She was waiting for that before she entered fully.”
“Great. How are we going to get in?” Vasilisa asked.
He grinned at her and put her down. “First, before anything else, we’re going to explore those memories I have stored away. I wanted to forget them for whatever reason. If I did something terrible, I ask for forgiveness ahead of time.”
She bit down on her lip and regarded him steadily with what she hoped was a stern expression. “What kind of terrible thing are we talking here? It would make a difference.”
His eyebrow shot up. “I might have killed a few people.”
She shrugged and waved that away. “I’m certain they were deserving of it. What else?”
“I started with the worst,” he admitted. “I don’t know where to go from there.”
“Apparently, you aren’t nearly the badass you think you are. There’s a shepherd’s cabin just over the ridge. We could go there and sort through your memories if you’d like.”
For an answer, he scooped her up and held her close to his chest again. She liked being there too much to protest.
“What indiscretion were you thinking you might find, Vasilisa, that could be unforgivable?”
She felt heat rise into her face. She refused to meet his eyes. “It was a silly game we were playing. I was teasing you.”
“Perhaps a little silly and maybe a game, but the question held some kind of significance for you. What was it?”
She set her teeth and wished she was like some of the other Lycan women who would never succumb to a man’s request, no matter how reasonable he sounded. They had formed their own society in opposition to the Sacred Circle, refusing to be shut out of the things they’d fought so hard to achieve. No one wanted to be relegated to child care and cooking for a man while he could do anything he wanted to do and had complete control in everything said or done.
“There is nothing wrong with staying home to take care of a child or cooking for your spouse, which, I assure you, you will never have to do. At least the cooking part. And I’m the type of man who believes if I father a child, I want to be there every moment of his or her life. The wonder of just thinking about such a miracle is amazing to me.”
“You would stay home to take care of a child?” She did her best to keep sarcasm out of her voice, but really? Afanasiv was born a predator. She didn’t see him shrugging off that part of himself so easily.