Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Then, Isa appeared in the midst of the madness. Kerrigan fought even harder. She couldn’t overpower Isa like this. On a good day, she could, but already tied up and half-depleted? It was too much.
To Kerrigan’s horror, Isa snatched up her wrist with a grip hard enough to break bone. Kerrigan struggled even harder when she realized what Isa was about to do. She couldn’t take the ring. She couldn’t have it. She needed it to save Fordham’s life.
But Isa plucked the ring from her finger. Her magic disappeared in a flash. The magic-dampening shackles suddenly worked, and the fight finally went out of her in a rush.
Her eyes were still on Fordham as she was hauled off of the sand and bodily thrown to her knees before the Father.
Isa stepped up to the podium and handed him the ring. He slid it onto his finger and straightened, as if a surge of power had gone through him. His smile was arrogant and victorious. This was the end.
He had won.
53
THE THIRTEEN
“The power,” Bastian crowed, holding his hands up. “Oh, the power.”
Kerrigan glared up at him with all of the anger in her heart. “You’re a monster.”
Bastian laughed. “You had this the whole time?”
She said nothing. She wasn’t going to tell her that Dozan had given it to her. And she had no idea how he’d gotten it. Only that it was clear that was why the Wastes had flourished so much under him. With its absence … it was already crumbling under his feet.
As it was under Kerrigan’s at present.
“I had a feeling you’d found it when you brought it up in our trainings, but I was waiting for you to bring it to show me.”
“Guess I wasn’t as stupid as you thought.”
“Oh, you were.”
Kerrigan glared harder. This all felt so wrong. Helly and Tavry were dead. Alura was knocked out. Audria was missing. Fordham lay, stabbed, on the arena floor, out of sight. Wynter had gone after Dozan as the Wastes came down. Kerrigan hadn’t seen her friends or her father since the start of all of this. The world as she had known it was destroyed at the foundation. The arena was soaked through with the blood of innocents. All so this monster could take his place on top.
“Why?” she forced out. “Why would you do this?”
“Have I not made myself clear? I desire a more perfect world. One where Fae are not vilified for their magic. Where those who are beneath them do not get in the way.”
“But … you helped me,” she gasped. “You were my mentor. You spoke for me at the tournament and during training. That makes no sense if this was your goal.”
His grin was terrifying. “Cyrene of the Doma was the first to rise above her position,” he explained. “She was a human from another world who came in and stole a dragon. But in that same year, there was another—Dean. Another human but sponsored from my own tribe, Elsiande. So many in the south wanted nothing to do with magic that they chose to sponsor a human to take our place. We lost two dragons to these infiltrating humans. We lost an Elsiande spot in the tournament to one of them.
“I had long despised the cultural shift to allow humans and half-Fae more access. But that was one step too far. It was why I organized the riots after Cyrene and Dean’s tournament win. It was why I recruited Roake to enter the tournament. It was what sparked a revolution.”
What he called revolution, Kerrigan called genocide and oppression. Kerrigan had been caught in those tournament riots. She had almost died. If not for her spirit magic, she would have. And now, she couldn’t even call it to defend herself. All that practice, and it wouldn’t listen to her, no matter how hard she tried.
“So, when you appeared and I realized you were gaining similar acclaim to the humans, I realized that I could use you as an example of how bad it could be. You had the support of Society members high on the council. You bypassed all traditions and qualifications, and you persevered despite it. I showed everyone exactly how far a leatha could get with the support of the council.”
Kerrigan recoiled at that word. She’d heard it so many times in her life. But hearing it from Bastian, someone who had supported her for the last year, broke her heart. After everything he’d done, she could still be hurt by his words.
“So, you set me up,” Kerrigan spat out.
“I led you to water and let you figure out how to drink,” he declared. “You were an example of an overreaching half-Fae. Everyone saw exactly how high you could rise. And time and time again, you did rise. You even won a spot on the Society council as a first-year member. Unthinkable.” He raised his hands. “You are a symptom of a greater problem. And now, everyone has seen that.”