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)
The crowd yelled, calling for her blood, but she wasn’t stupid enough to stop. She knew what would happen if she was caught there tonight. Nothing and no one would save her.
She was thankful for every single agonizing moment of dragon training in the last year. She was in the best shape of her life, both magically and physically. Only the Father likely had the power to stop her, and she was lucky that he hadn’t seen her.
Kerrigan discarded her red mask and kept running.
“Leaving so soon?” Isa called after her.
Great. Of course Isa was following. She had been thwarted by Kerrigan one too many times to let her go now.
The mountain was too far away to reach for safety. She couldn’t go in that direction. It would be easier to head back to the Row and have the support of the Fae, but she still didn’t know how many of them supported her.
No. It was better to head toward her people. The humans and half-Fae that they had called insects at the meeting. The ones they had denigrated for their continued existence. They at least loved Kerrigan. They loved her street fighter identity Red, who moved among them. Who drank at their bars and befriended human card dealers and had an unscrupulous relationship with the king of the Wastes.
In the end, she was their champion.
And she could hide among them a lot easier than surrounded by noble-blooded Fae.
“Come out, come out, wherever you are,” Isa taunted, hot on her heels.
Kerrigan passed over the unofficial divide into the Dregs and then veered west. These roads were her lifeblood. She’d spent countless hours running rampant through the streets as a Dragon Blessed, causing general mayhem and learning every twist and turn. Even in the night, she could navigate it as if it were daylight.
“You can’t run forever,” Isa yelled back. “I just want to talk.”
Kerrigan snorted.
Sure. The female who had tried to murder her one too many times just wanted to talk.
Kerrigan skidded around another corner, nearly running into a cabbage cart. “Sorry. Sorry,” Kerrigan called.
“Watch where you’re going!” he yelled back.
Then, Isa was there, upending the entirety of the cart as she chased after her.
The man groaned in outrage, and the calls of, “My cabbages!” rang behind them as they continued through the back streets of Kinkadia.
“Not so fast!” Isa yelled.
Isa vaulted forward and yanked on the back of Kerrigan’s cloak. She wrenched her to a stop, and Kerrigan pulled up her magic, sending air into Isa’s face.
She vaulted backward a step, taking Kerrigan’s cloak with her. She stood before her in nothing but her lightest of blue dresses, the laces undone behind her, and a fresh rip in the silky material that Parris was going to kill her over. How did she always ruin his dresses?
Isa rushed forward, and all of Kerrigan’s careful training kicked in. She blocked the first blow and countered with a second. They jabbed and parried and kicked and blocked. It was a synchronized dance that Kerrigan knew all too well. She had been trained heavily in the various forms of combat. Isa might have been a skilled assassin who could have beaten her a year ago, but things were different now. They were on even footing.
“Don’t have your little boyfriend to save you this time,” Isa challenged.
Kerrigan ground her teeth together. If not for Fordham, Isa would have succeeded in her task long ago. Now, he was gone. It hurt, but she couldn’t be distracted.
“I don’t need him to save me.”
She raised the ground under Isa’s feet before turning in the air and blasting her with a combination of fire and air. Then, as Isa narrowly dodged the attack, Kerrigan used the air as stepstones to run up the open air and spiral in place to send an attack from behind Isa.
Isa never saw it coming, and the spear of air slammed her straight in the stomach. She flew backward, landing with a loud thump on the ground ten feet away.
She coughed and spat blood onto the cobblestones before rising. “You’ll pay for that.”
“You can’t win this, Isa,” Kerrigan snarled. “I should end it now to keep you from enacting your master’s grand plan.”
She laughed hoarsely. “You can’t hope to go up against the Father.”
“We’ll see.”
Then, Kerrigan overturned a tank of water on the other side of the street that she had been eyeing since the beginning of their fight. She was worst at water magic. Fire and air had always come easier to her, but there was enough water in that barrel to listen to her.
It dumped over Isa’s head, and before she could get out from the water cyclone, Kerrigan was already running in the opposite direction.
The Wastes was in sight against the backdrop of the mountains. Isa could follow her anywhere, but not here. Dozan Rook might be blessedly human, but he had enough forces at his disposal to stop most assaults against his territory.