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)
“Do you know where she is?”
“Yes.”
“So why haven’t you gone after her?” I ask, my voice a pitch higher. “She should know what’s happened to Warren.”
“She already knows.”
I hesitate before asking, “What do you mean?”
“When your mate dies, it can be felt. The pain is very powerful and is enough to destroy you if you let it. It drains you of life and continues doing so until you die too. I went to find her, and she wanted nothing to do with me or Hassha. Just like you, she blames us when you all really should be blaming Selah.”
Korah’s fist clenches in her lap and is engulfed in a ripple of purple flames. Just as quickly, the flames disappear as she closes her eyes and drags in a deep breath.
“I read a book from an author on Earth who said she was Cold Tethered. Her name was Leah Bianchi.”
Korah scoffs. “And what exactly did she write about?”
“She said she traveled to another place and met her soulmate, just like I met Caz. But she said something came for her mate and killed him. Before it could get her, she was sent back to Earth and had the chance to write about it. If there were only four Cold Tethered children, how was this Leah person Cold Tethered too?”
“Simple. She wasn’t.”
Confusion sinks in. “So how could she write about something so descriptive? She literally went through everything I did with Caz when we separated.”
Korah exhales. “When I traveled between Vakeeli and Earth, I carried the curse of yakaree with me like a weapon.”
Right, yakaree. The Vakeeli curse for someone who will soon meet their demise.
“Leah Bianchi wanted a husband.” Korah continued. “She came to me in New Orleans and asked to be ‘hypnotized’ in order to meet someone who loved her. I may have stolen a thing or two from Selah’s ideas by making her believe that she was meant to find this man. I made her believe she was special—that she had a Cold Tether and could not live without him or she’d be paralyzed with cold. At the time, I didn’t know what else to call it.”
My brows dip. “Are you serious?”
“Do not judge me,” she shoots back. “It kept her coming back and kept money in my pocket. In her mind, she was Cold Tethered, just like you. However, I did tell her there were consequences and that if she went too often, she’d get sick. Sending a mortal from Earth to Vakeeli, even temporarily, requires a balance. She had no connection to this world, and there was no one here to offer her the energy required for a lengthy stay. She didn’t belong and she knew this, but she wanted to keep going. She refused stop.”
“You could’ve stopped it,” I counter.
Korah’s jaw shifts. “I tried to stop her, but she struck me. I don’t take to violence lightly,” Korah grounds out. “So I sent her back one last time and scared her enough to want to stay on Earth. I put a false vision of her ‘mate’s’ death in her head. She assumed he’d died. Eventually, she was plagued with nightmares and hallucinations. She became sick, just as I told her she would. She was sent to a clinic of some kind to get better but died there, probably after writing her book. Yakaree.”
“Wow.” I scoff. “You’re no better than Selah. Just another god tearing people down and ruining lives because you’re bored.”
Korah’s brows stitch together. “Do you think it is easy for a god to live amongst mortals? Do you think they respect us? The people who have sacrificed over and over again for them?”
I push to a stand, dusting off the back of my pants. “I really don’t care, Korah. Tell yourself whatever you want. It’s not like what we say or care about matters anyway.” I twist around, ready to trudge through the sand and get back to the manor.
But before I can, Korah says, “I knew your mother, Willow.”
FIFTY-SEVEN
WILLOW
“Your real mother,” Korah adds. “The woman who birthed you and Warren in Vakeeli.”
I turn slowly to face her again. She’s standing a short distance away, her eyes damp, wisps of hair flying with the ocean breeze.
“What are you talking about?”
“Her name was Xinthia. She lived in Vanora.” Korah’s eyes are wetter, and it seems a tear will fall the longer she stares at me. She blinks it away before it can. “She was a wonderful person and became important to me. You and Warren became equally as important to me too.”
I have no words.
All I can do is gape at her as she minimizes the gap between us. For the first time ever, I see her bottom lip trembling. She’s always been so strong, so to see her like this causes a wrenching in my chest.