Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
“Right now, he doesn’t love anyone but the thought of your demise. But why are you complaining? You’ve been run ragged. You need time to recover.”
“I am fine,” he snapped.
He looked fine. But maybe he protested too much. Just like he’d oh, so adamantly claimed he wished only to win Sebastian’s friendship. But had he spoken true? Like called to like, ja, but I’d bet this man had other plans. When Sebastian entered, would he become trapped? A kraken to slaughter?
Something in me went very quiet and very cold. Here’s what I knew: I couldn’t kill Jokull without the rune. I had watched Harpa take his head off over dessert and watched him grow a new one and keep eating. Fire would not do the job; I’d proven that too on the island. Steel wouldn’t work. Nothing in me, and nothing in Ashmorra, and nothing in the sea would do it. Except Sebastian.
I’d felt the rune’s power. Jokull had felt the rune’s power. And yet, the primordial still believed he could circumvent a permanent death. But I—Bronwyn Drachenveil, Queen of Krakenströnd, Pirouette Princess—would not let Sebastian walk into battle alone.
Jokull expected a king with a stone heart, and that’s what he’d get. But he would also get a ballerina with fire in hers.
My dragon rose in my chest, uncoiling slowly, the way she had the night Jokull ate my finger, and she looked through my eyes at the thing at the table and said, very quietly: His end has come.
“Ja,” I whispered. And once he was taken care of, my real mission would begin: drilling through that stone to get to the husband trapped inside it.
Ready, I set both palms against the cave wall. Every rune in every stone in that ancient sea turned toward me, relieved. Even those on the dome. I knew I couldn’t travel straight to Jokull. If I could, Sebastian could, and if he could, he would have.
“I’d like to speak with Jokull,” I said. To the dome. To Harpa. “Can you arrange it?”
Blue flashed over the walls, reflecting from the waters above and below, and suddenly I felt as if I were standing in that dining room with Jokull, even though I still stood inside the cave. “Hello, Jokull.”
He frowned at me. “This is… interesting.”
Harpa yawned. “Life with me always is.”
“Invite me in,” I said and gave the primordial my best smile. He’d claimed he was lonely. “Let’s have a dinner do-over. Just know, I intend to help Sebastian defeat you. So. Be prepared for that.”
He brightened, as if I’d suggested we play a fun new game. On his feet, he crossed to the wall and carved a rune into the stone with a claw. Slow. Unhurried. Letting me watch every line of it, because a creature who cannot die can afford to be generous.
“Come alone,” he instructed. “Come unarmed. Come as a guest and leave when I’m finished with you. If you can.”
Every condition revolved around me. Not one about his house or Sebastian. Exactly as I’d hoped.
“Ja,” I agreed. “All of that.”
When the rune found me and pulled, I let it…
Chapter
Twenty-Five
Never accept a kraken’s hospitality. Never refuse it, either.
–An Incomplete Guide to Kraken Survival
Jokull had just made one very big mistake “inviting” me to his manor. After six days in the mineral-heavy damp air of the cave, bombarded by Sebastian’s chill, I exited the warmth. In the seconds of my travel, Jokull had lit the space like a wedding. Candles by the hundred filled the dining room with dancing shadow while roasted fruit, clove and citrus mingled with the candle smoke.
The table stretched the length of the hall, and at the far end, past the wine and the silver and the meal, stood a cage, only a little bigger than a dog crate. And folded into it with her knees drawn up and her spine straight, sat Lady Harpa.
She was filing her claws. “Oh, good,” she said, without looking up. “The second guest has arrived. Do try the figs, dear.”
Jokull rose from his chair, every inch the gentleman, and drew out the seat at his right. “Little lizard.” His ash-and-gold eyes crinkled. “Welcome to our home. You honor us with your presence.”
Our home? My gaze shot to Harpa. Still filing those claws.
I moved forward. “As if I could pass up an opportunity to help my husband kill you once and for all.”
The primordial smiled as I eased onto the cushioned seat. “He’s certainly trying his best.” He motioned to the walls. Around us, dulled to a red smear by the dome, the sea was being taken apart. “The rune hasn’t drained Sebastian even the slightest bit.”
That should have relieved me. Instead, unease crawled down my spine. If the rune wasn’t draining Sebastian, what was it doing to him?
Jokull returned to his chair and poured wine. “He has killed a truly extraordinary number of my mers and shifters, and he is currently attempting to persuade my dome to admit him.” He slid the glass toward me. “It will, of course. Eventually. After I’ve tired him out.”