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 will you do that?” Brie asks, and the pity in her eyes makes me curl my nails into my palms.
I steel myself against the surge of emotion flowing through me. “It won’t bring all those people back, but I won’t let him take any more lives through me. I’ll do whatever it takes.”
“Whatever it takes?” She ducks her head to catch my eyes. “Like trade everything for a magical ring that gives you death’s kiss?” The rage in her voice sends a chill up my spine. Brie doesn’t talk to me like that.
“I’m sorry. When she asked for the Grimoricon, I thought it would be worth it, but I know it wasn’t mine to take. I’ll get your book back too.”
“You think I’m upset about the book? You cut your life short for that ring!”
She really does know everything. I wish she didn’t. I didn’t want her to be burdened with the truth.
I’ve made so many mistakes.
But I don’t dare say it now. I don’t want her sympathy. Not when it could make me crumble. “It doesn’t matter. I only need to live long enough to kill him.”
Abriella’s nostrils flare and she shakes her head. “No. You need to live much, much longer than that.”
“I traded it all away,” I admit, but the truth is I’m only brave enough to say the words because she already knows. “It’s too late.”
“You are a child of Mab. There is no ring, no witch, no promise big enough to take away the magic that will feed your immortal years if you choose to live.”
She’s wrong. “It’s done, Brie.”
“Where have you been? We’ve been so worried. We’ve looked everywhere, but . . .” Her gaze drops to my ring.
But they wouldn’t remember even if they had found me.
“Stop looking. There’s nothing you can do for me. Just . . .” My chest aches. I miss her so much. I wish I could stay. “Protect yourself.”
I look down at my feet. My boots are caked in mud. I don’t know how I got here. I don’t know where I’ve been. I need to think, but my mind is too foggy, as if I’m still half trapped in the dream where I am the wicked king, and I want nothing more than to destroy the human girl who stole my life and then my throne. “When I leave, you’ll forget this,” I tell my sister. “We need to find a way to make you remember. You aren’t safe around me.” I could write a note, but would she take it seriously? I need to leave a warning she’ll remember. I can’t risk her ignoring it.
“I’m strong enough to protect myself,” Brie says. “And besides, your magic ring doesn’t work on me like it does on the others. Kendrick and I talked about it.”
I squeeze my eyes shut. The ring doesn’t enchant Brie or Kendrick because of how they feel about me, but their memories are still affected. “Even if you can resist my commands, that doesn’t mean you aren’t vulnerable—especially when you’re sleeping. And it doesn’t mean you’ll remember this.” I bite my bottom lip. “We need to leave you a message for after I’m gone.”
She shakes her head. “I don’t want you to leave.” But I can see that what I’m saying is finally registering, and she knows I’m right.
My mind races, trying to find the best way to get the message through to her once I’m gone. “It needs to be in blood. Your blood.” Finn won’t ignore a message written in Brie’s blood. Her bonded partner would do anything to protect her—even from me.
“Jas . . .”
“Please? Do this for me?” I’ve fed her so many lies in the last few years, what’s one more? “Just until I figure out a way to fix it?”
She gives a shaky nod, then pulls a small blade from beneath her sleeping gown. “I will ward my chambers against you but not the palace. We’re working on something that could help you. Promise me you’ll return, promise you’ll check in with me.”
I can’t promise her that, but does it matter? If she won’t remember this anyway? “So long as you ward anywhere you rest.”
She slices into her palm without so much as a grimace. I use my finger as the quill and her blood as the ink, then I paint the words on her bedroom wall.
WARD AGAINST JAS. MORDEUS IS USING HER.
Chapter Nine
Felicity
Misha is gone when I wake up and there’s no sign he was ever there, but I can hear footsteps beyond the closed bedroom door.
I dreamed of Misha as he was in the illusion. Of the way his lips parted and his eyes went darker the first time I unbuttoned his shirt and put my hands on his strong chest. We shouldn’t . . . he said. But in this dream, his words were cut off as blood bubbled from his mouth and down his chin and his face shifted to become that of Orlen, the male I killed.