Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Kerrigan pushed through the fleeing masses and dropped to her knees at Prescott’s side. Her hand went to his neck. For a second, there was a fluttering heartbeat. His skin was raw and black, burned to within an inch of his life. His eyes opened to stare at her in pain and horror.
“Prescott!” she gasped. “Stay with us. We’ll get you help.”
But pandemonium was all around her. Amond was still suffering from loch withdrawal, and Darby hadn’t wanted to bear witness, which left Audria.
Kerrigan’s head whipped up. She tried to orient herself with everyone running around. It was the moment she realized that Barron’s real challenge had just begun. Fordham squared off with him, his ceremonial cloak already discarded in the grass as his shadows consumed him.
He could handle himself, but his only cousin was going to die if they didn’t get help.
“Audria!” she cried, seeing the Fae female watching the spectacle with a trained soldier’s eye.
Audria whipped around, her eyes widening as she pushed through the crowd. She dropped to her knees before Prescott. “Is he breathing?”
“Barely,” Kerrigan said.
Audria assessed him. “We need someone more experienced. Amond is too far.” Water poured into her hands from a pouch at her side. The healing magic went to work, healing wounds at his chest where the strike had originated. “I’m going to try to keep him stable.”
“Ker—” Prescott coughed out.
“Don’t speak,” Kerrigan told him, taking his hand. “We’re going to get you to a healer.”
“It’s okay,” he managed.
Tears came to her eyes. “It’s not.”
“I wasn’t…living.” He shook as Audria worked. His eyes went glassy as he said, “It’s time to see Arbor.”
Kerrigan swept his hair off his face. “Stay with us. Please, Pres, we need you to live. You were getting out.”
Audria’s water dropped into the grass. “He’s gone.”
“No,” Kerrigan gasped as she put her fingers back to his throat.
But there was no heartbeat left.
Barron had killed him.
Audria sank back onto her heels. “Gods, I’m sorry. I should have been able to do more.”
“It’s not your fault,” Kerrigan said as she came back to her feet. “It’s his.”
Barron Laurent was currently shooting lightning at her mate. A fury struck through her like the currents he was wielding. This was no official denouncement. That was already over. No one had come forward.
This was revenge.
Which meant Kerrigan didn’t have to sit on the sidelines.
Chapter Thirty-One
The Coronation
Kerrigan was glad that she’d opted out of her ceremonial gown. Pants were much easier to sprint in. Her magic was pulled in tight as she reached for her trusty air magic and blasted Barron with the force of her powers.
The air hit him square in the chest, and he reeled back a handful of steps. His eyes shifted between them as she entered the fight. Both he and Fordham had pulled out their blades, and sweat dripped down their foreheads.
“Need your leatha to fight your battles, Ollivier?” Barron taunted.
Fordham glared at him. His midnight hair had fallen forward into his face. “She makes her own decisions.”
“That’s right,” Kerrigan said as her fire magic answered her call.
She and Fordham had been fighting together so long that instinct took over. As soon as her magic headed toward Barron, Fordham moved, thrusting forward with his sword. Barron narrowly avoided Kerrigan’s fire and met Fordham’s advance with one of his own. Their blades rang against each other as the two sword masters tried to cut the other one down.
Even Kerrigan was impressed with Barron’s footwork. He didn’t have their specialized training or experience in fighting to the death in the gladiatorial ring, but Barron had been on battlefields. He fought with a ferocity that could be gained nowhere else, but he had been banking on fighting Fordham alone, whether through the denouncement or on his own terms. He didn’t understand what it was to rely on someone else as Kerrigan and Fordham did. She would put her life in his hands every time.
Barron shoved Fordham back. Lightning crackled in his hand, and he blasted a bolt forward. Fordham jumped out of the way, disappearing into his shadows and appearing on the other side of the grass in a blink.
“You coward,” Barron said with a taunting laugh. “You and your blasted shadows. You believe that you’re better than us.”
“I am,” Fordham said with a grin. “I am better than you.”
Barron faltered for a second, as if he hadn’t thought that Fordham would voice that thought. “You are nothing but a cursed bastard son.”
Fordham laughed, stepping away from another lightning bolt. He appeared at Kerrigan’s side next. “Cursed. Yes, the line was cursed because of our people’s insistence on enslaving others. The second that was over and I took the throne, our people began to prosper again. With the return of the dragons, we will once again be great, and none of that has anything to do with you.”