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)
“I never had me a lady before.” His hands work at the ties of his pants.
I close my eyes, knowing I can do nothing to stop him. I don’t want to see him. I try to bring my hands up but it hurts. And then it doesn’t. Not quite as much. And the voice in my head becomes different. Not my own.
Get me close, love. Get me close. Can you feel me? I am with you always. Always, love.
I know that voice. The softer of the two. Why didn’t I know their names? In my dreams, they don’t need names. Now I want to call out for them. I laugh a bit. I’m going insane.
“Ain’t nothing going to save you, girl.” The soldier puts his hands on my thighs, spreading me further.
My hands tingle, heat spreading where before there was only cold. My whole body feels warm again as though a fire starts somewhere deep inside. A boost of energy charges through my veins, and I reach for him, ignoring the instinct to try to run. I know in my head I should be trying to get away, but I grab him and feel the heat flare. Smoke begins, and I swear I feel fire lick from my hands. It’s right there. All I have to do is focus it. I have the power.
“What?” The soldier looks down at the place where I grip him. He screams and tries to move.
I hold on. I can start the fire. I can envelop them all. Torin will get nothing. If the blaze I begin doesn’t kill him, at least the palace will go. Char and ruin will be all that Torin enjoys of his bloody inheritance.
There’s a grunt, and the tip of a sword pierces the soldier’s torso from behind.
And then the soldier’s eyes go blank, unseeing. He slumps over, and the fire leaves my hands. I want to scream, to wail that he was my kill, but the energy I felt fled as though a wall came down, cutting me off from that strange power.
And from that sweetly familiar voice in my head.
I sag back on the bed even as I feel the soldier’s body being dragged away. Has another come to take his place? My mind is so misty, filled with odd, disjointed memories. My brother chasing me. Cousin Dante’s fangs popping out for the first time at the most inopportune moment. I laugh, remembering the vampire’s embarrassment. Dante. I will miss him. And my mother and Beck and Cian and Nola, the brownie who was my constant companion.
I will miss them all.
I hear someone cry and feel myself being pulled into strong arms. I’m so weak, but I still recognize my brother’s face. Cian. Cian is weeping, his handsome face covered with soot and dirt. Cian killed the soldier. Beck is the warrior half, but Cian, my sweet, intellectual brother, killed the man who would have raped me and taken my final dignity.
“Mama?” I ask. I don’t know where my mother went. I lost her when the battle began. Battle? It was a slaughter.
Cian’s head shakes. Loss marks his face, aging him. His gray eyes are dulled by pain. “She’s gone, Bron. Father’s gone, too.”
Cian, my sweet playmate. He’s older than me by several years, but he always made time for me. I don’t know Beck as well, but Beck and Cian are halves of a whole, symbiotic twins who share a soul. I know that what one feels, the other does as well, no matter how cool he appears. Beck loves me, too.
“Love you, brother.” My lips feel dry. I want to say more but darkness is coming.
“I love you, too.” Cian seems to force the words out. He holds me so tight, but it doesn’t matter. I can feel myself slipping away. Darkness takes me, and I hear a mighty roar. It seems to take over my mind. That single shout fills the world, pushing everything else away. The sound has mass and motion, enveloping me, surrounding me. Goddess, I’m only fourteen. I want to live. I want to wake up and find this was a terrible dream. I don’t want to lie here knowing my brothers are gone, my future dead. I don’t want to die until I know where my dreams will lead me. Just one more dream. Just one more moment with them.
But still the darkness takes me.
Pain wracks my world as I come to consciousness. A hand moves across my mouth.
“Hush, child. If they discover us, they’ll take us to Torin, and then we’ll both wish we were dead.”
I open my eyes. What happened? Where am I? The room is dark, and there’s a hard, cold floor beneath my body.
My body. I reach for my stomach. I can still feel the knife sliding in. It didn’t hurt at first, as though my body wasn’t sure what to make of such evil, but then my whole being lit with agony as my death became real. Now I feel only smooth skin where there should be a hole.