Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88849 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 444(@200wpm)___ 355(@250wpm)___ 296(@300wpm)
“Donai, I’m surprised to see you here.” His smirk said otherwise.
Damien rolled his eyes. “No, you’re not. You’ve always known this would happen. You’ve always wanted it. And it’s Damien.”
Mayorn wrinkled his long nose and grimaced. “You’ve become like a human, taking their name for you. Donai is a good name. You should remember your heritage.”
“I do.” Damien flexed his hands.
He grew tired of baiting Damien, so his eyes skimmed over me, studying. I forced myself to stand strong as I felt him trying to pierce into me, to see my insides. As he kept poking, trying to get past my walls, I started to grow angry. It shimmered over me, up from my ankles and around my waist to my eyes. I snapped them open and knew I’d turned into the messenger they wanted to see.
Instead of Mayorn seeing into me, I saw into him now. I pierced his walls with no fight and sifted through his insides.
He was outraged and battled me to get out, but I refused to move. When he realized he couldn’t get me out of him, he became further enraged and lunged at me, snarling. Damien cut him off, tackling him and throwing him to the side of the road.
Mayorn threw his blond locks back, glaring and seething at me. “Get out! Get out! Get out!”
“Mayorn?” one of the other female messengers asked, nervous.
“She’s in me. I can’t get her out. Get her out! Kill her!”
The other one wasn’t as scared. “We can’t. Sachiel wants her alive.”
“I don’t care. She’s in me, and I can’t push her out.” He shook his body, then lunged for me. His eyes pierced mine with red in them, red for blood. ”I will kill you. Take heed of this warning. I will kill you.”
“Like hell you will,” Kellan growled, appearing from nowhere. He stood behind Mayorn and plunged a dagger into his back. Fire burst out of his eye sockets, mouth, and fingertips before he exploded. Then Kellan tossed it to Damien, who stabbed the messenger he was beside. Aumae turned to the third one and opened her arms wide. A light came from them, like she had spread wings, and shone in the female’s eyes, blinding her. Kellan swooped in, caught the dagger back from Damien, and slit the messenger’s throat. She fell to the ground, wide eyed, as blood poured out of her, darkening the gravel around her.
“That wasn’t hard.” Vespar glanced around beside Gus, who was scratching her head.
“They were the appetizers.” Kellan stood beside me, holding my gaze. His eyes were steady, looking into me with a deep intensity. He wanted to tell me something, reassure me, proclaim something, I wasn’t sure, but then the look was gone as his eyes slid over my shoulders. They caught on something in the woods behind me and stayed there. I turned, too, my heart pounding, and gaped. It wasn’t what I saw, which was a set of twenty pairs of eyes, watching us from behind the trees, but it was what I felt.
They were powerful and ancient. They were together as one and they were angry. Three of their own had been murdered in front of them, and they were ready to enact their revenge.
Everything stopped in that moment. Heartbeats slowed. Breaths were held. No one moved, not even turning over a small rock in the gravel beneath our feet. No crickets chirped, no breeze swept around us. It was the calm before the storm, and holy crap, my bones knew it was going to be the storm of my life.
Then Damien broke the silence. “You brought them here?”
“It was either that or die at their hands. I was outnumbered.” Kellan threw an irritated look at him, but no one else said a thing. “I’m stronger by Shay’s side. Strong enough now anyway.”
“Shay…”
I jumped, feeling my father. His voice was strong as he called to me. I felt my blood churn inside, hearing part of its ancestry.
It freaked me out. Without thinking, I reached for Kellan’s hand and squeezed tight. He moved closer so our hands were hidden, but he squeezed back, and the other blood in me calmed down. I needed him.
The twenty pairs of eyes moved back, parting waves. Everything moved to the side, and I was staring at my father. He was over seven feet tall with long blond hair held back in one large braid. My eyes were drawn to his clothes, a loose fitting tunic as a top and pants that billowed around him.
“Look at me.”
I flinched and looked away, at Aumae who had a resigned expression on her face. She caught my gaze and winked, the resignation switched to an eager defiance. “We’ll be fine, Shay. Answer your father.”
“Do not speak to my daughter. You’ve done enough, Aumae, you and your sister,” my father roared, flying forward and landing in front of us with a force that was fierce. The earth moved beneath him, and we all moved as well.