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)
Skylar’s glare used to intimidate me, but today I ignore it. If she were in my shoes, she’d make the same choices I have. “Fine,” she says. “Once the princess is feeling better, we’ll take her.”
“Jasalyn can’t do it,” Hale says, eyes on the table.
“We’ll protect her, Hale,” Remme says. “We won’t let anything happen to Jas. If Felicity won’t do this, then Jasalyn is our only—”
“That prophecy already came to pass.” His words are clipped and his face is hard. This is the Hale who will take no arguments. This is the male who the oracle chose as our king. “Jas saw Erith when she went to kill Mordeus. She stabbed him in the heart with an iron blade.”
Skylar shakes her head, confused.
Natan and Remme watch Hale cautiously, and my stomach feels like it’s sunk to somewhere deep beneath the earth. They can see it as clearly on his face as I can. Nothing is over. Nothing is better. Everything just got a hell of a lot more complicated.
“What happened?” Natan asks.
“It didn’t kill him, didn’t even hurt him,” Hale says. “She plunged that blade in his heart and he didn’t even bleed.”
“How?” Remme asks. “Is she sure he was there? Could it have been some kind of illusion?”
“She’s sure. And when the blade failed to kill him, he told her to tell me about it. If I didn’t know better, I’d think the bastard found a way to have godlike immortality, and he wants us to know it.”
The blood drains from Remme’s face.
“No,” Skylar breathes. “But the oracle showed you the princess slaying him. Was she wrong? Have we been tricked into chasing a fate that can’t come to pass?”
“What exactly did the oracle show you, Hale?” Natan asks. “Did you see him die by Jasalyn’s hand?”
“Fate can change,” Remme says. “This doesn’t mean she’s wrong about anything, just that—”
“I’m the one who was wrong,” Hale barks through gritted teeth. “I went to the oracle feeling hopeless, like we were fighting a losing battle. I asked her who could help us tip the scales in this revolution, and she showed me Jasalyn’s face. Then she showed me Jasalyn plunging the blade into Erith’s heart.”
“And he died?” Remme asks. “In that vision? Did he die?”
His expression is so bleak, it makes my heart ache. “You know how the oracle works. The visions aren’t complete. They’re snippets. Moments in time. When I saw her sink the blade into his chest, I believed the oracle was telling me she could kill him for us.”
Remme mutters a curse.
“We need to find out more about the original prophecy,” Natan says. His expression is distant, and I already know he’s thinking through a plan—where and how to gather the information he needs. “Erith has survived every attempt on his life and come out unscathed. That’s why the prophecy led us to believe that perhaps no one could take Erith down but his daughter. And even when the oracle gave Hale the vision of Jasalyn, we all knew it could have been Felicity in Jasalyn’s form.” He drums his fingers on the table, thinking. “Which means if Felicity still can’t bring herself to kill Erith, our only option is—”
“We need the sword,” Remme says. “Even if an iron blade can’t kill him, he can’t survive the Sword of Fire. I’ll wield it myself.”
“Erith has it.” Hale tips his face to the sky, as if he can find a solution to this mess written in the stars. “He took it from Jasalyn when he found her trying to kill Mordeus.”
The group goes silent and the weight of all we’ve lost hangs in the air.
“You’re up, kid,” Skylar says, and they all turn their attention to me. “We tried everything we could to let you off the hook, but here we are.”
“How do we know the same thing won’t happen when Felicity tries to kill him?” Remme asks. “How do we know that the oracle didn’t show the same thing in that original prophecy as she did with the princess?”
“We have to try, though, right?” Skylar says. “We can’t just sit on our asses and—”
“I can’t,” I whisper, and everyone looks at me. The weight of their stares might as well be the weight of all of Elora on my shoulders. “You don’t understand.”
“Then make us understand,” Remme says. “Please.”
Even if this future she foretold comes to pass, it won’t be because of you, Misha said. I need to trust that my brother and his friends will feel the same. “The oracle said I would kill my father, yes, but when I visited the oracle, she showed me plunging the blade into his heart and then running and . . .” My eyes burn and my vision goes cloudy with tears. I’ve held this secret for too long.