Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
“Show me this valley you speak of and I will grant you your heart’s desire. Can you do this?”
I search his blue gaze. It’s cold and unyielding. I get the feeling refusing his request is not an option.
“Y… yes. I can do this.”
Fury of A King
I have been out here in my training grounds for two days—two long days of missing my love. However, I needed to release my powers and stretch in my true form.
I look up at the sky and stare. Once again, I get the feeling I’m being watched. However, it’s not the same as before.
There are scents in the air that belong to the fools who dare to watch me. I know for sure there are humans in the woods. I can almost taste their fear.
Someone has sent them to their deaths. I can smell their fear and aggression. They have not come in peace.
I open my palms and the sky darkens. Clouds roll in and thunder begins to rumble through the field, pulsating with my power.
“Fly,” I murmur to the raven I’ve taken possession of.
Through his eyes, I scout those lurking after me. They are beginning to close in. I narrow my eyes as I note they have weapons drawn.
From their armor, they look to be the king’s men. My thoughts begin to race. It’s in times like this I wish that Venus were my mate so that I could check to see if she’s safe.
I will just have to make this quick so I can get to her in the flesh. I don’t have a good feeling about this. The king’s men never come out this far.
The humans in the village stay away when I’m out here. I make sure of that. For these soldiers to be out here, an other has sent them and aided them beyond my barriers. Some being has chosen to pick a fight these humans will lose.
“You. Will. All. Die,” I bellow, my voice rumbling through the air as they come into view.
My power rises through me and I release my knights to battle. Not a single man is spared. It only takes seconds for the field to be filled with smoke and ash.
As the smoke settles around me and the clouds billow out, it dawns on me I’ve been targeted. Someone has dared to test me. Unable to hold in the rage, I throw my head back and release a roar.
The ground shakes beneath me and lightning fills the sky, striking randomly like bolts, confirming my fury. I reel in my temper and power and rush for the village. I need to get to Venus.
Somehow, this connects to her and those villagers. I feel it in my bones.
Benjamin
“You have done well,” the bishop says as he holds his hand on my shoulder to keep me from running.
“Wh…what just happened? Did he just—”
“Indeed, he did. Wasn’t that magnificent? And to think he’s only a half-blood. So insignificant as opposed to his kind and the creator thereof.”
“His kind? What is he?”
“I wouldn’t defile my presence by naming what he is. He and his brothers are an abomination. Unworthy of the blood and essence they carry.”
“Brothers? More like him? Can they do that as well?”
He shrugs and frowns. “I do not know. I have never seen them all in action. However, they are just as powerful as he is.”
“That…that thing just decimated the king’s army. With… with, what would you even call that? That is beyond magic.
“He’s no creature of the night. A shifter could never do something like that. Gods knows what else I’ve heard tales of that wouldn’t even begin to come close to what I’ve just witnessed.
“This is wrong. We must hurry away before he sees us and those… those. He will turn us into dust like the others.”
I go to turn and run, but the bishop slaps me across the face, whipping my head to the side. I grab my cheek and look up at him. He gives me a cold glare as he narrows his eyes.
“Calm down and shut up. That was not the king’s army. It was a unit of soldiers. I have many more at my disposal.
“If you run, you will reveal yourself. He will not see us if I don’t want him to see us. Do not move from my covering.
“I cannot afford to lose you yet. Somehow, you have made yourself valuable to me,” he snarls down at me.
“Me?”
He rolls his eyes. Impatience seeps off him. This is the bishop of the church. Yet something is off about him.
We’ve been led to believe the king’s church is against magic, but I won’t lie to myself and believe this man is a normal human.
“Yes, you. Do you see anyone else left alive out here?”
“Ho… how. What am I to do?”
“You will find me the others.”