Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 88010 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 440(@200wpm)___ 352(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
The last remnant of the ghostly voices floats to me, as if they made one last significant effort to try to break me down.
Is this love bombing? My social media feed would probably say so, but he is doing this to keep me sane, and moreover, I think he means every word. I can already tell Ornix is not a man to give praise or show affection he does not feel. He is an absolutely brutal beast, and I do not think he knows how to lie or manipulate. Those are tactics that weak men use to try to get women to fall for them so they can be hurt. Ornix is doing this to save me.
Slowly but surely, the moonlight grows brighter as the trees become smaller and less close together, and finally we emerge into a meadow in the middle of the night. There is a low breeze and a feeling of having escaped something truly terrible. The heaviness of the darkness behind me makes me quite happy to avoid forests for a good while.
In the distance, the Golden Keep rises from the center of the plain. It is absolutely stunning, shining in the moonlight in such a way it seems ephemeral and closer than it really is. I know we have several hours to go to get back, and in truth I am in no hurry.
“I don’t know if I have ever seen anything this beautiful,” I say.
Ornix sets me down and looks at me. “I certainly have, but only recently.”
I blush. “You don’t have to say that stuff anymore. Those weird shadow creatures are gone.”
“I’m not saying it because of them. I am saying it because it is true. You should know how much I adore you, just as you know how sore you will be when you disobey me.”
I blush furiously. He has absolutely no shame about reminding me of the trouble I can be in when it comes to him. It’s not as if I could forget. Even now, there is an ache between my thighs and in my ass.
“Stop,” I mumble. “I’m being good.”
“Yes. You are. Very good. Thanks to you, I have the fifth seal. If you had not absconded with my horse, I might never have known it was missing.”
“May I see it?”
“Yes,” he says, reaching into his pocket to pull out a hexagonal piece of metal with a lot of muddy daub on it.
“That’s the seal?”
“It usually shines brighter than this, but the kobolds thought it was a decoration.”
“Oh, they upcycled it. Or maybe downcycled it. May I…”
He hands it to me. It only takes up space in his palm, but it requires both of my hands to hold. It has a hefty weight to it, but somehow I know that I am not going to drop it. I almost feel as though I couldn’t let go if I wanted to.
I rub my thumb over the top of it, pushing away some of the kobold paint that is already starting to peel off. What is revealed is something deeper than gold, but shinier than brass. There are deep indentations in the shape of claw marks.
“Bjorn Birna,” I murmur under my breath.
“Yes,” he says.
I know what the seal is, of course. I know that there are seven of them, and that they are artifacts of great power. At least they are in the game. This world is deeper and more dangerous than the pixel world I once played in.
“He’s been hurt. Or captured. Or killed.”
“Do not worry about that, little mate,” he says. “I intend to make sure the matter is looked into.”
I close my fingers around the edge of the seal. I want to keep holding it. It calls to me. I feel its power rippling through me. I am the lake, and it makes energy pulse through me in lazy circles.
“Careful,” Ornix says. He reaches out and takes the seal from me. A whimper escapes my lips as I feel its loss. I want more of that feeling. More of that sweet, sweet energy. “These things can cause trouble in the wrong hands, and you are absolutely the wrong hands, given your tendency to trouble.”
“I wasn’t doing anything.”
“No, but you wanted to. I saw the way your eyes lit up, I saw the hunger on your face. Be careful. Power is not as exciting as it seems. It is almost always a trap of some kind, and it likes to demand its payment in blood. Whatever has befallen Bjorn is unlikely to be pleasant, and I will not have it happen to you, so keep your fingers far from this trinket from now on, do you understand?”
I nod, hearing the sternness in his voice and knowing he means what he says as he slips the seal into his robes. I can still feel it, more faintly now though. I wonder if I attuned to it when I held it, because I certainly didn’t feel it before he gave it to me.