Total pages in book: 131
Estimated words: 121924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121924 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 610(@200wpm)___ 488(@250wpm)___ 406(@300wpm)
He slowed to a quick halt as he spotted me, and his friends followed his lead.
Oh, brilliant.
At first, a hint of resentment began to brew in his eyes. He was probably pissed that not only had I possessed dormant power all this time but that mine had surfaced before his own. Yeah, ha. But the resentment vanished quickly, replaced by a gleam of calculation.
“I just want to say,” he began, his voice rubbing at my nerves, “there’s no hard feelings on my end over what happened earlier.”
I did a slow blink. “No hard feelings?” I echoed, my tone flat.
He put a hand to his chest. “I’m not holding your accusation against you. Like I said, that hit to the head probably left you confused.”
This fucker. Plunging my fist into his gut sounded so good right now. Or even tackling him to the ground and stomping down hard on his dick. Repeatedly.
Khalida leaned into me. “He’s baiting you,” she whispered. “Don’t give him what he wants. He’ll be made to pay for what he did, but not here and now.” In front of witnesses she didn’t say but I heard.
She was right, I acknowledged with a deep breath. Engaging with him would not only be foolish, it would be playing into his hands. And yes, he would pay for his actions, I thought as vindictiveness took root in my chest. I’d even the score at some point. I’d just need to bide my time.
So, even as vengeful images skipped around my brain, I locked my anger down and wrestled back the urge to bare my teeth. “It’s good of you to offer me such an out, but I feel I should apologize.”
He went still. “Apologize?”
Well, if he was going to fuck with me I’d fuck with him right back. “The more I thought about it, the more I realized how silly it was of me to claim you’d make an attempt on my life. You’re a boil on my ass—that’s a fact. But you’re not brave enough to do anything that would earn you the wrath of Talon, so …” Relishing the way he bristled, I offered him a repentant look. “I’m sorry for accusing you of causing my fall. Thank you for trying to save me.”
He stared at me, his face hard. “You’re welcome,” he finally said, the words like gravel. He and his friends then strode off.
Pleased with myself for putting that look on his face, I turned to Khalida with a smile. The odd expression on her face made my forehead crease. “What?”
“Quillen told me that that fall could have killed you; that, at the very least, it should have seriously injured you. But here you are, alive and well. I have to wonder.”
“Wonder what?”
“If being a mortal doesn’t make you a weaker Sayer; if it actually somehow makes you stronger.”
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
The sound of a spine snapping was a surefire way to put you off your breakfast. From my seat on a food hall bench, I swallowed hard as I looked down at the dead candidate sprawled on the floor several feet away.
I’d never been anything close to friendly with him—not merely because he’d been snarky with me on several occasions, but because he viewed women as an inferior gender. Not my kind of person. But watching him die had nonetheless made my stomach roll.
Only ten minutes ago he’d been laughing so boisterously I’d glanced his way without thought. Soon after that, I’d heard him cry out. I’d looked to see him jump to his feet so abruptly his pewter had clattered to the floor. He’d had everyone’s attention as he’d clasped his head tight, a sound of such pain escaping through his gritted teeth.
It had been clear that his power was ready to surface.
Some of his friends had tried crowding him as he’d tripped backwards over his bench. But he hadn’t seemed to register their presence. As if whatever pain that racked his body had left him no room for thought.
He’d somehow gotten to his knees on the floor, still grasping his skull, his knuckles white. He’d stayed like that for long moments, rocking back and forth. What had come afterwards had happened so fast it was dizzying …
His eyes had bulged. His mouth had gone slack. An agonized scream had torn out of him. Then his back had sharply arched like a bow and … snap.
Atticus now stood off to the side, a grim expression on his face that was totally at contrast to the cocky one he’d sported earlier. He’d sauntered into the food hall an hour ago, smugly announcing to his friends—nice and loud for everyone to hear—that he’d come into his power during the night. Seeing his friend die had clearly taken the shine off it all.
Now, as the end of Xalbia drew near, only forty-one of us remained.