Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Echo raced after her mate and their companions and as she blasted into the barn, she felt a force slick over her skin like oil. With it, the strength leached out of her.
Had the wolf poisoned her with his bite somehow?
“Echo.”
She looked up as she stumbled farther into the long barn.
Elijah.
His light had dimmed, his eyes bleeding back to their human color as he stared at her in panic. “Something … is wrong,” he gasped.
Thea and Conall were collapsed at his feet, rolled over onto their sides, panting violently.
Echo’s knees began to buckle as her heart raced. “W-what’s h-happening?”
A clanging followed by a creak drew their gazes to the end of the barn where a dividing wall with a metal gate sectioned it off from what had looked like stables from the outside.
A beautiful redhead strolled out, locking the gate behind her.
Astra.
She beamed, her magic crackling as she strode toward Elijah. “Hullo, brother.”
“I’m not your brother,” he snarled.
“Where … where are our people?” Echo spat.
Astra cut her a haughty look. “I have no use for your people other than to lure you here. So foolish.” She tutted. “Even when you know your plan is foolish, bordering on moronic, you charge in to save those you love.”
“What is this?” Elijah tried to lift an arm and failed.
“A little spell I concocted. Using pure iron. Of course, to be able to concoct and withstand it took me years and years of building my immunity. I had to ingest a tiny bit of pure iron every day for decades. Oh, it was agony. But so worth it.” She giggled like a little girl. “When Eirik stabbed me with his iron blade, I wove an illusion to make it seem like I’d died. Oh, it hurt, and I had to heal … but iron is no longer fatal to me. So, all of Niamh’s threats to stab me in the heart with iron … useless. Iron cannot wield me, but I can wield it.” She gestured around the barn. “Right now, you’re held within an iron cage of my making, and it’s draining you.” Her eyes dropped to the wolves at Elijah’s feet. “The wolves are affected by the silver dust mingled with all the dirt.”
“I won’t come with you willingly,” Elijah growled weakly. “Neither will the others.”
“Yes, I know.” Astra sighed heavily. “Fate is challenging me, it seems. However, I’m smarter than that bitch. I’m smarter than all the bitches.” Her lips spread into a wicked smile. “I didn’t lure you here, little brother.” Her gaze swung to Echo. “Hullo, brother’s mate.”
Suddenly, Astra blinked out of existence and appeared right in front of Echo. She didn’t have time to react before the world tunneled all around her.
35
Whistling moans and whining nudged Echo from unconsciousness. She frowned at the noise and then at the following chill that blasted over her body.
Wind.
Her eyes flew open, and the pain from her injury registered. She bit back a groan, feeling everything all at once. Not just the burning, throbbing, but the sticky blood coating her arm and shoulder, her clothes. The pounding headache deep behind her eyes.
The scent of grass and sea air in the distance, a scent no normal human could smell from here. But there it was. The North Sea.
Beyond the city of Edinburgh.
A groan brought Echo’s head around and her heart raced at the sight.
Kiyo was flat on his stomach, a silver knife twisted in his back. Echo instinctually moved to help him, and a familiar voice screamed, “Echo, don’t move!”
Her head whipped to the side in horror.
Odette.
Her hands and ankles were shackled, her back to Elijah’s mother. His father lay motionless at her own shackled feet. Margaret sobbed quietly beside them, her limbs trapped with metal cuffs.
No!
Echo moved again.
“Echo, no!” Odette screamed, her face tear-streaked. “There’s a stake in your back.”
The words unlocked the realization that the pain wasn’t just coming from her shoulder.
Now she felt the foreign object lodged in the middle of her back, way too close to her heart for comfort.
One wrong move, and she was dead.
She nodded. “Is … is Bill alive?”
Nancy nodded back, face stoic as ever. “He tried to fight and she knocked him out.”
“Astra?”
“Yes. We’re on Arthur’s Seat,” Nancy said flatly. “We brought Elijah here when he was a young boy. Why can’t people see us up here? Surely, someone will come. They’ll see. We’re on Arthur’s Seat, for goodness’ sake. They’ll come. They’ll see.”
Echo ignored her ramblings, realizing Elijah’s mother was probably in shock. “Where is she?”
“Coming back,” Kiyo grunted from his place on the ground. “She—”
The air crackled and Astra reappeared.
She’d dressed the part in a pale aqua gown that suited her red hair perfectly. The soft muslin clung to her, layered swaths of fabric that suggested fairy princess and not the evil cow she really was.