Total pages in book: 78
Estimated words: 72515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 72515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 290(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)
Abaddon flies the skies each morning and night to ensure the forests are clear for a hundred-mile radius around the castle. Only an angel could hide from his sight.
So this bloodied female being here is impossible unless she herself is an—
I barely finish the thought before she approaches where I stand in shadow, trying to decide if I should do something to stop her or merely follow her and see if she goes toward the castle when the impossible happens: I’m fully in shadow—invisible—but she looks straight at me.
And screams. The next thing I know, she’s yanked blades from sheaths I didn’t even see in her pants and is screeching like a banshee as she slashes at me.
I throw out my upper pair of arms to block her blades. And roar when the sharp blades slice my skin. Only hell-metal can do any real damage to my hide, but these still dig in a couple of inches to the sinew of my forearms. And she’s fast. She immediately pulls back and starts to attack again, with stabbing motions this time.
While she took me momentarily by surprise, I’m not foolish enough to get caught twice. I have many arms to her two. So it’s nothing to me to snatch her wrists with one pair of arms and block her next blow with another.
She squeals in shock, either at how many arms I have, my blue skin, or that she’s now wrestling with a monster four times her size. But she’s the one who attacked me.
“Who are you?” I demand. As close as we are now, my nostrils fill with her scent. And she’s no angel. She’s human.
“Let me go!” she shrieks. “Where is my father?”
I frown in confusion, shaking her wrists until she’s forced to drop the weapons in the snow. My bottom pair of hands snatch them up.
Only then do I release my grip on her, dancing several steps back. I vowed a long time ago to never cause harm to another innocent human. Even one who is a wildcat. I don’t trust her not to attack me with another hidden knife.
From the glint of a blade that catches the sunlight as it slashes my way, it was the correct instinct to be on guard. “Where is my father?” she shouts.
“I do not know your father or how you could possibly be in these woods,” I say back, holding her two knives and standing to my full height, all six of my arms out. “But if you fight me, you will lose. Now you will answer my questions.”
Her eyes widen as her head tilts back to take me in at full height. And then, tucking her blade against the flat of her wrist, she turns and flees through the forest again.
Naturally, I start to chase her. It’s an old instinct.
I should have warned her. Don’t run from a monster. We can’t help but chase you.
Especially since I know Abaddon will want answers about this little blood-covered human who somehow found her way into our woods.
She looks over her shoulder and lets out a scream when she sees me. I’m actually hanging back. I could be on her in moments, but that doesn’t seem quite sporting. Plus, I am interested to see where she goes. Are there other humans with her? Where did she come from?
She sprints forward in a haphazard path, back the way she first came. Good. Maybe she’ll give me some answers.
Except that the next time she looks over her shoulder at me, bloodied blonde hair flying out, she doesn’t turn back around in time and is sprinting into—
I see what is about to happen before she does and reach out a hand to stop her.
“Careful!” I shout. “Stop!”
She turns back too late to stop her momentum and smacks right into the tall, spindly base of a solid pine tree.
She immediately slumps to the ground, fresh blood pouring from a gouge on her forehead.
I feel sick as I crash to my knees in the snow beside her prone, unmoving body. I have caused harm to another frail human after swearing I never would again!
Immediately I gather her small form into my many arms, cradling her to my chest as I lift her from the snow. Then I turn and sprint for the castle.
My brother can heal her and undo this one last sin if I only move fast enough.
Chapter Two
KSENIA
I blink my eyes to the sound of arguing above me and immediately go tense.
“What have you brought to my doorstep? She is obviously the enemy. Look at her! She’s covered in blood.”
“Your nose is bad, brother,” comes another tense voice, “but even you can scent she is no angel.”
Immediately my body tightens further. I try to scramble to a sitting position, but hands force me back down. Don’t touch me, don’t touch me. I fight like a wildcat to get away.