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)
“I won’t pretend that what you’re saying isn’t hard to hear.” He paces the length of the small infirmary. “Shae and I grew up together. Once, we were best friends. He’s pulled away since I was tapped as the next Eloran king, but it’s still hard to believe he’d betray us like that.”
My stomach twists with a painful combination of hope and doubt. I want to trust Kendrick. I want to believe what he’s saying, but the lure of the Enchanting Lady’s magic doesn’t work on him, so I have no way of ensuring his honesty.
“Shae’s always had a dangerous kind of ambition. The day the oracle told me I was the Chosen, he lost it and wrecked the entire barn. He thought it should be him.”
“And you trusted him after that?” He’s so close I can feel his warmth, but I don’t let myself move any closer.
“He apologized. He said he’d always believed that he was destined for greatness, but that after he had his meltdown he realized he could find that by my side.” He scratches at his scruffy cheeks. “I think I believed him because I wanted to.”
“But now you believe me?”
He stops pacing and his chest expands with a deep breath. “We haven’t seen Shae since the day you left. He went to Elora to try to find another way into the palace. Or so he said. He never came back, and we thought he’d been captured, but . . . I don’t know. Something’s been bothering me about all of it. After he disappeared, I started realizing things with him haven’t been adding up lately. Little things. Times he disappeared or wasn’t where he was supposed to be. I’ve been worried about him, but part of me has been equally suspicious as new information has come to light.”
“Like what?”
“That ring isn’t randomly stuck on your finger. Mordeus needed you to be unable to remove it so he could better control you. We first thought the attack on Ironmoore came from the Seven trying to put a stop to our revolution, but Natan has gathered enough intel that now we know they weren’t behind it—at least, not as a whole. We suspect the wyvern attack had a different purpose entirely. Historically, wyvern cries have been used to unlock dormant magic and we think that night was all about unlocking the magic that would keep that ring on your finger.”
I nod, but I’m all jumbled up inside. Kendrick and his friends have been spending the time I’ve been away trying to figure out how to help me. How to free me from this ring. That doesn’t fit with the story I’ve been telling myself. That doesn’t make sense if they’ve been working with Mordeus. “What does this have to do with your friend Shae?”
“Someone still would’ve had to send the wyvern. Who knew you were in Ironmoore with us who would also know to use Isaak to get the wyvern into camp in the form of Crissa? Only Shae.” He holds my gaze for a long time. “So, yes. Yes, I believe you. But I wish you would’ve told me instead of running away.”
I scan his face over and over. I trust him, but it’s too late. I’m running out of time. I don’t have enough to waste wishing I’d handled things differently.
“Stay with me,” Kendrick says, dropping into a crouch before me. He lifts his hand to my face, then drops it again. “Let me prove myself. Your sister has been losing her mind trying to find you.”
Abriella. I set my jaw. “My sister is better off without me.”
“Never.” His face goes hard. “Don’t say that.”
“You wouldn’t understand.”
“My sister is missing too. I understand precisely how awful it is. Knowing you failed to protect your own, knowing they’re out there somewhere and you’re failing them again?”
“See, and I didn’t even know you had a sister.” Because you don’t know him at all, I tell myself, but only because I’m struggling to remember that. It’s nearly impossible when he’s this close, when only hours ago I thought he was going to die in front of me.
“Felicity’s my sister,” he says. “The shifter who went to Castle Craige in your stead.”
I flinch. “You didn’t tell me that.”
“And maybe I should have.” He grimaces, and I can see the apology in his eyes. “She was adopted and raised at my side. But even if I’d shared that part, I was afraid that you’d question my story too much if you knew I had a fae sister.”
“Did she go missing from Castle Craige?”
He nods solemnly. “Eight months ago. We’ve been searching for you both.”
Guilt cuts through me. “Did someone take her thinking she was me? Did—”
“No. She’d been found out and thrown into a cell, made to take her true form. The others think she’s been captured by Erith, but I can’t let myself believe that.”