Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156210 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 781(@200wpm)___ 625(@250wpm)___ 521(@300wpm)
Without his two accomplices to shroud him from me, I can practically taste his sweat. I don’t know if he’s aware how close he is to death now, but it doesn’t matter. I shall hunt him down and then drag him back to the palace, so he can cry out the name of the one who sent him.
The dark trees turn into a blur as my gaze focuses on the path ahead, and I skirt through the shadows, moving at the speed of a leviathan slinking through the dark waves of Grief Ocean. Ever closer to the pathetic creature who believed itself capable of flicking me off the chessboard.
Such cheap moves would have worked against my brother, but am I not the other twin? The Sunspawn? The abomination who should have never been born? A beast should never be hunted when its mate is around.
As I dart from between the trees and into a moonlit grassland, fatigue dulls my focus and turns my limbs heavy. I’ve almost burned through the eel, but it doesn’t matter. The assassin is ahead, speeding for a stone shelter among stormy hills. It might be where he and his associates were to regroup, but the mistake of failing to kill me at the first try was one that will cost him his life.
I’m no longer able to travel within the shadows like before, too exhausted to maneuver between realms at such high speed. Despite the ache in my legs, I am hungry for my target’s blood and focus on his back and the pale braid swinging left and right like a convulsing snake.
Even the shadows enveloping me are thinning now, but it’s like a word on the tip of your tongue. Almost there. I pour my energy into the claws of one hand, grow them, ready to pin him to the ground.
I feel the arrow coming this time, but as it speeds past me, I realize it was not meant for me.
Instead, it pierces the assassin’s neck, swiftly followed by another. The second arrow gets him in the head, killing any hope I might have to learn the name of his employer.
I cry in protest and catch up to the poisoner, who’s collapsed into the grass, but when I roll him over in hope that maybe he could still survive this, he looks back at me with empty eyes.
I roar in helpless anger, and the shadows clinging to me pulse on my skin when I recognize the stomping of hooves.
“Are you alright, cousin?” shouts a smooth voice I want to choke out of the bastard forever.
My fingers twitch with the need to curl around a graceful neck, because I had the chance to keep this witness alive, and only someone who needed to keep them quiet would have shot those two arrows.
“I heard what happened from my father,” Anatole says. “Do you recognize him?” he asks and dismounts as if he hasn’t just taken this kill from me to cover his pale ass!
I rush to my feet and shove him back so hard he bumps into his horse. “I had him! Stop sticking your fingers where they don’t belong,” I roar, and his eyes widen when he takes me in. A shiver trails down my back when I see my face reflected in his eyes. I don’t look quite like myself, and my gaze is black as if I’ve covered my eyes with coal.
“Wha—” Anatole frowns, and despite my rage, I realize the golden sun tattoo cannot be covered by shadows. When they become a part of me, it becomes visible too. I force them all to the ground with a push so quick, it leaves me exhausted, but I can only hope he didn’t realize what he was seeing.
“I came to help,” he says through gritted teeth, but he’s alert, his eyes searching mine for fuck knows what.
A raspy growl escapes my throat, and I shake my head. “You only helped yourself by getting him out of the way, didn’t you?” I ask, taking a step toward him. “My promised told me to kill the traitors for him, but I doubt they’re all dead.”
“I don’t know what’s gotten into you, Kyranis. It’s like he bewitched you. You waited seven years to go get him despite my prodding, and now you treat him like a flower in a secret orangery and attack me? Why would I be after you?”
Fury boils over, and I grab the collar of his shirt where it sticks out above the breastplate and tug him closer. I want to bite off his nose and spit it back in his face. “Both your sisters plotted to murder him. And now I’ve been attacked right before you arrived. To take Luke?” I growl, out of my mind with rage at the very idea of this bastard hurting my promised in any way.