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)
The deal says nothing about Abriella never getting the book back. Maybe she will. Or maybe it will find its way back to her.
As if already sensing her decision, the mouse drops to the floor and runs to the door. The witch intercepts, scooping up the creature. It squeals and sinks its big teeth into her finger. The witch curses and mutters something in a language Jas has never heard before. A small girl emerges from the corner and holds out her hands, her eyes full of terror as she takes the rodent from the witch. They exchange a few more words in that unfamiliar tongue. The girl disappears into the darkness again and the witch turns her attention back to Jas. “I need an hour to complete your ring, then you can come back for it”—she taps the unrolled scroll—“and our deal will be complete.”
Chaos rules every hall and passage of the palace today, and it’s after lunch before I finally find a space that isn’t already occupied with Konner’s soldiers or Brie’s advisors or some other group of people I don’t have the energy to talk to.
The room is small—the only door off a tucked-away alcove—and I exhale in relief as I sink into a chair and soak in the silence.
I shouldn’t be here. I should be tracking down the queen and figuring out what I should and shouldn’t say when the general comes. But the truth is, I don’t know what I’m going to say if I run into Misha.
Hey, it’s okay that maybe you wanting me was like seventy percent about me and thirty percent about what you need from me. That’s more than I ever could’ve hoped for anyway.
Or, I was too busy being angry yesterday to hear all the sweet things you said, but I think I need to hear them so could you just run that down again?
Or worse, I don’t care why you want me because I don’t know how not to want you.
“You okay there?”
I look up and see Konner lowering himself into the chair across from me. He blows out a breath. “Felicity,” he says. “I almost thought you were Jasalyn, but”—he taps the skin around his eye—“that gives you away. Why are you in this form today?”
“A favor for the queen. What are you doing here?”
“Looking for a quiet spot to clear my head, if I’m honest. You?”
“Same.”
“I’ve been wishing we had time to talk, but it seems like there are too many fires to put out or coming storms to prepare for.”
I huff. “No kidding.”
His eyes soften and I think of all the times he got that look on his face in the illusion. “I know you probably still haven’t forgiven me for putting you in that stasis, but I’m dying to know what it was like.”
I lean back and fold my arms. “That seems like a weird thing for you to ask, given that you’re the one who put me there.”
“It was a risk, you know, giving you an alternate reality to make you understand me better. Who knows? Maybe I was a jerk and it could’ve worked against me.”
I frown. “Alternate reality? Don’t you mean illusion?”
“It’s nothing I constructed, if that’s what you mean. I can’t choose what you see when you dream.”
I’m baffled because his face is all sincerity. “Then how . . .”
“I can focus on a moment in the past and change one thing about it. Then you’ll dream the life you would’ve had if things had unfolded from there.”
Everything inside me slows down. “And what did you change for my dreams?”
He cocks his head to the side. “You already know.”
When I close my eyes, I can practically feel our mother’s hand on my shoulder, the warmth of her hugs and the beauty of her smile. “Our father—this was if our father had died. And that was why Mother was still alive.” My heart twists as I look up at Konner. “And our sister, Aster.”
He draws in a breath. “That’s right.” His throat bobs. “What was it like? That life?”
A flood of emotion makes me want to hug Konner. My brother. “Mom raised us in the palace, and we . . . you and I were close.” And I was being courted by the king of the Wild Fae, who wanted me just for being me. “I thought it was an illusion. I thought you’d crafted this whole life and all the details. . . .”
He shakes his head. “No. I focus on a single moment. In this case, I went back to the ritual our father did for power and immortality. I imagined him failing and dying as a result. It was a risk, but I hoped you’d have a chance to see me for who I really am, perhaps even see how good a world without Erith could be.”