Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119158 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 596(@200wpm)___ 477(@250wpm)___ 397(@300wpm)
Technically, I wasn’t even seeing it. Everything was a blur of color as I moved as fast as I could with the guard. We needed to reach Orian before the assassin could complete their task. I also needed to return to Nylian. If I were lucky, the king’s guards would end the fight, but I’d only feel relief when I held Nylian in my arms again.
At the end of a long, lonely hallway, the guard’s footsteps stumbled, and my heart lurched in my chest. The double doors leading into the last room were open a crack. Shouldn’t there have been a guard on them? Or at least a lock?
Were we too late?
The guard placed a hand in the center of my chest, holding me back so that he could enter the room first. I was a half a step behind him, my heart hammering in my ears.
The room was a simple bedroom with a man who looked far too similar to Nylian lying in the center of the bed. I tore my gaze away from him because it felt too much like a bad omen, but my eyes caught on the four older men lying unconscious on the floor, a trickle of blood pouring out of their mouths. Poisoned!
And the poisoner was standing at the foot of Orian’s bed, chuckling to herself.
“You’re too late,” she crowed without even turning to face us. “The healers holding the spell in place are dead, and time has ticked forward for poor Prince Orian.”
“Consort Keya! How could you?” the guard demanded, his voice trembling.
As the short, slender woman turned toward us, I grabbed the edge of the guard’s armor and forced him to dive to the floor with me. Just above our heads, a spray of silver needles shot out of her hand and embedded in the doors and walls behind us. I knew she had to have one more trick up her sleeve. The only way she benefited from this murder was if there were no witnesses to what she was doing.
Shoving off the ground as I pulled my sword, I lunged at the woman, and she charged me. The room was small, and maybe I didn’t care as much as I should have. All I could think was that she was keeping me from saving Orian and Nylian, and no one was allowed to do that.
The point of the sword slid into her stomach with surprising ease. The scream pouring from her lips stopped short and a look of shock widened her pale-hazel eyes. For a heartbeat, our gaze met, and there was a sudden swell of pity within me. What could have driven her to take this action? Was it a thirst for power or for the love of her son?
Shaking off the thought, I shoved her off my sword and turned to the bed, ignoring the heavy thud of her body hitting the thick carpet. I dropped the weapon and dug into the pouch at my side for the tiny glass vial with the dark-red liquid.
“Is it too late?” the guard demanded as he scrambled to my side.
I pressed trembling fingers to the side of Orian’s throat. It took far too long, but I finally detected a thready pulse that was getting weaker by the second.
“He’s still alive,” I exhaled. “Go around to the other side of the bed. Hold his head up. He needs to swallow this.”
The guard jumped into action, moving to the far side of the bed and cradling the prince’s head in his shaking hands. I pried the cork from the vial and so very carefully poured the antidote into his mouth. We did it bit by tiny bit, pausing here and there to massage his throat to make sure every drop went down. When the vial was empty, the guard placed Orian’s head on his pristine white pillow and we stepped away from the bed.
There had been no time to check the antidote Jasper had made with the Blackscar healers. All the ones who’d been tending Orian were dead. Consort Keya had removed the protective barrier keeping Orian alive.
I stood there shaking, the empty glass vial clasped in both hands, praying to any higher power there was to make this right. Jasper was going to be a great wizard one day. He’d gotten the ice spell right at the Stonewill Chateau. With the healers in Blackscar, he’d gotten this antidote right. I just knew it. After everything Nylian had suffered and battled, his twin brother couldn’t be stolen from him like this.
Pounding footsteps drew me from my desperate prayers, and my head popped up in time to see Nylian fill the doorway. For the first time since knowing him, his hair was a mess, and his clothes were dirty and splattered with blood. The elf was a disaster, and he’d also never looked so perfect to me. His eyes only got wider as he took in the room’s chaos before finding me.