Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 137226 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 686(@200wpm)___ 549(@250wpm)___ 457(@300wpm)
We keep at this for a while until finally I’ve had enough. I take the risk and suddenly stand up, exposing myself to Andor’s assault as I start waving my arms at Onyx. “Go on, get!” I yell.
Onyx’s ears flicker back and forth for a moment; he doesn’t seem too threatened by me, until Lemi suddenly shifts right beside him, letting out a loud bark.
Onyx rears and takes off at a trot, heading right down to the lake.
“That’s our ride back!” Andor yells, wildly gesturing to the runaway.
But it doesn’t matter because now I’ve got him.
I start lobbing as many snowballs as possible at him while he tries to do the same, staggering through the snow toward me. I get him square in the face more than once and by the time he’s at the rock, his face is caked in shimmering white.
“Yield!” I yell at him.
“Never!”
Before I can move out of the way he leaps over the rock like a jackrabbit and tackles me to the ground, snow flying everywhere. I screech, laughing as he puts his body over mine, pressing me into the cold. “I will never yield,” he says, running his cold fingertips over my face. “Unless you beg me for mercy.”
I’m about to tell him off but he kisses me instead. I should be freezing, should be trying to playfully fight him off, we should probably make sure Onyx isn’t running away, but I can’t help but feel the heat spreading through me. How is it that he’s the one making me yield?
“This also isn’t fair,” I say as he pulls back, his golden eyes still gazing into mine. “You have me under some strange spell half the time.”
“I can’t help it if I’m charming,” he says, brushing my hair off my face. Then his brows lower, his expression growing serious. “Though I wonder how far my charm extends. Is it enough to convince you to do anything?”
I frown. “What do you mean?”
He clears his throat. “How do you feel about partaking in a little revenge?”
Chapter 29
Brynla
A heist.
The moon has already waxed and waned since that time we lay in the glitter-snowed field by Lake Efst, and Andor asked if I would be willing to do a heist in order to exact revenge on the Daughters of Silence. We had just been joking about his charm, so I couldn’t tell if he was serious or not, but the moment those words left his lips, the moment he said revenge, I knew I was already all in.
Of course I was furious with him, for the second time that day, for keeping yet another secret from me. He had clearly been thinking about this for some time, stealing the rumored egg of immortality—enough so that he talked to my aunt about it the morning of her death. But everything went to shit after that and he said he was waiting for the right time to fill me in.
That moment in the snow was a good a time as any. I think I managed to get out the majority of my anger at his betrayal through another onslaught of snowballs, even though I’m still a bit cranky about it.
Afterward we recovered Onyx and rode back through the tunnel and down the mountain to Stormglen, and we started discussing the heist in earnest. I wanted to stay mad at Andor, but the more he talked about the supposed egg of immortality—which is mind-blowing in itself—the more I focused my feelings on the idea of getting revenge on the convent and Esland as a whole. Even if the whole thing turns out to be a wild-goose chase, it at least makes me feel like vengeance is in my grasp for the first time in my life. Even if the egg isn’t there, or it doesn’t have any special powers, just fucking up the convent will be good enough for me.
By the time the evening rolled around—Andor and I conveniently skipped dinner to avoid his father and uncle—we had gathered in Steiner’s lab with the rest of his siblings, tossing around ideas.
After that, the five of us would meet in Steiner’s lab every evening to strategize. The following week we started going down to Menheimr, where we would involve the rest of the crew, the same men who joined us on our journey to the Banished Land.
I have to say, these last few weeks have saved my sanity. It’s given me something to focus on, an action to take. Andor was worried I wouldn’t want to go back to Esland; he thought I would think he was using me to get the precious egg. That hasn’t been the case at all. I’ve thrown myself into the planning of this heist because without me, there is no heist. I’m the only one who has been to Esland, who has lived in Lerick, who knows how to deal with the Black Guards. I’m the only one who knows the convent inside and out, including where the egg would be kept.