Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Solin didn’t speak until the hunters were out of hearing distance, taking my hand. “I will be brief, but I will be blunt.”
I straightened; my chin came up.
I tried to remove my hand from his, glancing at where his ash wasp stung my tattooed bee, but he kept me trapped with a tight grip.
“I love you, Runa. I love you as if you were my own, but I can’t just stand by and let you throw your life away. Throw all our lives away.”
I frowned. “I’m not throwing my life away.”
“By entertaining ideas of bearing Darro’s offspring in the hopes that it will break the blood bind, you are.”
“How did you—?” I ripped my hand from his. “The fire. Of course, Quelis would meddle.”
“Of course, we would,” the flames hissed in my ears. “Did you think we’d just bow down now that you’ve shared your flesh with him? You’ve done something we cannot undo, Life Bringer, but we will continue to protect those in our hearth even if you stray out of it.”
“I don’t understand why we can’t be together, Solin.” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “I know all the warnings. I’ve listened to your lessons. But why would Darro and I know each other if we weren’t intertwined in some way? Why would I feel the way I do if it wasn’t right? Why do I have memories of the beginning? Of the world being empty apart from me and him?” I tapped my head with a grimace. “There is so much I don’t know, hidden inside my mind. So much I’m desperate to remember, if only you gave me time.”
Solin marched into me and cupped my nape. His gentle touch slid through my hair as his thumbs pressed hard against my temples. “I wanted to spare you this, Runa, but I see now that only the truth will stop your heart from leading you down a path that will only end in despair. If you do not care for yourself and the pain you will endure at his hands, care for the others you will destroy in return.”
My fingers locked over his wrists. I tried to pull away. “Solin, what are you—?”
“Do it.” He spoke to the flames. “Show her what you showed me.”
The world fell away.
A trance yanked me deep.
My knees buckled as Quelis sucked me into smoke and brimstone, feeding me a vision of chaos, carnage, and crippling, sickening horror.
I stood on the highest mountain.
Covered in gold-gilded blood.
Scars on top of scars.
Bones badly knitted and fingers twisted and bruised.
My hair was shorn.
My body frail and broken.
Each wound and healed history revealed the agony I had endured.
But the blood and broken bones were nothing compared to the salted sorrow stinging so viciously in my heart.
Hate.
Loathing.
Rage.
So, so much rage.
I couldn’t control it.
I didn’t want to control it.
I hadn’t controlled it.
And now...nothing was left.
Nothing but ash, soot, and cinders.
Every tree, shrub, and flower had been scorched.
Every beast, bird, and bee had been melted.
Every mortal—young, old, healthy, and frail—had been blistered, burned, and broken.
All gone.
All dead.
I stood alone on my pile of embers and ruins.
I raised my ruined hands.
My skin blazed with a thousand suns.
I opened my mouth, and a river of despair poured out.
My head fell back.
My power ignited.
The world burned—
“It’s okay. I’ve got you.” Solin caught me as I collapsed.
He rocked me on his lap as the vision snapped into pure white light, throwing me back into cloudy grasslands with birds chirping, crickets singing, and the faint laughter of Nhil hunters on the muggy breeze.
I can’t breathe.
I feel sick.
I’m going to be sick.
“Let me go.” I fought him. “Let me go!”
I barely made it out of his arms before I retched.
For the second time today, I vomited.
Violently.
And just like my body had rejected Darro’s tart-blackened blood, my mind rejected such a vision.
I couldn’t stop seeing.
Couldn’t stop trembling.
Retching.
Moaning.
That wasn’t me.
I’d never.
I could never—
“It is, and you do.” Solin gathered my hair back, twisting it into a rope in his fist. “And this is where I am blunt out of necessity, my daughter.” He leaned closer, whispering into my ear as the grasslands swam, and I moaned again with despair.
“You will kill every single spirit alive. You will destroy everything.”
“Everything,” Quelis said quietly in my mind. “Are you listening, Life Bringer? You will go against your very nature and kill everything.”
I tried to curl into a rocking ball, but Solin held me tight, his voice cracking. “I don’t know what will make you do such a thing, Runa—that part is hidden from all of us—but nothing I do will prevent it from coming true if you choose Darro. It is not a warning but a promise. You will end life as we know it. You will be a traitor to your power and a betrayer to everything you are.”