Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
A burning sensation scorches my side.
I throw my elbow behind me and catch a soldier in the face. Where is Bron?
And then a shout comes up and the sound of metal on metal. There’s a clanging and a roar.
Duffy wields his axe, cutting soldiers off at the legs. They fall to their knees, large hacking wounds making it impossible for them to walk. A soldier brings his sword down on Duffy’s head, but Duffy simply keeps fighting.
“Get Bronwyn!” Duffy shouts. “Get her and my Gilly out of here. This is my job, brother. This is my fight.”
I look down at my little brother, so much pain in my heart, but Duffy is right. It’s his time, no matter what I want. No matter how I’ve tried to pretend it didn’t happen.
I fight my way out of the throng as the first sonic boom hits. Roan found his way to us and he and his vampires are battling the soldiers. So are the men from Aoibhneas. Nate and Zane are fighting, knives in their hands.
Bron. I have to find Bron.
And then I see her. She stands at the clearing, facing the river. She’s dressed in nothing but Shim’s battered shirt, her sweetly curved legs bare and her naked feet in the grass. She looks so young and fragile.
And the hag holds her by the neck.
The hag, with her midnight-black hair and even darker eyes, smiles and holds up her hand, and in a wink of an eye is gone, her body pulled up by the eddy wind she rode.
My sweet Bron vanishes.
Shim comes running, but the battle is done. He looks up into the air, lifting his hands. I can sense what he’s going to do and run to tackle him. I hit Shim full force and hold his hands down.
“You can’t use your power. You don’t know what that will do.”
“My power can’t hurt Bron,” Shim insists. “Fire can’t hurt her. She was in the middle of that fire for minutes when we found her the first time. It knows who its master is.”
“And air? How about that, Shim? If you burn away the eddy cloud and she falls a hundred or two hundred feet, how will you save her this time?” I’m going to be sick.
And then I feel her. A calm presence. Bronwyn’s voice fills my head.
Bring the war to me. Bring them all to me. She won’t kill me. You have time and I have power. I love you. I love you both. Trust in me. Believe in me.
I sit back, her words hitting me like a hammer. I know what she intends to do.
“We have to go after her,” Shim says, standing up. “They’ll take her to the palace.”
It would be the sensible thing to do. I can rally whatever troops are left and we could search for her. I could save her and carry her away and give the fight back to her brothers. I can still have what I want.
But it isn’t what Bron wants. What Bron wants is a chance to end the war. She doesn’t want the crown and she no longer wants revenge. That truth was found deep in her soul. She wants to end the war, to bring back the kingdom of her youth and to give her people their freedom.
My wife is a hero and I was a coward. But no more.
I follow her now.
I shake my head. “No. We go to Aoibhneas. We gather her brothers and whatever troops we have and then we march.”
Shim stares at me for a moment. “But that leaves her in danger.”
“It leaves her in a place where she can turn the tide.” I don’t want it. Every cell of my body revolts at the thought, but Bronwyn matters more.
“And if she dies?” Shim asks.
My heart will be a gaping hole. My life will be over. “Then we’ll find her through that door Duffy talked about. We found her once. We’ll find her again. But if we don’t let her try this, she won’t be the same woman we love.”
Shim takes a long breath and holds his hand out, gripping mine. “Then we are in agreement. And Lach, I am so sorry. I didn’t mean it. Alive or dead, I am your brother and I love you. I am grateful to be walking and loving our wife.”
I stand. The forest around us is quiet now, the soldiers disappearing with their hag. They found their prize and once it was in hand, none of the rest of us matter.
“Where is Her Highness?” Roan asks.
“Gone.” The word sounds hollow.
Dante’s clothes are torn, covered in blood, though he bears no mark of his own. It’s easy to see how he healed so quickly. Kaja bears two holes in her neck. She obviously forced her husband to feed and heal after the battle. She looks up with tears in her eyes.