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)
“What do you intend to do with me?” I asked, a plan forming. I hadn’t changed my mind. Ring of Truth, here I come, ready or not. Maybe, in the flames, I would learn how to “unleash” the Ember.
Would Jasher agree?
Oh yes. He would. Confidence fogged my head. Do not smile. But I did smile, gliding a single step closer. He was about to give me exactly what I wanted.
My Tinman opened and closed his claw-tipped fists. A sign of internal struggle, even as his expression remained cold as ice. “Once upon a time, you paid for room and board with answers and truth. Do you remember?”
“I do.” I licked my lips and stepped even closer, thrilling when he swallowed. “I’ll never forget.”
“Today, I offer you freedom for answers.”
I slid the rest of the way, brushing against him. “What if I tell you nothing but lies? How can you ever trust me?”
His pupils eclipsed the sun. “What do you propose?”
“Take me to the Ring of Truth. We’ll go in together, and I’ll answer anything you ask.”
Now to go in for the kill.
“Finally, you’ll know.” I lowered my volume and added an extra scoop of softness. “About me. About you. If you are man or monster. If I’m everything you hope, or what you should fear.”
Heaven help me, I heard Elowen and Iris spilling from my mouth. The same persuasive temptation and enigmatic pauses that promised more than I could deliver. But I didn’t pull back. Let this reach its perfect end. “If we both tell the truth, we’ll both emerge.” I set my palms on his shoulders, just as I’d done before his beastly transformation.
Restrained violence rippled over his muscles. “You seek an escort to the palace.”
No reason to deny it. “I promise you, Tinman. You want to go as much as I do. We have history neither of us have remembered. Yet.” Heart thudding, I obliterated what remained of his personal space. “When you were metal, I fed you a potion. Do you know why I told my mother to include a heartfire coal taken from the royal hearth three days after an eclipse?”
He studied me, then relented. “It is said to reawaken what is dead.”
“And the mercurial vein extracted from the roots of a moon-kissed willow?” I toyed with the ends of his hair, loving it when the jet strands slid through my fingers.
He leaned into the touch. “Removes impurities from a man’s heart, melting it down like armor.”
A slow smile curved my lips. “And the eldermarrow?”
He matched my rhythm now, his voice going lower, becoming more intimate. “Grants structure once the impurities are gone.”
I molded my curves against his hard planes. The air thickened, heavy with sandalwood and orchids, heat and want. “Breath of the north wind?”
His eyes darkened as he wrapped his arms around my waist, his claws tracing the hem of my tunic. “Instills vitality into the heart. Without it, the man is nothing but a husk.”
Rising on my tiptoes, I nuzzled my cheek against his. His stubble rasped my skin like sand against silk. “Tears of the first dawn?”
“Renewal. Growth.” He ducked his head, his breath grazing my neck. “Temptation.”
My pulse became wild and frenzied. “Pulsegold nectar?”
“Pure energy. Brings strength.” He slid his hands lower, those claws spreading across the small of my back.
My breath caught. “And the sanguine root?”
His lips brushed the corner of my mouth. “A potent source of life. Rich, sure…” His voice dropped to a growl. “…and hungry.”
Every nerve in me flared to life. He hovered at the edge of breaking. But so did I. “The potion’s effect was no instant miracle. Your heart still melts, burning the impurities. But they can be purged. If you dare. And what better place to turn up the heat than the Ring of Truth?”
A flicker of the future, a vision gone before I could catch it. My mouth lifted slow and sure. “You will say yes,” I murmured. “I see it.”
The air shifted. He moved, a blaze of motion. Suddenly my back struck the wall, his body pressed flush against mine. My lips parted on a gasp. His scent surrounded me, filled me. We stared, trading breath for breath. His pupils had yet to retract, only a razor-thin ring of light rimming the darkness.
“I will enter the Ring with you,” he said, voice scraped raw. “You’re right about that. I’ll even remove the cuffs.” He tipped his head in quiet challenge. “In exchange, you must answer a question before we leave.”
“Agreed,” I whispered, shocked that he’d offered this unexpected boon.
“Do it, then. Shed the chains.”
The metal clicked and fell, striking stone with a hollow clang. My wrists tingled, the absence of weight as startling as the ribbon of warmth curling low in my belly. He was trusting me not to run.
And I could have, but the Ring waited, and I was done retreating.