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 shake my head. “It’s practically defenseless.” A shiver of revulsion shudders through me as I try to imagine drinking blood from the tiny creature’s heart. “I don’t think I can.”
“You killed dozens of Mordeus’s faithful for vengeance alone.”
My back stiffens. “They weren’t innocent.”
“You found a way to justify their deaths and you’ll find a way to justify this. If you want to survive, that is. Remember, you need not just the blood, but its life—you must take so much blood that you stop the creature’s beating heart. For the longest-lasting effects, make sure you drink the blood while it’s fresh. The magic fades the longer it’s separated from its life source.”
I stare at the ring and think of Skylar’s suggestion from the night before I left Ironmoore—that if all else failed, we rid me of the ring by cutting off my finger. I would be free of it and wouldn’t have to worry about sleeping for days on end.
What would be the harm in a missing digit when I’m already so scarred and the days ahead of me are so few?
But I need the ring. I need it to get into Feegus Keep, and I need it to find the sword. Surely Mordeus wouldn’t let an item so powerful go unprotected. I can’t conceivably fight my way inside. I need to be the Enchanting Lady and I can’t be her without this cursed ring.
The irony doesn’t escape me. I traded everything for this ring—not only my sister’s most sacred magical book but every day of my life once I turn eighteen. Now the ring is exactly the tool I need to find the sword that can get me to Mordeus and kill him once and for all, while simultaneously being the very thing that has kept me too ill to do more than sleep.
I will get what I need tonight. If all goes well, I’ll find the Sword of Fire and be able to confront Mordeus before the sun rises. Once he’s taken care of, I can figure out what’s next.
I can’t let myself think about that now. I traded everything for vengeance, and I can’t allow my mind to drift to what happens when there’s no more left to take.
“Feegus Keep,” I say, “it’s near here?”
“You’re still asking the wrong questions.”
“Please.”
She lifts her chin. “Chase the moon through the woods and beyond the lake. You won’t miss it.”
“Thank you,” I whisper. She nods and turns to leave the room.
I glance down at myself and realize the pants and boots that I was wearing when I fled Kendrick and his friends are already scuffed with soot, like I’ve crawled through a fire-ravaged forest. “How long was I sleeping?” I ask her back.
She peers at me over her shoulder and arches a wispy gray brow. “Over eight months.”
Everything inside me recoils in denial. “That would mean my birthday’s in—”
“Eleven days.”
Chapter Two
Felicity
“Shouldn’t you be in bed?”
The words take me by surprise, pulling me into my body as if my thoughts had taken me elsewhere. I turn my attention to the voice behind me to find my brother, standing in the palace’s moonlit garden and smirking at me. Konner’s pale blue eyes and white-blond hair are a match to mine, but he spends most of his time wearing the fierce expression of a fighter. Not tonight, though, and the sight of his smile fills my chest with warmth.
“You’re back!” I hop off the stone ledge and run to him.
Konner pulls me against his chest and squeezes me hard. “It’s only been two weeks. I promised I wouldn’t be gone forever.”
I frown as I pull away. He’s right, of course. It hasn’t been that long, but part of me feels like I’ve spent my whole life with this gaping hole in my chest where my twin brother should be. I shake away the thought and squeeze his hands. “And I’m glad for it. I’ve been a little lost without you.”
He chucks me on the chin and smirks. “Really? Because I believe the last thing you said to me was to pull my head out of my ass before I lost my chance to marry the sweetest girl in all of Elora.”
“I mean, that advice clearly came from a place of love and adoration.”
“Sure it did.” He tips his head toward the palace, and it’s natural to head down the path by his side.
The stars are so bright tonight, as if the clouds from earlier in the day scattered at the approach of the moon.
“Do you want to tell me what has you wandering the gardens when the moon is so high in the sky?”
“Nightmares,” I admit. “I came out to clear my head before going back to sleep.”
His eyes are solemn when he glances toward me. “Want to talk about it?”
I bite my bottom lip. I hate to take myself back there, back to the loneliness and heartache that haunts my dreams, but this is Konner. I can tell him anything, and usually feel better once I do. “I have these recurring dreams that I’m . . .”