Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 130619 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 653(@200wpm)___ 522(@250wpm)___ 435(@300wpm)
I twist around in Micah’s arms. “It’s done. It worked.” Relief floods his face, and he helps me to my feet. “Now what?” I ask.
“Now we go to the Kingdom of Nephilim, but you cannot tell them who you are.”
“Then what do we tell them?”
“That you are my future wife, and we are petitioning to have children.”
The wife who could become the death of him, but I don’t think about that or the fact that I might love him. “I still can’t get my head around that idea.”
“It is the way of the Nephilim. You’ll learn much while you are in the kingdom.”
“I’m not sure I will like it all.”
“Nor do I, but this is our path to the tree.”
“So, we petition. What happens then?”
“They will send us both to the Judgement Tree to decide if we are worthy.”
To enter the kingdom, we must go through Elysium, a way to shelter the kingdom from humans and demons alike.
We spend one night there, sharing dinner and Nephilim wine with Gabriella, Silas, and Zeke while Braylon returns to the garrison, their protector in Micah’s absence. We laugh and talk, the teasing between them sibling-like. But beneath it all, there is a sense of foreboding. They fear the day I go to the Judgement Tree, I think, and I don’t know why. I think it’s a good thing. It’s one step closer to finding my place in the light, and with them, beyond this one dinner.
Later, much later, Micah and I prep our romantic fable to share with the king, practicing exactly how to handle the questions he anticipates. It’s an intimate thing, planning our wedding and the birth of our children, even if this version of our life is a lie. The possibilities of what we might become are in the air, but we don’t speak of them, not now, not with war before us.
When we’re sure we’ve got it down properly, we fall into his bed, naked and hungry for each other, passionate with a hint of desperation. He’s worried, too, and his worry is what undoes me. But I don’t ask him why. There is nothing about what comes next that we can change. I have to do this. Freaking myself out with his fears won’t help me.
At morning light, we linger in bed, and to my shock, the entrance into the kingdom is at the bay behind the waterfall. As I walk that way, the butterflies go wild, fluttering about my head, almost as if they want to stop me from leaving. But I don’t stop. I follow Micah through the gap behind the water, and a moment later, we step into a forest at the edge of a giant mountain. It towers upward, miles high, and disappears inside the crystal blue sky, a door as high as I can see sitting center, a gold glow radiating from it.
“The kingdom is behind the mountain,” Micah tells me, kissing my hand. “When we enter, we’ll wait in the gardens until the king’s most trusted guard sees us. If he grants us access, we will enter the kingdom.
“Do you think he will know who I am? Could he turn us down?”
“No. He won’t know. He won’t turn us down.” He rifts us to the front of the door and then steps to the knocker. He drops it several times, but it lands silently. A slot that wasn’t there seconds before slides open. Micah looks inside it, and he must receive some sort of approval. The doors begin to open, and Micah holds his hand out to me.
Hand in hand, we walk into the garden paved with cobblestone sidewalks, a rainbow of flowers everywhere, many I do not recognize, and statues of angels with wings in various places. “Those are the warriors who battled demons in the great war and perished in battle.”
“They have wings.”
“We all do, but they’re bound by magic as a precaution taken to ensure we don’t disclose our presence to humans. Only the royal court have their wings now.”
A warning whispers in my mind, and I remember the feather I’ve left under my mattress in Elysium, but I shake off such thoughts. I must not allow myself to be weak or scared. I must be a happy bride-to-be. A loud bong sounds, and Micah motions me down a path. “We’re being summoned.” Once again, he captures my hand, and we walk down the path. Gold towering doors come into view, and as we approach, they part for us.
And what they reveal is the most beautiful man I’ve ever seen waiting on us, his face sculpted to handsome perfection from angel light, I think, his wings a red no human eye would ever understand, so deeply perfect it’s almost hard to comprehend. This is the man who’s been visiting me, the man I never wished to meet, that on some level I knew would bring me to the hell I’d rather die than ever visit. Now I know that hell is here, and he didn’t have to drag me here, I came of my own free will. I can’t breathe, and my knees are weak, but Micah doesn’t seem to notice. He greets the man. “Hello, Kai. Meet Ember, my future wife.”