Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Yet the hags still focus on me.
Can they not hear the battle? They don’t seem to care even if they know it has begun. We are deep in the dungeon, but I can hear the broadcast from another bondmate or perhaps several. Now that I learned to listen, I can hear them. I recognize Kaja’s voice, but there’s another. A very strong voice sending out love and hope and prayers for something she calls kicking serious ass.
I’m not sure what that means, but I’m grateful to the bondmate who is sharing her thoughts even if she doesn’t know she’s doing it. Hers is the strongest of the voices and she’s so hopeful. This woman is ready for the fight. She’s ready for something she calls her happily ever after.
I like the idea. Happy forever. I just have to grasp it.
During the hours when I reached out to the bondmates in the palace, my mind seems to have formed some sort of network, pulling them each in and connecting us all. I discovered some are close to death, others simply waiting for that time, and many are being held for high-ranking vampires. They knew something is wrong with them, something was done to them, but they don’t know what. They’re all afraid.
And they all want to fight.
He’s coming.
Maris’s voice is the oddest of all, but she seems to be playing her part. Her part is to ship the king to me. I need to know where Torin is. I need to make sure he’s close when I bring my power down.
The hags stare at me, and then the slender one brings her hands up, slamming them toward me, a gray mist rising.
A jolt of hot pain strikes through my system. I shield, keeping it utterly inside my own body. I don’t want to frighten the others or cause them pain. My body is caught in the mist the hags sent out. This mist is gray, unlike the pure black that engulfed Duffy. My heart clenches. I know he’s gone. Now that I can feel the mist, I’m sure Duffy died in it and Lach carried him with us. There is no other explanation.
It proves Shim is alive, no matter what he says. Shim still feels and eats and complains about the cold.
I shake and my insides feel like they will burst, and I hold on to those simple thoughts. I hear the hags argue and then another wave hits, the mist filling my whole being. My limbs quiver and bones ache. I try to remember every inch of their faces and how they like to hold me. Shim snuggles, his body cuddling mine, his legs moving between mine as though he’s trying to make us one. And Lach. Lach surrounds me, pushing the world out until it’s only the two of us. Nothing compares to being between them. When I’m cuddled between them, everything is right.
The fog lifts, and I’m left shaken.
“That’s better.” The hags never bothered to introduce themselves. There’s a wretchedly thin one and the other resembles a glob of rancid pudding with eyes. I can’t stand to be around either. I prefer it when they hide their true faces.
The thin one looks at me critically. “I don’t know. She still looks pretty healthy to me. And we’d better hurry, dear one. Did you feel that eddy cloud?”
The puddle of goo with eyes replies. “I did, sister. The triad is here along with her husbands. We knew this would happen. We counted on it. They should breach the palace walls, and then Torin will be slaughtered and we’ll have her power. Do you understand what that means? The idiot doesn’t know how to use it, but I will be able to.”
I keep my face perfectly still. I don’t need them to know that I’m well aware of how to use my power. I intend to use it on them.
“Are you sure? You thought you would be able to hear them by now.” The emaciated one taps her foot against the floor, her cold eyes darting around.
Her sister sneers my way. A long, taloned hand points toward me. “I just need one more soul. Hers. She’s the key, but then we figured that out long ago. Our mistake was in trusting Torin. He was supposed to have caught her and brought her for execution.”
“Instead the dumb bastard just killed her. I wonder how she came back. I’m sure she was dead.”
The big hag with cold, dead eyes stalks toward me. She puts a hand on my chest, right above my heart. “All things will be learned when we pry that damn soul out of her body. And then I’ll be the one who binds her husbands, and I’ll be the one with the power.”
The idea of this odious woman having access to my husbands’ power makes me sick.