Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
I hurried to school my features into a bored expression.
Captain Rourke marched in, finding me first and inclining his head in greeting. “The king is ready for you and your pet, Oracle.”
Okay, enough. “For the last time, he’s not my pet, and he’s not an it. Say otherwise again, and we’ll have a problem.” I used my sweetest tone while stuffing the journal into my bag.
“We just received word that his kind massacred an entire village. Burned them alive in their homes.” The captain’s hands shook with barely banked rage as he freed Jasher’s chain from the wall, yanking hard enough to make any other monstra stumble.
Jasher didn’t. He simply flared his wings—healed, as promised—catching himself.
A hollow ache spread beneath my ribs. I understood the pain of loss, but no soldier was allowed to punish Jasher for crimes committed by others. “Last warning of the day. If you pull on that chain again—” I choked on the sentence as Jasher smoothly wrenched the link from the soldier’s grip, sending him to his knees. A second later, he pressed his axes against his foe’s neck. But he didn’t strike, just let Captain Rourke know he could kill him if he’d wished.
“Obviously, I wasn’t part of the raid,” Jasher stated.
Even restrained, he embodied pure strength. Unbothered, unmovable, and unstoppable. My kryptonite wrapped in muscle and menace. And I really hoped I wasn’t making baby doll eyes at him.
The captain sprang up, far from appeased. The two men squared off.
I stepped between them before my brain started composing sonnets. “I’d rather not watch you die today,” I told Rourke. Somehow I kept my voice level, even though my knees had dissolved into warm chowder.
Pushed beyond good sense, he lunged for Jasher, who readied his weapon.
“No!” I hooked the soldier’s ankle, sending him skidding face-first into the floor before the axe could slice across his throat.
He sprang up, pivoting toward me and furious. Rage roared awake inside my chest. Heat shimmered around me. Water beaded from my pores.
Rourke bowed so fast his armor clanked. “My apologies, Oracle.”
Well, well, well. What was this? I’d gotten through to him, power answering my call before I understood how to summon it.
Jasher froze, just for a breath, his shock lit a spark low in my belly. He sheathed his weapons on his back.
“Let’s talk about this later,” Kevin said from his pocket.
The water beads retreated, but not before leaving me drunk on my surge of power. I fluffed my hair with a little too much flourish. “See that it doesn’t happen again.”
Before I could think better of it, I slid my arm through the monstra’s. We walked out, my storm still crashing beneath my skin, his chain dragging behind us.
“Do you have any idea how terrifying you look right now?” he murmured, low, intimate, admiring.
“I’m sure I appear perfectly calm and rational, because I am,” I said and gave a hmph for emphasis—even as my pulse tapped HELP in Morse Code.
Two guards waited outside with hands on sword hilts. They paled when they saw me.
“Remove the link,” I commanded. “Now.”
“Yes, Oracle.” Though trembling, the shorter one obeyed. Jasher was left only in cuffs.
We fell into step behind the guards. Rourke took up position behind us. Jasher leaned just close enough that the brush of his shoulder set my nerves alight.
“You wear your power well,” he murmured for my ears only. “As if you were born to be queen.”
My good humor soured. His words, meant as a compliment, settled wrong. I had no desire to take Elowen’s crown. Despite everything, my affection for her was growing.
Flash. I stood atop a hill, facing Elowen, wind whipping through my hair.
“You chose him. Again,” she bellowed, a fearsome sight to behold. Here, she bore no scars, only roiling rage.
This vision didn’t feel like prophecy but memory. Flames and carnage covered the ground below us, but to each other, we were the only two beings in existence.
My rage mirrored hers. “You have killed him for the last time!”
“You think you can take me out? Try!”
We ran at each other, slamming together.
A startled breath ripped free, jerking me into the present.
Jasher squeezed my hand, but I sank right back into my head, analyzing. At some point, Elowen and I had been friends. At another, because of “him,” we had become enemies.
20
GOODBYE AGAIN
Maintaining an outward appearance of calm proved difficult as Jasher and I followed the guards outside to the royal stables, a towering cathedral of crystal, its walls catching the morning light and scattering it across the grass in shimmering rainbows. Marble bridges arched over waterfalls of liquid light, turning the entire pasture into a dream.
Inside was even more unreal. Ethereal pegacorns peeked from their stalls. Their coats ranged from cloud-white to sunset pink, twilight blue, amethyst-purple and void-black. Silken manes shimmered as if brushed with stardust. Some horns glowed faintly. Others had wings that made the air sing whenever they stirred.