Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“It is not made of fire, but it was my grandfather’s and has protected me well through the years.”
I shake my head and turn toward the basement stairs I’ve been avoiding. “Keep your sword. That’s not what I’m looking for.”
I could leave and come back. I could find Kendrick and the others again. Then I wouldn’t have to face this place alone.
But my dream still haunts me. Not dream—Mordeus’s memory of making a deal with Kendrick. Kendrick was to keep me from destroying myself while I was rotting in that cell, and that’s exactly what he did. He pretended to be human because he knew I couldn’t trust a faerie. And he kept on pretending when we were reunited. He lied.
I can’t risk trusting Kendrick again. Not if there’s any chance he’s working with Mordeus. He lied to me. About wanting to help me escape the dungeons. About who he is. I can’t trust him. So I will do this alone.
The guards who line the halls of the dungeons are no danger to me, I remind myself. They will see the Enchanting Lady and do her bidding.
I take a step and then another. The ring’s magic is supposed to chill my heart and mute my fear. But the fear and numbness were coming back even before I left Kendrick, and this fear blares too loudly to be muted entirely.
This will be worth it. If I find the sword in these dark halls, the terror clutching my heart won’t matter.
With each step down, I feel less and less like the Enchanting Lady with the heart of ice and more and more like the fourteen-year-old girl Mordeus broke. I look over my shoulder—once, twice—because I can’t shake the feeling that someone is following several steps behind. But still I go. Because I don’t have much time left. I have eleven days.
I haven’t let myself think about that since I left the goblin’s home. Eleven days until I’m gone. Eleven days until I lose everything.
I want to run far from this place and these memories of pain and terror, but I don’t have enough time to waste, and I won’t let him win.
If it’s been eight months, how do you know Mordeus is still in the Eloran Palace? How do you know you won’t lose consciousness at any moment when he uses you to grow stronger?
I shove away the thoughts and step onto the final stair, reaching a trembling hand to the door.
I know what I’ll find on the other side. Pain and terror, darkness and despair.
“Jasalyn, stop!”
I spin and watch Kendrick take form on the steps behind me. “You’ve been following me?”
There’s an odd hum behind the door. The din of the prisoners’ cries? A vibration of some sort?
“I needed to be sure you were safe,” he says, taking another step toward me. “You don’t have to go down there. You’re in danger here.”
As if I can believe anything he tells me after the lies he’s already spewed? Why is he even here if he isn’t working for Mordeus?
“How long have you been here? Are you working with them?”
His throat bobs. “I thought you might come, so I placed a magical signal to alert me if you did. When I came, I didn’t want you to run and make me forget I found you at all. But I couldn’t leave you.” He glances over his shoulder as if trouble might be headed down after us. “I couldn’t risk you being around these people without anyone to protect you.”
“Protect me? You want me to believe that’s what you really care about? After everything?”
“Tell me what happened. Tell me what made you run.”
I pin my mouth shut. I don’t want to argue. I don’t want to risk falling under his spell, don’t want to risk my own fears and loneliness leading me back to him.
If I get on the other side of this door, the ring’s magic will ensure he doesn’t remember he ever saw me.
I reach for the handle and brace myself for the horrible sound and stench I remember, but when I release the latch and swing the door open, I’m greeted with more of that low humming.
Before my eyes can adjust to the darkness, red slits of light come charging at me.
Not humming. Growling.
I’m thrown into the wall of the stairwell as Kendrick shoves his body in front of mine.
A flash of light leaps from his hand and pulses around us.
The creatures freeze in their charge—dark-haired beasts like overgrown dogs with huge teeth and angry snarls.
In the next moment, they’re charging again. This time, Kendrick directs his magic at me, and I don’t even duck. I know before I feel it that he’s protecting me.
A shield of air wraps around me, blocking the bloody maw of the beast that lunges at my face.