Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Then, come with me,” Kerrigan whispered. She felt petulant, asking for the same thing again, even after her mother’s refusal.
But she was only eighteen. She’d had to grow up on her own and save the world on her own. She’d always been self-sufficient. She’d always carried the weight of the world on her shoulders. For once, just once, she wanted to let it go. She wanted someone else—someone stronger and more powerful with more authority, an adult—to be the adult here.
“I love you,” Keres said. “But I can’t come with you. They’d find you. They’d bring destruction worse than you’d ever known to your world. They’d burn it down to stop you from existing. And I can’t have that.”
Kerrigan nodded, swiping at her nose. Of course. Of course Keres was just trying to keep her safe. And yet …
She couldn’t shake the feeling that this was the only thing she’d ever asked for from her mother, and even that wasn’t enough. Kerrigan wasn’t enough.
“Okay,” Kerrigan said because she didn’t know what else to say.
“I am sorry,” Keres said with a sigh. “I wish I could fix all of this.”
“Yeah. Me too.”
Keres frowned, clearly at a loss as to how to console her teenage daughter. But what could she say or do to make this better? She wasn’t coming to Alandria. They weren’t going to suddenly be a family. Keres had saved her life in that arena, helped restore her magic, and was sending her home. That had to be good enough. Even if it wasn’t enough. It would never be enough.
“How does it work?” Kerrigan asked instead.
Keres took the bangle from Kerrigan’s hand and slid it onto her own slim wrist. It hung there uselessly until she focused on the metal. Then, it tightened around her wrist, as if becoming one with her being.
“Are the markers set?” Keres asked.
Vera had moved to stand beside Fordham, and their conversation had broken off at Keres’s question. “Yes, it’s ready.”
“Good.”
“It’s two part,” Keres began as she moved her arm to shoulder height. “You need to engage your magic and force your will through the bangle for your intended use. For this, a portal.”
Keres drew an archway in the air. Her breath suddenly came out heavily, and she struggled to keep her hand level.
“Concentrate on your destination. It is much more difficult if you’ve never been to the place. You have to do some guesswork. The first time that I brought you through to Alandria, I passed out for three days afterward. But I remember the location now. It should be easier this time.”
She said should through gritted teeth, as if she wasn’t sure that was the case.
“It doesn’t look easier,” Kerrigan whispered, trying not to break Keres’s concentration.
“To be fair, it was eighteen years ago.” She shot her a wry smile. “I can’t picture the place, only a feeling. The feeling of holding you in my arms when you were so little. We landed outside of this village on your father’s estate. I got lucky that it was close enough that a farmer found me passed out in his field. He carried us both to his home. His wife had recently had a baby, and she nursed you while I was unconscious.” Tears came to her mother’s eyes, and the strain seemed to lessen. As if just the memory of that day made it easier to picture where she wanted to go.
“When I came to, I had no idea where I was, but there you were. So little and squishy and needing me. I thanked the farmers and got directions to the manor house from there. I’d never felt worse in my entire life, but I had you to worry about. The look on your father’s face when I left you with him, when I saw him again … I wanted to stay for him then too.” She gulped and continued, “I loved you both more than words, and I still couldn’t stay for longer than it took for me to recover my strength and portal home. I cried for weeks after I returned. My body missing you, my heart missing you, my soul grieving the loss.”
As her words finished, a shimmer appeared in the otherwise empty field. At first, it was just a haze against the horizon, but then as Keres channeled more and more of herself and her memories into the space, an iridescent tint made the field beyond disappear. It was a perfect, glimmering archway in the middle of nowhere. It didn’t show them where they were going, but based on Keres’s recounting of what had happened, Kerrigan knew exactly where it would let out.
“Waisley,” she whispered. Her father’s manor home in the hills of Bryonica.
“Yes,” Keres said. With a sigh of relief, she dropped her hand, and the portal remained in place. “That should take you home.”