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)
That was a relief.
A sick one.
Feeling had returned to my legs, the muscles there twitching painfully.
“Unlike you, I made promises I intend to keep.” Kolis drew his fingers over my cheek, and my heart lurched as I realized he was tracing the scar there. “I can’t believe you actually stabbed me.”
The spasms in my calves and thighs settled.
“I wasn’t expecting that.” Kolis let out a laugh that was soft and disgustingly pleasant. His fingers slid over my lips, tugging on the lower one. “I know. I know. I should have. But I will admit, you caught me off guard. I didn’t expect the attitude mixed with the offer of submission.”
Each breath I took became easier.
“It was possibly the most contradictory spectacle I’ve seen in a long time.” His hand was now coasting over my throat, lingering briefly where my pulse had slowed. “But you’re probably wondering why I’m not nearly as weakened as you likely believed I would be.”
I wasn’t.
The thing that looked like Isbeth had said he’d been fed while entombed. Clearly, that had been the truth because he was just about as weakened as Casteel had been when I plunged the dagger into his heart.
But I had wounded Casteel.
And I knew I had wounded Kolis.
I could hear it in his voice: a strain under each word, a bite of pain that thinned his breath.
“I may have been little more than bones when I was freed, but I was never weak. I’ve never been weak—not like my brother or nephew. That was something they never understood.” His hand slipped lower. “But they will.”
I held myself still, giving the essence time to heal what it could so I could fight—do some real damage. That was all I could think about because I knew I wasn’t defeating him. I wasn’t getting out of this. Healing from the blow of essence would nearly drain me. I knew I didn’t have it in me to even shadowstep. I was weaker than when I entered Iliseeum, but even then, I wouldn’t have won.
But this wasn’t about winning anymore.
It wasn’t even about surviving.
I gasped as the sick bastard’s palm pressed into my injured shoulder.
Kolis’s hand stilled. “Gods, it has been so long since I’ve heard that breathy sound coming from your lips.” The edges of his hair tickled my forehead. “It still makes me hard.”
My body went cold.
“Maybe I stopped loving you long before now because I don’t think causing you pain should elicit such a response,” he mused as I gritted my teeth. “But I did love you, so’lis. You ruined that.”
Even if I could muster up the effort to tell him I didn’t give a fuck, I wouldn’t have wasted my breath.
His face appeared above mine as he leaned over me from behind. The skin at the corners of his mouth was pinched white despite the smile. A sheen of sweat glistened on his brow.
“By the way, you’ve always been terrible at keeping in what you’re thinking and feeling.” His palm moved away from my aching shoulder, and I immediately wished it had remained there. The curve of his lips widened. “You have tells. A slight squint of the eyes, a twitch of the fingers, a shallow swallow, a too-quick inhale.” His lips grazed the bridge of my nose. Pain rippled across my chest, causing me to inhale sharply. “Just like that.”
Kolis moved suddenly, twisting his body so he was above me, his knees on either side of my hips. My gaze lowered to the wound in his chest. The tear in his skin remained, leaving the edges of the flesh jagged. Blood no longer poured from the wound, but it hadn’t healed, and that had to mean something.
“You were right, you know. About what I want. At least, part of it.” His hand was moving again. “I do want you.”
He’d said that once, and it was enough.
“What’s inside you,” he repeated, his breath coasting over my cheek as his hand slipped under the shirt and brushed the bare skin of my stomach. “But I don’t want to destroy cities. I want what is due to me. What I am owed.” His fingers slipped lower, pulling the band of my breeches taut. I couldn’t focus on that—any of it. I wouldn’t. “However, I do want a bit more than a little senseless killing. Starting with that husband of yours. His arrogance reminds me of…” His head lifted, his gaze moving to Attes. “Not just him. Not even Kyn.” His eyes narrowed, and then he muttered something in the language of the gods as my skin crawled. He spoke it too fast and low for me to hear past the buzzing that had started in my ears. “Anyway, he will die. So will that wolf with him.”
Fear started to slither its way through me—
No.
I squeezed my eyes shut. I couldn’t give in to that. I needed to stay calm. My heart pounded, though, because how the fuck was I supposed to be calm in this situation? He was going to kill me. Then, he would turn his sights on Carsodonia.