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)
“Explain.”
“I knew she was not a Doma. I thought it would up the hype around her. She is such a small thing. The crowd needed something to latch on to. And the Doma … excellence was but fuel to a fire.” The way he said excellence was almost deferential, but not quite.
“And who are you?” Vulsan asked.
“General Constantine Pallas of Leon.”
Vulsan raised an eyebrow. “Leon.” His eyes flicked down Constantine’s front before a slow, cruel smile teased on his lips. “Oh, I remember you. The kurios.”
Constantine stiffened at that word out of Vulsan’s mouth. “Just a general now.”
“And your wife. I remember her.”
It was a testament to Constantine’s restraint that he didn’t punch Vulsan in his stupid mouth.
“How you have raised yourself up,” Vulsan said. “Interesting.”
He did not say it as if it were interesting. It was a mental note to ruin Constantine’s life. Kerrigan had no idea why he had stuck his neck out for her.
“You are dismissed.” His eyes snapped back to Kerrigan, and he grinned. “Good luck.”
Kerrigan bowed again and then followed Constantine out of the box. Her heart was racing from the interaction, but she was glad that it was over. Glad that she had survived her interaction with him. And strangely, that Myron had beaten the shit out of her last night. She didn’t think that Vulsan would have dismissed her if she had been whole. The black eyes and blood were as much a disguise against his scrutiny as anything she could have done herself.
Once they were free of the inspection from the wealthy boxes, she released a deeply held breath and clutched on to the side of the coliseum.
“Constantine,” she gasped.
“I know.” He crossed his arms over his chest and tilted his head back to the sky above. “That has never happened before.”
“Why did you stick your neck out for me?”
“Because I know exactly what Doma do when they’re interested in something.” He met her gaze. “I wasn’t going to have him take you away. I won’t let that happen again.”
She swallowed. “Thank you.”
“I should have done more a long time ago.” His words were weighted with more than a decade of sorrow.
Her time with Constantine had been a series of ups and downs, but she understood him in that moment. It was hard to blame him when he was just trying to survive.
“Come on,” Constantine said. “They should be announcing the fights any minute.”
They turned to go, and then a woman’s voice called out, “Wait.”
Kerrigan turned in confusion. Did Vulsan want to see them again? She sure hoped not.
Instead, the woman appeared, and Kerrigan thought she might pass out from shock. The spirit teacher who Kerrigan had crossed the spirit plane with, who lived in another world entirely, stood before her.
“Cleora?” she gasped.
“Kerrigan!”
And to Kerrigan’s surprise, the impossibly tall woman enveloped her in a full-body hug. “You’re alive.”
Constantine looked on in confusion as Kerrigan patted the woman’s back. “I’m alive.”
“You didn’t make our last meeting.” She held Kerrigan at arm’s length. “What are you doing in Domara?”
“It’s sort of a long story.”
“You should be on the other side of the dimension. We should be meeting for our monthly meetings. I don’t understand.”
Cleora, who had always been patient but stern and maybe a little condescending because of her brilliance, now seemed utterly flummoxed. Her white-blonde hair had been pulled back into an intricate design and gone was her teaching attire. Instead, she wore the white and gold-trimmed toga that Kerrigan had come to associate with the Doma.
Kerrigan understood at once. “You … you serve him?”
Cleora swallowed. “I do. I hoped for you to never know what that meant.”
“But how? You’re a professor at the university.”
“Yes. Well, I don’t know how long you have been in Domara, but very few people belong wholly to themselves. My position at the university is a commission given by the Doma, and I serve at their leisure.”
Kerrigan was horrified. Was anyone in this world free? “I’m so sorry.”
Constantine cleared his throat. “Not to interrupt, but we must get going.”
Cleora straightened. “No, you have to drop out of the tournament.”
“I can’t.”
“It’s not what you think. It’s not …” She vibrated with frustration. “You don’t understand Vulsan. He’ll want you dead just for suggesting you could be a Doma.”
“But I didn’t say that I was.”
“It doesn’t matter,” she admitted. “Use your magic. Enter the spirit plane. Get out of here. Find a way out.”
Kerrigan swallowed. “I … I don’t have any magic anymore.”
Cleora blinked at her. “No, but … how?”
“We don’t have time for this,” Constantine said. “I don’t know how you know Kerrigan, and I’m sure you’re only trying to protect her, but she is going to win this tournament.”
“Who will her debt transfer to?” Cleora asked without guile.
Constantine clenched his jaw. “That is the way of the world.”
A boom came from the audience, and cheers went up.