Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Immediately, the Calashte fae who had been preoccupied with the demons turn on Jago’s forces, and the fighting intensifies. There’s no way for me to employ mass destruction like I just did on the demons without harming our own, so I open my hand and call forth my sword that rarely sees use these days. Truett follows suit, and we leave the plateau, bending distance right down into the fight.
Once in the thick of things, I easily distinguish friend from foe, and I tear through the enemies without resistance. My power and strength are unmatched, and I relieve bodies of their heads with my sword and unmake their souls before their corpses hit the ground. I walk through the streets, swinging my long blade, sprayed with the black blood specific to the fae and daemons.
And I look for Jago.
Without the demons to overrun the Calashte residents, and with me at their side, it takes hardly any time to turn the tide. With only a few enemy fighters left, I order Truett, “Capture one of them.”
He nods, and they converge on a large incubus fae backed into a building. I focus on his sword, turning it white-hot so he screams and drops it. Truett and his men jump him, dragging him toward me.
He fights and snarls, but he can’t overpower the three equally powerful fae who have him. They force him to his knees, and he sneers, “You might as well kill me. I won’t tell you a thing.”
I smile at him blandly. He’s going to die, and he knows it. But he will tell me everything I need to know first.
My hands grasp onto his head, and a jagged light zigzags over the top of his skull and shoots upward. The incubus screams in agony as I press my fingers into the light, pulling his head apart. No blood wells, only light mixed with all his memories.
It comes in waves of understanding as I take it all in, but a few things become immediately clear.
It is indeed Jago behind this attack, although he’s not been seen since the fighting started. Jago has promised his followers he will open the veil to unleash all of Hell’s inhabitants into the First Dimension.
Most importantly, though, the attack on Calashte was nothing but a distraction.
More pointedly, it was meant to distract me.
Pressing my fingers into the fae’s skull, I breach the bone and rip it in half, incinerating his brain.
He falls to the ground and bursts into ash.
“Did you find Sorcha?” Truett asks.
“He didn’t know. But this was a diversion to get me away from the castle.”
“Why?”
“He didn’t know that either, but I want you to assemble every single fae loyal to my crown and get there immediately.”
Truett starts to nod but doesn’t dip his chin fully before I disappear and bend distance straight to my suite.
“Nyssa!” I bellow, hearing nothing but silence in return. I can feel she’s not here because I imbued her with protection that would allow me to find her.
My stomach cramps as my fears are realized.
The distraction wasn’t just to get me from the castle. It was to separate me from Nyssa.
CHAPTER 22
Nyssa
Sorcha digs her claws into my upper arm, and I feel them pierce my skin. I grit my teeth because I know she wants a reaction and I refuse to give her one.
Uriens brought me to Amell’s suite as instructed, advised me to stay put, and returned to Calashte to help with the fighting.
I paced the room, lost in thought. I wasn’t worried about whatever Amell was running into because there is no one more powerful. I doubt all the Dark Fae in the Underworld could take him, given that Zora has made him practically invincible.
Rather, my thoughts are occupied by our time together just before Truett and Uriens interrupted. Amell called me beautiful. Plucked a diamond from the sky for me. Created a lush wonderland and brought forth sunlight.
He told me he wanted me to be happy.
No one has ever wanted me to be happy, including myself. I never thought it was attainable, so I never strove for it.
For most humans, this would probably be nothing out of the ordinary, just something that might happen on a date between two people who are into each other.
Coming from the king of the Underworld, I expect this was a big deal for Amell. It was more than a big deal to me because he’s created a life for me better than anything I could’ve ever imagined.
And yet, I have no idea what any of this means. I’m confounded, and I don’t like it.
“Let’s go,” Sorcha hisses, punching her nails in deeper. Warm blood runs down my arm.
She showed up at Amell’s suite a few minutes ago. There was a knock on the door, and I assumed it was Calix, perhaps with food or an update on Amell.