Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
A little, which was why her heart was slamming frantically against her ribcage like it was trying to find a way out. She could wipe the floor with Wagner in an instant, but not if she couldn’t move. It was hard to concentrate on fighting the restrictive power when more and more flashbacks slapped her hard.
She’d been far more afraid as a child after those boys had lured her to the woods. As she’d lay there powerless, swamped by fear and pain and rage, she’d inwardly cried for her mother. She’d told herself that Davina would find her … but she hadn’t. So Wynter had reached out to Nyx, the deity her coven worshipped, begging Her for help. But it wasn’t Nyx who came. It was another deity, and She hadn’t been entirely clear on what granting Wynter help would fully entail when She made an offer.
Wynter snapped out of her thoughts as the car slowed to a stop. The engine shut off, and then Wagner was out of the vehicle. She didn’t think it was possible for her heart to gallop any faster, but it actually picked up speed.
Hands soon roughly grabbed her and snatched her out of the car. “I’ll bet you’ve been trying your hardest to move, haven’t you? I’m pretty sure they all do. They never succeed.” He threw her over his shoulder once more. “Really, Wynter, you had to know this day would come. You were living on borrowed time. You should have died years ago, when fate intended it. You shouldn’t have returned.”
No, she shouldn’t have. More, after coming back, she shouldn’t have stayed alive for as long as she had. That wasn’t how it worked. But fuck if she cared what he thought.
As he walked further and further while her body remained limp and useless, she screamed in her head. Screamed and screamed and screamed with fury.
She could hear the roar of the waterfall in the distance. That roaring got closer and closer until it was almost deafening. She again fought the power holding her captive, and she again failed to free herself. Goddammit, she was not going to die at this bastard’s hands.
Finally, Wagner halted and then dumped her on the hard ground. “There we are. Better. Now … do I take the eye before or after I kill you?” He hummed, rolling her onto her back. “Before, I think.”
Her eyes still closed, Wynter silently hissed as she sensed him kneel over her … just as one of the boys once had. Right then, she screamed at Wagner to get the fuck away from her, but of course those words never escaped her mouth.
“Hmm, I’d rather have you looking at me while we do this. It’s not as gratifying when I don’t get to witness a person’s pain in their eyes.” He pried open her eyelids and smiled down at her. “Well, hello there.” He held up his knife. “Like it?”
A breeze whispered over her in a gentle, encouraging caress. The entity inside her shoved closer to the surface until it stared out at him through one of her eyes. Black inky ribbons partially obstructed her vision as they slithered over said eye.
He stilled, his brows snapping together. “What the …”
Silently praying to the deity for strength, she again struggled to move, move, move. Her heartbeat stuttered as two of her fingers jerked. That was all she needed.
Wynter dug those fingers into the ground and thrust her rage and magick deep into the earth. Pure silence fell, as if nature itself had sucked in a breath, and then the ground began to quiver.
Wagner’s eyes widened as the immediate landscape altered. Trees began to crack and blacken. Leaves started to wither. Flowers slowly dried up or wilted while bushes began to thin and decay.
He looked down at her. “What’s happening? What are you doing?”
One side of her face began to burn, and his gaze dropped to where she knew a metallic blue mark would now glisten. A distinctive mark that very rarely showed itself. A mark that would tell him she was Favored by a particular deity.
Realization dawning on him, he paled and scrambled to get away from her.
Now that she could move her fingers, her other muscles began to unlock. Her hands were soon free of the paralytic power. Then her arms, neck, head, upper body, legs.
It was like moving through sludge, but Wynter finally managed to sit upright. She cricked her neck, exhaling a long sigh.
Wagner stared at her, shaking his head, his lips trembling. “I … I don’t understand. This isn’t possible. You don’t …”
“Drink blood or eat flesh to survive? No, no, I don’t. Never needed to, thankfully. That would have sucked. Or I’d have sucked, if blood had been involved. Whichever.”
He shook his head wildly. “That’s … no, no, it’s not possible. Your heart beats, I can hear it. Nothing that She brings back is really alive. And it never exists for long.”