Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
My palms tingled with the desire to introduce them to his face. I wanted nothing more than to give in to that need, but instinct whispered it would be a mistake—that he’d exploit any emotion I showed and gain power and control from eliciting a response.
And I refused to give him that.
I had to deal with him like I did Isbeth. Keep calm. Give nothing away.
I forced the tension out of my muscles. “That’s not my name.”
He laughed, spitting blood. “Would you prefer I called you Poppy?”
“I’d prefer that you crawl back into the hole you came out of and die, but I have a feeling you won’t do that for me.”
“It is the same,” he said, ignoring my comment. “Sotoria. Poppy.”
My brows furrowed. The same?
“Come now, Sotoria,” he said in an almost singsong way, the bloody smile increasing as his gaze swept over the shadows surrounding us. “You weren’t the smartest when I first saw you here.”
I drew back my head, offended.
“You were naïve, gullible, and easily frightened,” he continued, his tongue skimming over his bloody teeth. “But you learned. You became smarter. Stronger. And now, you’ve awakened. You have the knowledge inside you to answer your own question.” He paused. “So…toria.”
The way he said it. As if the name were two words… Because it was in the language of the gods—the Ancients.
So’ meant my or mine.
And toria meant garden. Flower. Or…
I inhaled, but it didn’t feel like I took a breath. Toria meant pretty flower.
Poppy.
My pretty flower.
My pretty poppy.
I was hot and cold all at once, moving back another step without realizing it. That rhyme. It really had been him. My ears buzzed, drowning out all other sounds. I couldn’t feel the cold ground beneath my feet or the breeze lifting the strands of my hair for a moment.
The sharp, humming noise ended as abruptly as it’d started. “Were you there that night? In Lockswood?”
“I’ve always been there, Sotoria.” He almost sounded…disappointed. “Why don’t you believe me?”
Anger and disgust rose and began swirling around one another. I knew I would lose control the moment they collided. “That’s not what I meant. Did you have something to do with that night?”
“No,” he answered, just as I heard the faint crunch of a bone fusing itself back together. “I need and want you alive. Why would I have had anything to do with a situation that could have so easily gotten out of hand?”
That sounded way too logical. “Because you’re insane?”
The crimson burned in the Revenant’s pupils. “Careful, Sotoria.”
“Go fuck yourself, Kolis,” I retorted, mimicking the exaggerated rise and fall of his pitch.
His smile faded. “I see the bitch’s blood has tainted your tongue.”
“Are you speaking of my mother?” Thicker clouds gathered overhead.
“Not that bitch,” he seethed. “The other bitch. Seraphena.”
“Do not,” I said, grabbing his healing arm, “call her a bitch.”
“Which one?”
“Either,” I snarled, snapping the bone once more.
The Revenant’s howl ended in a disturbing, raspy laugh as I repeated the process on the other arm. “You do realize you’re not harming me, right?” he said.
“I do.”
“Vicious,” he hissed, blood leaking from his mouth and running down his chin. “You used to be so sweet, like sugar dipped in honey.”
Well, now I knew I wasn’t anything like Sotoria because no one would ever describe me like that.
“Your blood tasted like it, too.” My stomach churned. “It changed a little each time. Less sweet. More sweet. This time…” The Revenant drew his lower lip between his teeth. “It tastes like…honeydew.”
No.
Bile clogged my throat.
He did not say that.
“But sweeter,” he whispered.
“You’re not good with adjectives, are you?”
“And you’re not good at knowing when not to speak,” he countered. “Are you?”
Lifting a hand, I extended my middle finger.
The aura in his eyes flashed an intense crimson. “I see you’ve forgotten what happens when you show me disrespect.”
“Want to know what I think of that?” I lifted my other hand and extended that middle finger, too.
He stared at me for several long moments. “Want to know when I first tasted your blood?”
“Couldn’t care less.”
“I’m talking about in this lifetime,” he went on. “And I’m not talking about the very first time I tasted your blood. That was before you could even stand on your own.”
Before I could…
For fuck’s sake.
I couldn’t process that revolting statement—didn’t even want to try. “I’m not interested in this walk down nightmare lane.”
“Oh, but I am very interested in taking that walk, Sotoria.”
My hands fisted at my sides. “Do not call me that.”
“I’m talking about the first time Teerman had his fangs in your skin,” he said, his voice dropping along with my stomach. “I have to wonder how you never knew.”
“I don’t,” I lied. “Did you—?”
“He wasn’t supposed to do that, but I spent so much time inside him.” He tipped the Revenant’s head back against the bark. “Your blood was to be drawn and vialed. You were not to be fed upon. But he inherited some of my…” His head lowered. “Desires.”