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 think I’ll take my chances. I’m quite a hunter myself. There’s no dumb animal alive who can take me down. Call off your dog. I don’t want to hurt her, but I have a mission to complete, and I intend to do so.”
I hear a shrill cry and then the unmistakable sound of a sonic weapon being fired in the distance. Vampire tech. Dante really is in that village. “You would sacrifice a whole village to complete your mission? You’ve been living here for months. Those are your neighbors. They’re dying.”
If my words move him, he doesn’t show it. “And more will die if Torin isn’t stopped. This is a small village. People are dying all over the country. So yes, I will sacrifice whoever I must in order to see you safely to Sir Giles and the army he will be able to build around you. You will be a figurehead. That is your true value, not as some crazed woman wielding a sword in the defense of peasants. The nobles will back you. You will be the rallying point. You’re far too important to risk.”
There will be no reasoning with him. He’s a true believer, an absolutist, and he doesn’t really care about me beyond the fact that I can further his mission. “Then take the damn knife. Find another girl to play my part. You were going to do it earlier. I don’t need the knife anymore. My brothers will know who I am.”
Niall’s eyes widen. He finally drops my arms. “Beckett and Cian? The kings are still alive? They must have gone mad by now. They’re years past the time to bond.”
That’s exactly what Torin wants everyone to think. Keeping them from finding a bondmate is one more reason he closed off Tír na nÓg. “No, they are alive and well. They’ve bonded and come into their power. So I’m turning this whole figurehead thing over to them, and I’m going to go and do something right for a change. I’m going to fight for the people around me. Let me go.”
He shakes his head, grabbing my arm once more. “I can’t let you go. You’re our best bet. And you could be lying about the kings.”
“She is not lying, and I am no dumb animal.” Kaja takes her human form. She also proves she can fight on two feet. She rears her fist back and slams it into Niall’s nose, blood splattering in an arc. Niall’s head snaps back, and he drops to the ground with a thud, unconscious. Kaja stands over him. “He is not a smart man.”
But he is an armed man. I take the knife off his belt. A small guilt assails me, but it isn’t like I’m leaving him unarmed. He seems to have a blade strapped to every inch of his body. I think about taking the sword, but I’m better with a knife, and the sword is heavy. I hold out the sword to Kaja, who stares at it like she’s not sure what to do with it.
“You don’t use weapons, do you?”
Kaja shrugs, one shoulder moving up and down as she eases the pack off Niall’s back. She rifles through it, coming back with yet another blade.
“I fight with tooth and claw. It’s the way of my people. And my main person is about to be in trouble. Dante is fighting. They’re all fighting, and there are so many of them. He’s telling me to get you someplace safe and then hide with you. He’s being quite loud about it. Does he have to scream at me like that? Doesn’t he know I can hear him?”
It strikes me suddenly that Kaja really is my family. She’s Dante’s true consort if they can speak to each other like this. My cos is here. He came for me. And if he’s come for me then it’s because Beckett and Cian sent him. My brothers.
Dear goddess, I have a family again.
“Do you know how to use that thing?” Kaja asks, pointing to the knife.
It isn’t my father’s knife, but it will do. And I’m running out of time. Niall probably has it hidden on his person.
My husbands or my knife? It’s an easy choice to make.
I feel so much better with two knives in my hands. I was trained to use two, my body moving in a deadly dance. Never stop moving, the goblins told me. “I can use it. And I’m not hiding.”
I don’t want to admit it to myself, but Lach and Shim are there. It was easy to walk away before, but now I can’t, not when I’m not sure they’re safe. Niall lies in the dirt, his chest moving but his eyes closed. I can’t help him. Not if I want to help Lach and Shim.
I keep my mental shields in place. It’s becoming an easier thing to do. I have to keep them up. If they know I’m coming, they’ll stop me from fighting, and from the sounds ahead, every fighter is needed.