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)
“How can you do that?” Brie asks.
“I can offer you the assistance of the Eloran Palace infantry,” Konner says. “They’ve been notified to be ready and can be deployed to the shadow court at a moment’s notice.”
“Don’t they answer to Erith?” Remme asks.
Konner shrugs. “On paper, perhaps that’s how it works, but I’ve trained with these soldiers since I was a boy. I was raised to lead them, and they respect me for that.”
Sol takes another sip from her tea. “You also need to understand that the humans aren’t the only ones who’ve been hurt. Many of Konner’s fighters have lost relatives who were living in hiding in Elora. When Erith discovered them, he used them to get more powerful.”
Brie shakes her head. “How could he use Eloran fae to increase his own power?”
“Where do you think Mordeus learned about blood magic?” Sol asks. “Erith has no boundaries, and there is no limit to his hunger for power.”
“It will take time to move the infantry to the shadow court,” Konner says, “but if we move now, we can get there before the attack.”
“Attack?” Brie meets Misha’s eyes for a beat before looking back to Konner. “You’re speaking of a specific attack and not just of a vague threat.”
Konner holds her gaze. “If Mordeus is successful in taking over your sister’s body, he still won’t be able to take the throne, not so long as you live. His forces will come for you.”
The mix of emotions flashing across the shadow queen’s face make me dizzy. She goes from denial to fear to rage to cool calculation in a beat.
She doesn’t want to make plans for what happens if Mordeus is successful, I tell Misha through his mind.
I know. But I also know she will. She takes her duty to her kingdom as seriously as I do mine.
“We will accept the help,” Abriella says, scooting her chair back and rising. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to return to my court.”
Remme stands too and opens the door for her. He gives me one last searching look before heading out and my stomach sinks. I don’t want to risk Hale any more than he does, but we’re running out of options.
“Excuse me. I need to speak with the queen,” Misha says, standing to follow Abriella from the room.
When the door shuts behind him, Sol looks at me and her face softens. “I know we’re asking you to do something scary, but—”
“I need to speak with my brother first. To make a plan to ensure he’s safe while I take out Erith. But I can’t ask him to worry about that while he’s in the middle of fighting for the love of his life. Erith will have to wait until after the princess’s birthday.”
She holds my gaze quietly for a long time before nodding. “You met our Leia?”
“I did,” I say with a wobbly nod.
“So you know what we’re fighting for. You know what’s at risk if you don’t help us get rid of him.”
“I do,” I say. “My niece. And all of Elora.”
Chapter Thirty-Five
Jasalyn
The journey to the oracle is exactly as Crissa showed me. She projected the image of the journey into my mind, taking me down the dirt road on horseback and through the deep woods toward the rising sun. She showed me the mountain pass as it would look as it perfectly framed the morning light and the steep path up the side she said I’d have to follow to the plateau of contemplation. From there, she said I would have to “follow my heart” to come face-to-face with the oracle.
As I climb the barren mountainside toward the plateau, my heart thuds heavily in my chest, exertion from the hike and wild nerves making me tremble. I’ve been watching to make sure I’m not being followed. I haven’t seen anyone, but I can’t shake this feeling. I keep craning my neck to look over my shoulder to make sure someone—or, worse, something—isn’t at my back.
Just keep going, I tell myself as I reach for a gnarled root to hoist myself up.
In the short hours I let myself sleep last night, I dreamed of a woman with long, colorless hair floating on the breeze around her as she sat on my chest and screeched in my face. She pressed her lips to mine and stole the air from my lungs. Her soft fingers dug into my neck as she cut off my air supply.
Upon waking, I knew who she was. The Banshee. Abriella explained it all when she told me the story of how she got me back from Mordeus.
The Banshee visits when death is coming for you.
Of course it’s coming. You traded away your life.
But it’s one thing to know that intellectually and quite another to feel the life being drawn from your lungs.