Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
I would sacrifice anything for Poppy. His life? Of course.
“But you’ll leave me to watch you turn?”
“There’s no other way. This castle isn’t safe. Once the lack of food hit, we’d be defenseless. What if that creature gets the door combination right? And if you aren’t conscious to mute your curse, the visitors will descend upon us again.”
She started to argue more, but he said, “Poppy, there’s no special tea here. If I got you pregnant, how would we keep our babe alive? Even if we could feed a child, would you like to raise it here past its teens?”
Her hand dipped to her belly. Oh, the thoughts swirling behind her eyes . . . There was no argument, and she knew it.
“I’ll take the hits, love. That’s what mates do.”
Her gaze glinted. “Remember how we shuddered at the fate of the wizard’s family? You’ll join them?”
“Use your witchly skills to discover a cure. Concoct something for me to take.”
“No witch has ever formulated a ghoul countermeasure, and many have tried!”
“Yeah, but you’re Poppy. Find some cool plant, and make it work for us.”
She grabbed his arms. “Leave me here. If you got a running start and half-traced, they might not land a strike. Work with my sisters to open the castle.”
“We don’t have time to argue, so I’ll make this simple: I vow to the Lore that you and I are both getting out of here, one way or another, once that door opens.”
An unbreakable vow. “You didn’t.”
“Did. Will do it forever, witch.”
Her bottom lip quivered. Her eyes welled with tears, alight with feeling, and it was gutting him. In a thick voice, she said, “I can’t lose you, Rök. We just found each other.”
He swallowed, swamped with emotion. But he needed to stay frosty to get her free—
Loud footsteps pounded outside. What now? Through the window he spied yet another green creature advancing on the castle, but this one was gargantuan. Must be ten feet tall.
Poppy wiped her eyes and followed his focus. “Great Hecate. I’ve never seen one that big.”
“Neither have I. Not in all my years. Think I know why.”
She gasped. “The word mord was in the wizard’s journal, smudged on each side. He’d seen the primordial.” The oldest and strongest of its kind. “That ghoul outside is the seed of them all.”
Rök whistled low. “The O.G.”
She muttered, “The original ghoul? Oh, Rök, don’t ever change.”
He stifled a wince. He was about to change more than he’d ever imagined. “I bet it turned the previous explorers when they strolled out the door twenty years ago. Talk about a mission hiccup.”
“The wizard wrote that the gateway to an undead realm might be in the vicinity. I think he was right. After all, this primordial came from somewhere.” True. Most immortal species hailed from distant planes.
As the behemoth stalked closer, those super ghouls darted out of its way, regrouping behind it. Yet then it paused in front of the window. It met Rök’s gaze, and he detected . . . a type of sentience in its yellow eyes. Extending an arm, it grasped for something with those lethal claws.
New blood, no doubt. And Rök knew it was about to get its wish.
Would turning hurt? Turning. Such an innocuous word for dying. Yet even as these morbid thoughts raced, he only felt fear for Poppy.
The primordial stomped toward the stairs. Outside the door, it roared with anticipation, yet it didn’t try to force its way in.
Did it sense the boundary, or did it somehow . . . know about it?
Would Rök know his fate? Will I know I love Poppy but still be compelled to hurt her?
Clutching his hand, she said, “This changes everything. Rescind your vow. We stay.”
He faced her. “All I have to do is keep you protected long enough for me to trace us.”
She looked aghast. “You’re not even going to try to avoid being scratched?”
He opened his arms to her. “That’s not the mission, love.”
NINETEEN
One thing Poppy had learned from her years as a mercenary? In a crisis, people revealed themselves.
Rök was revealing himself as exactly what he’d said earlier.
A hero of old.
She gazed up at him. He was so stalwart, even as a primordial ghoul—the bogeyman of them all—prowled mere feet away. Despite Rök’s revulsion toward undead creatures, he was ready to become one to protect her.
She went into his arms.
Against her hair, he promised, “I’m going to kill them all, Poppy. Even the primordial. Rest easy on that score.”
“And you’re going to pay the ultimate price.” She was tempted to knock him unconscious and drag him into hiding. But even if she managed to drop a statue bust on his head, the blow would just piss him off. “This isn’t the way.”
“No?” He drew back to face her. “You know me; I’m a demon through and through. Could anything be more demonic than charging horns-first into hell to defend my cherished mate? Poppy, I was fucking born for this.”