Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Horror laced Xander’s voice. “I know.”
I glanced over my shoulder. “What is it?”
Xander loudly inhaled. His fangs burst from his gums. “It smells like your blood or a similar type. Very strong, but. . .so close to yours. So close. . .it makes me want to run over there and drink it all.”
I looked back at the dead woman. “Then. . .this is really Phinova.”
“Let’s go, my queen.”
I shivered. “This is the Quiet King’s first wife.”
“Yes, it is,” Queen Regina jumped out from the shadows, with a silver knife, and stabbed me in the back with a knife.
Pain bit through me. something slithered inside of my blood as if the blade had been poisoned with magic.
My mind went dizzy.
“No!” Xander roared.
“Stay there, son.” Queen Regina kept the knife in my back. “One step further and I’ll slam this into her heart.”
Chapter 7
Death
Camille
My blood boiled, and my body convulsed with a searing pain. It was as if a thousand red-hot daggers stabbed me repeatedly.
But it had just been one knife, held by Xander’s cruel sadistic mother.
Trembling, I gazed down at my breast.
The cold steel of the blade started at my back, ripped through my insides—muscle and veins—and ended outside of my chest. My body shook as I stared down at the knife’s point peeking out of my left breast and dripping blood.
I’m going to die.
Queen Regina’s arm trembled as she held me up, her muscles straining with effort.
This. . .is. . .it. . .
Sweat streamed down my face mixing with tears of despair.
“No!” Xander screamed and tried to advance forward again.
Ty rushed into the room. “Xander, stop!”
Ty. . .what is he doing here?
Ty held up his hands and got in front of Xander. “Camille will be okay as long as the knife stays in her body.”
Xander snarled.
Ty backed up. “The blade is dipped in mage blood. Once the knife is out, we have a potion that will heal all wounds by mage-created weapons.”
Xander snarled. His claws, horns, and fangs emerged in seconds. Xander’s veins bulged around his neck. The muscles along Xander’s shoulders rippled. His gold eyes flashed to red. Second by second, those razor-sharp claws and obsidian horns began to appear.
Ty’s hands shook. “Your mother will take the knife out if you listen to her.”
I. . .won’t. . .make it. . .
A searing, agonizing pain radiated from my chest, causing my body to quake and shake uncontrollably.
Leeta and Victoria hurried into the room and took in what was happening. Shock filled Leeta’s eyes as she held a box full of something.
Victoria’s bottom lip quivered. She didn’t meet my gaze. Instead, she stared at the floor.
Help. . .please. . .
My breathing became labored. I tried to gasp for air, but all I could do was open my mouth. Saliva drizzled from my lips, mixing with the blood on my breast.
My chest burned.
With each passing seconds, my mind drifted away.
No. . .
I collapsed to the floor.
The knife and Queen Regina followed me down.
Where is. . .Ian? Did they. . .kill him?
Queen Regina wrenched my head back. “Relax, little one. As long as Xander does what I say, I’ll let you live.”
“Camille!” Xander’s muscles rose two inches from his body and bulged, larger than I’d ever seen.
With each desperate breath, my lungs screamed for air.
I gazed at Xander through tears.
I’m still here.
Lazily blinking, I tried not to think of the sluggish way my heart beat, or the molten agony consuming my whole body. More blood began to leak from my chest. It spilled out warm and thick, oozing down my legs and pouring onto the floor in a pool of deathly crimson gore.
“The blood! It’s priceless! Get it all up!” Queen Regina ordered. “Every last drop!”
Leeta rushed over with the box. I spotted tons of empty glass vials inside of it.
Victoria hurried over too.
Together, they quickly knelt in front of me, scooped up blood, and poured it into the vials.
I’m going to kill Ty. Xander’s voice echoed in my head, taking my mind off the pain for a few seconds.
Be ready for me to catch you or. . .
It won’t work.
I closed my eyes.
Queen Regina jerked my head back, waking me up. “Don’t go to sleep. We still need you.”
I wretched, a mouthful of hot blood spilled from my lips. A coppery slickness coated my tongue.
“No, Camille!” Xander shouted.
Suddenly, thirty guards thundered into the room, surrounding Xander.
He barely cared. Instead, he kept checking me.
Protect. . .yourself. . .
In several of the guards leather-gloved hands, they held a thick, wooden rope with wooden spikes sticking out of almost every inch.
No. . .No. . .get out of there!
I won’t leave you.
He began fighting some of them, easily killing most. Yet, no matter the ones that died, others were still able to wrap the spiked rope around Xander’s body as he fought them.
It’s like. . .the Quiet King. . .