Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 129912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129912 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 650(@200wpm)___ 520(@250wpm)___ 433(@300wpm)
“Knowing this, Korah took Willow and Warren away from Vakeeli altogether. She was your mate, and mates are always destined to find one another, but we figured if you were in another realm, perhaps we could postpone when you mated.
“We put the twins on Earth with a family. We stripped them of all their energy and memories of their past lives. We thought it would work. But that’s the thing about this universe—about all the universes, really. No matter how much you try to prevent something, it will happen, and the outcome will be much worse than anticipated. Selah got to The Council, and they brought Willow back right under our noses. Prior to that, they allowed you to form a bond with her without even seeing her. Selah’s using them to fuel the agenda of waking her.”
“But why?” I ask. “I never signed up for this life and neither did Willow.”
“None of us asked for this, yet here we are,” Korah gripes, pushing out of her chair. “Do you think I wanted to return to this place?”
I shake my head, feeling a throb build near my temples. All of this is giving me a damn headache. “So if there were four of you, what happened to the other Regal? Yuri?”
Hassha inhales through her nostrils and exhales the same. Korah simply looks at her sister, waiting for her to speak.
“When you try to alter destiny, it will find a way to come into fruition.” Her throat bobs and she turns away, walking toward the landing. “The person whose blood could wake Selah also had to be the person who could destroy her. Yuri knew this as well as we did, so he made a sacrifice and allowed us to withdraw his energy and form it into a seed. His physical body has died, but his energy lives in that seed. And with this seed, we were to give it to the Cold Tethered child who would defeat our sister once and for all when the time came. We’ve waited anxiously for that person—for you.” She peers over her shoulder at me. “It may seem like I have nothing to fight for, or that I’m selfish, but I need Vakeeli to stand for my daughters. They deserve to live an abundant life. They have Yuri’s blood in them too. Whether Korah and I live or not, those girls should be able to thrive with remnants of us.”
“So you’re saying you want Selah dead,” I interject. “I thought you didn’t want to die for her mistakes.”
“That was before I realized she was coming for the women of Kessel. Coming for us. It’s abundantly clear now that when she wakes, she will try to claim our energy. And there is a possibility she will obtain it if she captures you. She’s powerful—we all are—but she has a dark energy to her, one we’ve never tampered with.”
“She will come, Caspian.” Korah takes a step closer to me. “Do you know what we did with Yuri’s energy? His sacrifice? Hassha fed it to one of the previous versions of you a long time ago. We waited for the strongest of all your generations. We warned your mother about Decius. It’s why she no longer trusted him and why he turned on her when she found out the truth.”
I try not to flinch at the mention of my mother. That doesn’t stop the cold feeling running through me though.
“He knew she would take you away from him—that she’d flee with you for as long as she could,” Korah goes on. “Your mother knew just how powerful you would be and wanted to protect you at all costs, but Decius would always find a way.”
“So all this time you knew Decius could kill me and you did nothing about it?” I demand.
“We’ve always watched,” Hassha insists.
“You’ve seen him tap into my mind? Trap me in my memories? You’ve seen him tormenting me? Tormenting Willow? You saw all of this and turned a blind fucking eye?”
“Watch your tone!” Hassha snaps. “We did not turn a blind eye. He could make all the threats he wanted, but we knew he would not kill you. Not without Selah’s permission. She’d have never wasted your blood. Why do you think he stalled? Why wouldn’t he have just killed you right away like he did all the others? The most he could have done was amplify his power, but even he knew that harnessing it wasn’t a guarantee.”
“I only watch my tone for people I respect,” I growl. “How can you Regals demand respect—demand peace—when you hung us all out to dry? You let Decius rule this land, take thousands of souls, fuel himself and Selah, and you did nothing. You hid on this island and on Earth like cowards. And now you’re telling me that to get rid of your problems, I must harness an unknown power and kill your sister so your people can have peace of mind? What about my people’s peace of mind? What about Willow’s? What about Warren? He’s a bloody creature in a cage now because you did nothing!”