Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121534 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 608(@200wpm)___ 486(@250wpm)___ 405(@300wpm)
“Hey.” I give him a shove. “I’m alive and I’m fine, and so is she, and we’re both back in our enemy camps. Nothing happened.”
Liar.
Reeve throws his hands up in the air. “If I told you she was sent to kill you, would you listen?”
I bite down on my lower lip. “Listen? Yes. Would it matter in the end? No. We’ve been heading toward a reckoning for years.”
Plus, Rey already admitted as much.
“Not as dumb as he seems,” Reeve says under his breath. Then he looks up at the ceiling and groans. “Listen, I’m not going to say anything that’ll just mess with your head, but what I will say is this: Rey is not here to be your friend. You need to stay alive at all costs, or every little moment I’ve spent protecting you will be for nothing.” He makes it sound like he’s single-handedly kept me out of trouble when, in the end, with the power I have at my fingertips, wouldn’t it be me saving him?
My eyes narrow. I touch my chest. It feels like something’s pressing against me from the inside out, trying to break free, and then I hear a door shut and shuffling from the other side of the wall. Rey’s back.
“Go,” I tell Reeve, my voice dripping with disdain. “I’m done talking about this.”
Reeve’s eyes narrow. Anger crackles off of him like static. But in the next second, his shoulders deflate. “I lost my temper. I’m sorry. I just don’t want to lose my brother. We’ve both seen too much loss.”
Yeah. Thinking about our parents guts me. I lean in and give Reeve a hug, the pain between us a living, breathing thing.
“I’m headed to bed.” Reeve moves to leave but turns around when he reaches the door. “She’s bad news, Aric. She’s using you—I know it feels real. I know you’re drawn to her. But have you ever asked yourself why?”
The door clicks shut behind him.
I walk over to my bed and lie down, staring at the wall between my room and hers.
I can’t believe in my soul she would actually kill me now—but why would Reeve lie about something like that? What would he have to gain? And why do just a few words from him have me questioning so much after what Rey and I shared?
My head starts to pound.
I hate this. All of it.
The only way out is to go through the storm. I just wish I knew that we’d survive whatever was on the other side.
I close my eyes and finally fall asleep.
Images of bloodshed fill my vision. I see the archway again, the sparkling pathway, and bodies littered over it.
I hear a voice yell. “It’s the only way! You must destroy it!”
“We’ll be trapped!” another voice calls.
“So be it!” A roar sounds, and then nothingness.
I jolt awake and look around my room.
It’s snowing. Inside.
Of course it is.
I slowly get out of bed and stand in the middle of my room as flakes spin around me. I hold out my hand, letting them twirl around my fingertips, and when I glance over my shoulder to look in the mirror, the person staring back at me isn’t me.
He looks like me.
But his eyes are a silvery white.
Frost covers his long, braided hair.
I can’t breathe.
On his head sits a crown of branches twisted into the shape of an elk’s horns.
Chapter Fifty-Four
Rey
“Hey!” Ziva knocks on my door. “Open up. Heard you nearly died, need to talk about it. I want details. Leave nothing out. I’m bored.”
I jerk open my door. “Good news travels fast, huh? When did I nearly die? I’ve just been with Aric.”
“Yeah. Which means your life is constantly in danger, by my calculations, because unless you’ve released all that sexual tension, one of you is going to explode.” She winks and then points at my door.
The white board hanging there is littered with a few phone numbers, and then scribbled in cursive, Die, Odin. With a heart around it.
“Forget Eira—you’re the one who needs a bodyguard. No offense. She’s the type who’d probably question the kidnapper so much that they’d either give her back or apologize and turn themselves in anyway.”
I cover my mouth and laugh. “She’s not that bad.”
“I have bio with her. Trust me when I say, she’s bad. Plus, it’s not even like Rowen’s really watching her. He’s always on his phone or with her at the gym drinking gross-looking green protein shakes. I think she does it to torture him.”
My eyes narrow. What? “Gym? Protein shakes?”
“Yeah, word on the street is that Rowen’s at the gym a ton, like he’s prepping for the Olympics or something. And Eira’s always there hovering over him with protein shakes in hand like the world will end if he’s not getting his pump on. The weird thing is, though, he doesn’t seem annoyed. Maybe she’s growing on him.”