Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
“What’s troubling you?” Korah asks.
“Oh, many things, sister.” Hassha takes a minor step back, inhaling before exhaling.
“Not my nieces, eh? They’re okay?”
“Yes, they’re fine. They’re quite rebellious, but so full of life.” Hassha pauses. “They’d love to see you.”
“Perhaps another time, when things are a bit clearer.” Korah takes a step away too. She loves the twins, but she can’t see them. She saw them once, through sequences Hassha sent her mentally, and longed to hold them. To be there. But she felt such guilt for leaving. How could she return when she’d abandoned Hassha while she was pregnant with the girls? She searches for that answer in Hassha’s eyes, but as always, Hassha reveals nothing. Either Hassha doesn’t see it the way she does, or she’s pretending that it doesn’t bother her.
“Tell me what’s on your mind,” Korah encourages.
“It’s him.” Hassha gestures to Warren. “He’s a product of the Tether. A cold tethered baby.”
“Is he?”
“Yes. He’s one of the twins. Willow’s twin.”
Korah swallows. “Ah. I see.”
“I agreed to bring him here in hopes that I could rid him of the dark energy inside him, but I’ve tried everything, Korah. I’ve exhausted all my methods. Decius still lingers inside him, and I feel he won’t let go unless we kill him. But in order to kill him, we’ll have to…” Hassha trails off, staring vacantly.
“Well, we can’t do that.” Korah folds her arms, lowers her gaze. “How do you feel about Willow and Caspian? Have you seen them recently?”
“I have seen them, yes.” Hassha nods. “They contacted me about Warren and his mate.” Hassha surveys Korah. “Have you heard what I’ve heard recently?”
“About The Council trying to send that boy to Inferno Isle? Of course, I’ve heard. Who do you think it was that gave them warning not to send the sad sap off?”
“Yes. I told Caspian to let it go as well, but he knows I’m hiding something. He’s lost trust in me, which is the last thing I wanted. Are you not worried?”
“We made that place impossible to survive,” Korah says, though that doesn’t answer the question. “He and anyone with him will die if they ever set foot on that island.”
“What did you say to The Council?” asks Hassha.
“I told them to cease their plans or I would slice of their heads and plant them on a stake.” Korah raises her chin, smirking. “They know better than to test me.”
Hassha’s head shakes slowly, her gaze turning the other way. “We cannot be so confident, sister. This new generation of The Council is bold. And strong. Something tells me Selah has been speaking to them somehow. Though she’s at rest, it doesn’t mean she can’t still speak. If a mind is dark enough or suffering…she can get there.”
Annoyance wraps around Korah. “That is true.”
“Willow and Caspian, they’re not like the previous Cold Tethered children,” Hassha continues. “Their bond is one of the most powerful bonds I’ve ever encountered in my life. I can feel their energy, even now. I know you felt it too when they came to see you.”
“Yes, I felt it. Still do.” Korah’s head hangs, her focus on Warren now.
“I believe someone else is speaking to Warren in his dreams. I just hope it’s not who we think it is.” Hassha’s belly clenches as she focuses on Warren again. It’s been so long since she’s felt what she does right now. Fear.
Korah takes Hassha’s hand and gives it a squeeze. “Shall we go in together?”
She peers up at Korah. “Yes. That would be good.”
“Very well.”
Hassha closes her eyes and Korah does the same, and as they clasp each other’s hand, Hassha uses her other to touch Warren’s forehead. The pull is instant, as if his body has been awaiting her touch. She sucks in a sharp breath as Warren shifts in his sleep with a slight moan, and before she knows it, she’s inside, seeing what he sees. Breathing his air. Drowning in his stress.
She looks down at the fractured black ground beneath her feet, the gaps filled with fiery orange lava, then up, at the razor-sharp mountains gushing with even more of it.
The land is empty, no trees, grass, or signs of life, however when she looks up, the sky is full of creatures—dark creatures with massive wings, visible ribs, and slimy gray skin. They fly in a circle, hovering above something in the distance. Hassha looks left, and Korah is with her, radiating with soft purple light.
When Hassha moves, Korah does too. They walk until they approach a crater in the ground, a crater so deep it seems a bomb has dropped on it to open it up. But there are no bombs here. Only energy. Bad, bad energy.
Hassha hitches a breath when she spots the gold coffin planted at the bottom of the crater, however it’s not as she and Korah left it. The coffin is wide open and the body that’s supposed to be inside it is gone.