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)
I was going to vomit.
In his face.
“I didn’t expect that to happen,” he cut in. “He managed to control himself until you first bloomed.”
“Answer my—” Wait. First bloomed? He couldn’t seriously mean what I think he did.
He chuckled, the sound like dry bones scraping together.
He did.
“Then he couldn’t control himself. Or was it I who couldn’t?” He lifted the Revenant’s shoulder in a painful-looking shrug. “Perhaps both of us. Though he handled…his lessons. That was all him.”
My skin tightened.
“Watching your sweet flesh bleed was quite…arousing, however.”
I needed to stop listening to him. Everything he said could be a lie meant to mess with my head—and it was working. My heart slammed against my ribs, and my stomach continued to churn.
“It didn’t happen always, but when you slipped into oblivion, we couldn’t help ourselves.” The Revenant’s body tipped forward. “He was smart enough to take from your vein where it wasn’t visible, and you wouldn’t look. After all, my pretty flower was so obedient then, submissive to the Priestesses. You would never…explore such forbidden, shameful areas.”
At first, I didn’t know what he was talking about. He sounded fucking unhinged. Or maybe it was more that I didn’t want to understand because I was stuck in denial. But my body understood. My skin prickled and itched, starting to feel like a foreign entity instead of a part of me. Because…
I did know.
I knew exactly where. And I had been taught—groomed—not to even think of that area, let alone touch it outside of bathing. And I was always in so much agony after Teerman’s lessons that it felt like the pain was everywhere—
Or was that also an illusion of denial? Had I known the two couldn’t be related and just hadn’t understood what was happening at the time? My chest tightened, and my fingers twitched.
“It’s such a decadent vein.” His voice rumbled and thickened while my skin felt like something was alive beneath it. “I drank from there before. The one near your prettiest flower. And you know what, so’lis? You liked it then just as much as you liked it before.”
I lost it.
There was no other way to describe my response.
“Shut up.” Lunging forward, I grabbed the hilt of the Revenant’s dagger as I drove my knee up, slamming it into the area between his legs. “Shut the fuck up, you sick fuck.”
His body spasmed as I twisted the blade, but Kolis laughed. He howled.
“Keep laughing,” I seethed, gripping his hair with my other hand. “It only makes you sound as unstable and weak as you are.”
That shut him up.
“I know what you want,” I said, holding his stare as the essence flared in me, turning the corners of my vision gold streaked with silver and shadows. The wind picked up, whirling across the meadow.
“Is that so?” he whispered.
“It’s not going to happen,” I bit out. “Keep sending your Revenants to watch, and I will end them. I don’t care. But know this, you weak, pathetic…fuckboy.”
The Revenant blinked. “Fuckboy?”
“You heard right.” I smiled. “And hear this. I’m going to kill you, Kolis.”
He went completely quiet and then said, “Then you’ll have to do better than this.” He pulled against my hold until strands of hair snapped. “You’ll have to be smarter.”
“Thanks for the advice.”
He laughed.
And then his arms lifted—his healed arms.
Fuck.
He saw the moment I realized it. “Yeah.”
He gripped the sides of my head and swung his forward. Pain exploded behind my eyes as he slammed his head into mine.
“Fuck,” I gasped, letting go of him and stumbling back.
I couldn’t believe he had used such an immature move, but then again, it wasn’t his head he’d just cracked.
And he’d seriously cracked the Revenant’s head. Or at least I thought so. My vision was a little wonky at the moment, but it sure looked like blood was pouring from the center of the Rev’s forehead. Maybe he’d cracked mine, too, because warm liquid ran down my face, as well, and there appeared to be two of him.
Gripping the dagger, he tore it free and landed on his feet. I pushed aside the sharp, thudding ache behind my eyes, summoned the eather, and—
He threw the dagger—or daggers—directly at me.
Son of a bitch.
Throwing out my hand, I stopped the blade about an inch from my face—my actual face—and shattered it. “Nice try.”
“I wasn’t trying.”
He twisted sideways as if to run, but I lurched forward. He reached behind him, pulling a—
Godsdamn it!
A second dagger had been strapped to his back. It must’ve blended in with his black shirt. I should’ve checked. I knew better.
I jerked to the side, my breath catching as the dagger whizzed past my cheek. I felt a sharp, stinging pain as the Revenant crashed into me. I hit the ground hard, air punching out of my lungs as fury at myself clawed at my insides. I couldn’t believe I’d allowed him to get the upper hand. I was better than this.