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)
“Don’t you fucking die,” he snarled.
She met his amber eyes and saw the fear there. The fear that she wouldn’t come back.
“I’m not going to. Just bring me back.”
He looked dubious but scooted forward and took her hands. “Pull yourself back. You’re still in my debt, princess. You’re not allowed to die without paying it.”
Anger flared in her chest, and she realized that was what he had hoped for. He wanted to get her magic flowing so that she could do this thing that she was going to do regardless of what he said. She would pull herself back.
She closed her eyes. Finding her magic was twice as hard this time. She was near empty. That was never a good starting point, but still, she refused to back down. Not until she had answers.
So, when she cast her magic into the future again, she focused her intention on March and the wedding and whether or not Fordham would object. She needed to know.
Immediately, she knew that she hadn’t cast as far as she had the first time. With less magic behind her, she could do so little. Even then, she could feel it expel from her like it was being wrenched out of her grasp. She took it like a punch to the gut.
This was the wrong thing to do. As soon as it was gone and her magic pulled taut like a bow, she knew that she could die like this. She could cast and burn herself out. Dozan would be able to do nothing to help her.
But already, there was nothing she could do about it as she pitched forward and found darkness.
A vision materialized before her eyes.
She was in a forest on a mountain. Snow fell despite the summer season. Snow blanketed the mountainside. Wind whipped through her red hair, pulling it free from its tie. She was chilled to her bone, but she knew that she had to keep going. She had to continue forward.
Then, she scented it on the air—blood.
Kerrigan ran harder and faster. Trekking through the snowdrifts. She would never be warm again. But she still had to keep moving. Had to get to him.
Then, she crested a rise and saw him on the ground.
Blood pooling in the cold white snow marked where Fordham lay with a dagger in his chest, dead in the snow.
“No,” she screamed as she came out of the vision.
She jolted upright, immediately turning away from Dozan and vomiting into the circle.
“Kerrigan, what happened? Your heart stopped beating,” Dozan said, his voice furious from the fear of the moment. “I thought I’d lost you. We should get you to Amond. He needs to look you over.”
“I don’t need your healer,” Kerrigan said, struggling to her feet. She waved her hands to douse the flames and only made it halfway before staggering to her knees.
“Gods, Red,” Dozan said, offering her an arm.
“I need to go. I need to go north.”
“You need a healer.”
A wave of dizziness threatened to send her under again.
“Fordham,” she gasped. “Fordham is going to die. I have to … I have to save him.”
Dozan sighed. Fordham and Dozan had their differences. In fact, they detested one another. But they had learned to work together for her. She had chosen Fordham in the end. Dozan shouldn’t have been surprised that she would do anything to save his life.
“You saw him dead?”
“Yes.”
“And have your visions ever been wrong?”
She gulped. “No.”
“So, you won’t be able to fix it.”
“You don’t know that,” she gasped. “I’m not going to let him die.”
He nodded. “I know. But can I at least get you checked out before you gallivant out into the north to rescue him?”
She finally rose completely to her feet. She met his gaze, full of fear. And she understood. If she looked half as bad as Fordham had, she completely understood. But it didn’t mean she could sit back and do nothing.
She put her hand on Dozan’s chest. “Thank you for everything. But this, I have to do. I’ll call Tieran and set out tonight. Let my father know I didn’t just disappear, will you?”
He snatched up her hand. “You’ll owe me, princess.”
“What else is new?”
Then, she extracted her hand, called Tieran, and was gone.
She had a prince to save.
26
THE NECKLACE
CLOVER
Darby still hadn’t given her an answer.
She stood on the opposite side of the room, laughing with her fiancé. Lord Trask didn’t seem like much. In fact, he seemed uninterested in the greatest gift he could have ever received at his elbow. He kept looking at other women as they walked by. Clover wanted to stab him for the audacity.
Even if Darby was never going to be interested in him, she should have had the benefit of a man who was infatuated with her.
“I’m going to get some air,” Clover said to Hadrian.