Total pages in book: 204
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 193124 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 966(@200wpm)___ 772(@250wpm)___ 644(@300wpm)
Something he has proven to be very good at.
“So we fight now,” I hear myself say. “You and me. You’re the enemy I’m supposed to meet at the start of the War for All Souls.”
And then I answer my own question: “You couldn’t force me to do anything because you can’t risk me killing myself or getting hurt. That’s why you were upset every time I took a risk.”
“I’m not lying to you, Sorrel.”
“You’ve always lied to me—”
“If I’m so beholden to the Dark King,” he says, “ask yourself why I would take you to the Queen who might be able to defeat him?”
I shake my head again. “Because you always knew she’d say no and I’d fail. You gave me the speech yourself when you were talking about how the King of Prosperitus would only ever take care of his own citizens. You knew eventually we’d come back here to my village, and I’d be determined to go to Prosperitus—and the route we’d have to go on would take us right by the altar at the Fulcrum. This is all perfectly falling into place for you.”
“Is that what you think this is? Falling into place?”
“Don’t play games with me. We’re well past that, you and me.”
The two of us stare across the beach at each other, and I find it poetic that it’s sand that separates us. Like what I wake up to in my mouth. Like that which makes up the Fulcrum … which apparently my mother created to imprison my father.
When Merc moves, I jump back. But he isn’t coming for me. He just gives me his back, where that symbol is burned into his skin, the scars running from his shoulders all the way down to his buttocks … what I felt when I ran my hands up his spine and was so horrified for him.
He pulls on his shirt and takes his time buttoning up. Then comes the tucking and the holstering, and lastly, the mesh and the leather surcoat. When he picks up his broadsword, I can’t hide my flinch.
“I’m not going to fight you.” Merc glances to the sun, which is getting lower by the moment. “And I’m surely not going to kill you.”
You already have, I think with despair.
He goes over and unwraps his horse’s reins from the sapling. As he mounts up, he shifts his eyes back over to me.
“I’ll give you as much time as I can, but he’s going to call me home. Go and join with Julion. That army is well-weaponized and coordinated. It will be Anathos’s best chance. As for you, if you enter the Fulcrum, remember that not all is what it seems.”
“Oh, you mean you haven’t found things trustworthy inside there? What a crying shame.”
He closes his lids briefly, as if I have struck him. “I’m sorry—”
“Spare me the apologies. You are the cruelest thing I have ever known—how could you lie to me like that. How could you pretend all this time when you were really just waiting for—”
“Why am I letting you go now?” He cocks a brow. “If I truly am evil, why am I not dragging you to your father this very moment. How about you answer that before you judge me.”
For a heartbeat, the logic stuns me into silence. But then I narrow my eyes. “Because Julion is already bringing an army to the altar and that’s a wrinkle you didn’t anticipate. You have to go warn my father. Without the Dark King, you don’t get the bounty you need for the demon defenses to be prepared. It’s not about my safety. It’s about your security—”
Merc curses at me in a rush of words I don’t understand. “I have risked my soul for you!”
“You don’t have one anymore!” I yell back. “And you are my enemy!”
“I am not, and I didn’t plan any of this—”
“You engineered all of it! Up until right now, when things are falling apart! You didn’t think I’d go to the Sooths, but you couldn’t stop me—and then you had to come clean.”
“It’s because I can’t live with myself any longer, and I didn’t know how to tell you!”
“Lies! You were banking on me being in love with you, and you’re manipulating me with some heartbreaking tale that came with an I’ll-protect-you-up-north ending. But it didn’t work, did it!”
Merc just shakes his head slowly. “You have this all wrong.”
“No, I had it all wrong. I see the truth now—”
“I didn’t think I would fall in love with you!” He wheels his horse around. “And if I’m so evil, why am I leaving you now. Huh? Why am I giving you a chance? I meant what I said. The world is better with you in it and I’ll protect you for as long as I’m able—”
“No. Your cover is up and you have to run back to your master and tell him that I mean to go to Julion and his army.” I jab his dirk at the air, as if I’m stabbing something. “That’s why you’re leaving. Your loyalties are not to me and you will say anything right now because you’ve been caught!”