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)
“Milady, we need to go to a more secure room.”
I shove my feet into my slippers and reach for my robe. “Where is Konner?”
The maid glances over her shoulder to the open door and then back to me. “We must hurry. We don’t know where the intruders are or who their target is.”
I toss my robe onto the bed and kick off the slippers.
“What are you doing? We must go.”
“I’m getting dressed. I need to find my mother. They’re here for the Seven, and none of us survives till dawn if they succeed.” I try to speak with resolve and authority, but the last comes out with a hiccup. My eyes are burning. A weak little girl can’t face her biggest enemies and survive. And I need to do more than survive today. I need to protect the people I love. My mother. The Seven. And the whole realm with them.
“Please,” my handmaid pleads behind me. “Please come with me and we will find safety. Our best guards are protecting your mother.”
I shake my head vehemently. “It has to be me. I can protect her. The oracle showed me.” So many years ago. I was barely ten and had nightmares about the male who would come for my mother—the male the oracle showed me defeating.
I don’t know how I know this is the day or why I’m so sure this palace raid will bring him with it, but I don’t question my gut as I remove my sleeping gown and shove my arms into a fresh shirt.
When I’ve yanked on my fighting leathers and I’m reaching for my boots, I see my handmaid wringing her hands, her bottom lip shaking. “Please,” she whispers.
“Go to the basement and to the back of the armory. It is the safest place in the palace.”
She glances toward the door, and I know she wants to, but she shakes her head. “Not without you.”
“I am in charge here,” I say, and this time when I inject command into my words my voice stays steady. “And I am telling you to go without me.”
“I can’t. I would never forgive myself if something happened to you. Your mother would never forgive me.”
“And I will never forgive myself if something happens to her.” I hold her gaze for a long time, willing her to understand.
“If something happens to you—”
I can’t waste any more time trying to convince her, so I wave a hand and use my magic to make her move. Her body goes limp for a beat before she walks out of the room, arms hanging at her sides. She might hate me for it, but she will forgive me later.
Only if you don’t get yourself killed.
I yank on my boots and make quick work of the laces. Then I open my bedside drawer and wrap my fingers around the special blade I keep there.
With a deep breath, I run. The castle is full of shouts. Of people running and being ushered to safety. Chaos is in every direction, but I run toward the receiving hall, where I already know the Seven will be guarding the dais that allows us to communicate with the people of Elora from the safety of the palace.
I tear through the halls, weaving through the people who are running in the opposite direction—toward shelter. Only when I turn into a private back hall does the crowd clear. I pick up my pace—sprinting now.
You need to wake up.
The voice makes me skid to a halt.
I can’t help you unless you wake up.
I spin around, looking for the source of those words, and find nothing. No one.
Images flash in my mind—like I’m in two places at once. Images of a blue-eyed little boy chasing me up a tree while I giggle with delight. Images of fields of grain outside the kitchen window and my mother’s laughing face.
No. That’s not my mother. I don’t know that woman with her brown hair and green eyes. And yet the sight of her makes me ache in a way I can’t explain. Makes me worry in a way that doesn’t make sense.
I dig my nails into my palms, hoping the sting will ground me. This is an illusion. Don’t let their manipulative magic deter you from your mission.
I feel my mother’s presence before I see her.
“Felicity!” she calls.
But as her attention fixes on me, a stranger lunges for her. I attack, using my blade in a way that is at once familiar from my training and foreign because I’ve never known the feel of slicing into flesh before.
“Felicity,” the male says before falling at my feet.
I meet his blue eyes and gasp. Hale.
How do I know his name? Why do I want to beg the gods to trade my life for his?
Your brother needs you.
I spin around, looking for that voice again.