Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112416 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 562(@200wpm)___ 450(@250wpm)___ 375(@300wpm)
CHAPTER 21
Adrian Westergren
The shard of blood-red crystal sparkled and shone as it caught the early morning light and reflected it around the black car. Adrian couldn’t draw his eyes away from it as he turned it between both hands. He was holding a piece of an actual godstone. The godstone that had held Caris, the Goddess of Fire.
An emissary from the Isle of Stone had delivered it the previous day after flying for nearly two days straight to get it to them quickly. Poor Shou was still asleep on Haru’s bed and wasn’t likely to move for another ten hours. Haru had warned them that they would need to order a great deal of food to help replenish the dragon’s strength before they could send him back to Nori and the rest of the Omari clan.
“Please be careful, my Adrian,” Haru murmured from beside him in the car’s rear seat. Vitor was once again driving them across town, this time to meet up with Ruben. “The edges are very sharp. I do not want you to be injured.” His hand drifted close as if to snatch the crystal, but he drew away, placing his hand in his lap.
Haru was so damn overprotective. It would be adorable if it wasn’t so annoying.
They were both dressed in clothes that fit their roles of Yujian and Mitso, though their attire was slightly more subdued. Yujian was wearing “business flirty” in shades of dark gray and soft lavender. Adrian was wearing a bit more than in their first appearance, allowing him to hide a few weapons on his body under all the black clothes. Haru was technically unarmed, but he was a dragon. He was a walking weapon.
“I don’t understand how you’re so calm about allowing Ruben to even set eyes on a shard from the Firestone,” Adrian said. He reluctantly fitted the shard into its leather and steel box. The interior was heavily padded so that no harm could come to the shard even if they dropped the box. However, it wasn’t so snug that Adrian couldn’t easily remove the shard and replace it with the phony that was tucked up his sleeve.
Haru shrugged and lifted his head to gaze out the windshield as Vitor slowed the car for a clump of traffic. “Why would I care?”
“What do you mean? Every other word out of your mouth is Caris this and brilliant goddess that. I’ll give you that while most of the gods and goddesses can take a flying leap, she seems okay. She helped Caelan and gave Drayce an amazing set of wings. But still…” Adrian lifted his eyes from where he’d been staring at the crystal in the box to find that Haru was now watching him with a smirk.
“First, you know that every other word out of my mouth is my Adrian this and brilliant Adrian that,” Haru corrected.
“I will agree with that,” Vitor grumbled from the driver’s seat.
“And second, why would I value a broken piece of my goddess’s prison? The very thing that held her trapped for thousands of years and stifled her great powers. If I had my way, all those remaining shards would be ground into dust and dropped into the ocean’s waves, forever disappearing from this world. There should be no reminder left behind of that evil prison.”
“Oh.” He hadn’t considered it that way.
Haru cocked his head to the side, sending several strands of his silky black hair tumbling over his shoulder. Silver rings and gems were once again woven into his hair, but not quite as many as he’d worn for the party. This time, Adrian had helped him while Haru explained the tradition among the dragons for braiding in jewelry. It helped Adrian feel like Haru was keeping something of himself even as he put on the mask of Yujian. They sparkled and glittered in the sunlight, and he seemed even more magical. “Why? Do you value the Godstone of Erya?”
“I don’t know.” That was a hard question. Sometimes he struggled to reconcile a lifetime of believing that Tula was a kind, benevolent deity who protected all her children with the reality that she was a cold, self-centered, calculating, manipulative monster with near-unlimited power. “It’s more of a nostalgia thing, I guess. Growing up in Erya—particularly Stormbreak—the Godstone was looked upon as something of honor and pride. We were protectors of the goddess. Sure, the royal line was the true protector of the Godstone, but I don’t think there was a single citizen of Stormbreak who wouldn’t fight and die to keep it safe. But I doubt anyone believed the goddess was in the Godstone. It was simply a repository of her power. Or a symbol of her.”
“You must also keep in mind, Haru,” Vitor chimed in as he maneuvered the car through the busy intersection. “Except for the royal family and a few select others, most of the people of the world didn’t realize there was more than one godstone or that they were prisons for the gods in order to protect us all from Zyros. The Godstone of Stormbreak was a symbol of hope for the whole world. That is why many people scrambled to collect even the tiniest sliver after it shattered. They still wanted to hold on to that hope.”