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)
“Over there, near the mouth of the cave.” The woman pointed as an angry roar rushed out of the dark opening, followed by the pounding of footsteps. “Shit! Time’s up. Jasper, you’re gonna have to do something. Anything!”
While Nylian darted to the cave to steal our weapons back, I turned at the sound of someone moving through the woods behind me to see a young man who couldn’t have been more than thirteen or fourteen dressed in a baggy purple robe. He awkwardly balanced a giant book on his left hand while he flipped through the pages.
Holy shit, Jasper was a wizard!
“I think…maybe…this…” He mumbled, squinting at the print in the shitty light cast by a tiny white ball that floated over his shoulder.
Or, more accurately, a wizard in training. I wasn’t entirely sure if our luck had improved. We were free, but the ogres were racing toward us and our “saviors” were a sneaky woman and a newbie wizard.
The first ogre emerged from the cave and wildly swung his cudgel at Nylian. The elf easily slid under it and kept running at me. He tossed me my cloak wrapped around my sword, not stopping for a breath.
“We’ll leave the ogres to you!” Nylian called out. “Let’s go, Lockhart!”
I pivoted on the balls of my feet and chased after him, narrowly dodging trees in the growing darkness. “We’re just leaving them?”
“They’ve got to earn their three hundred and fifty gold pieces somehow.”
Okay, I couldn’t argue with that, but Jasper was still a kid, and that Addie didn’t appear to be a lot older. How were they going to beat a group of ogres?
The thought had barely crossed my mind when an enormous explosion sent a tremor through the forest floor and knocked me forward under its force. I glanced over my shoulder to see what the fuck had happened, only to run directly into Nylian, who’d stopped. The elf caught me, and we spun briefly, clinging to each other as we attempted to keep our feet rather than hitting the ground yet again.
The forest finally stopped twirling like a top, and I stared up at Nylian’s pale face, his eyes wide and his red lips parted on a gasp. My fingers dug into hard muscles through his tunic, and for a moment, I swore I could hear his racing heart.
Oh wait, that was my heart.
The world seemed to slow down to a stop as I stood there in Nylian’s near embrace. His bright eyes sparkled, but I couldn’t even guess where the light was coming from. His long blond hair whooshed behind him in a golden curtain. He just felt like he’d become so much more in the span of a heartbeat, and I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t tear my eyes away from him. Had I really created him? That had to be wrong. How could I have created something so large and perfect? I was lucky to make a mug of coffee most mornings.
“Are you okay?” Nylian inquired. His voice dipped so low and soft that I briefly forgot what we were running from.
“What? Oh! Right!” I shook my head hard, trying to clear away the cobwebs. My poor brain had been battered one too many times today. It probably had suffered some serious damage. I forced my hands to release Nylian and took a step away. “I’m good. We—” The rest of the sentence left me as I stared toward the ogres’ camp and saw the area bathed in a bright white light.
“That can’t be good,” Nylian muttered.
“No, undoubtedly not. Should we go back for them?”
Nylian grabbed my upper arm and turned me away from the camp, propelling me through the forest. “Absolutely not. You’re all the trouble I can handle right now. If they want to get paid, they will find us.”
That was a fantastic point.
Besides, we’d had zero luck beating the ogres the first time. I had serious doubts we’d have much better luck a second time. If a wizard and that sneaky woman couldn’t manage it on their own, they shouldn’t have jumped into that mess.
Maybe I felt a little guilty about leaving them behind, but keeping Nylian alive to find his brother’s killer was my priority here. Not some weird side quest.
They’d find us later, right?
Chapter 7
They Found Us
They found us.
Not that I was all that surprised. Nylian had made a smart point. If they wanted to get paid for their rescue efforts, they had to find us.
While I didn’t feel great about abandoning them to the ogres, I wasn’t up for rescuing our rescuers following our disastrous first encounter with those smelly giants.
With Nylian leading the way through the woods, we ran until my legs would no longer carry me. And then the asshole made me run some more. I didn’t know or care where we finally ended up. The sky was shifting from midnight black to slate gray when Nylian called a halt to our escape. He wouldn’t even let us build another fire to keep warm.