Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
They didn’t really want to do that.
Or if they did, it was a select group of requests—the nobility, full Society members, full Fae only. At best, full Fae business owners only. The whole thing was a sham. It was to show that things were back to the way they were. Just like the ball was supposed to show.
Didn’t exactly work that way when Gelryn had been killed along with several Society dragons in the middle of the city of Kinkadia.
There had been a lot of arguments about whether to burn Gelryn’s body. Bastian hadn’t wanted it done. It was an honor after all, and Gelryn was a war criminal. The dragons had taken matters into their own hands. Bastian hadn’t liked that either—a solid reminder that he had a dragon. He didn’t control the dragons.
But he continued onward as if it was all normal. Meanwhile, curfew still existed in the city, guard patrols had doubled, humans and half-Fae were practically being hunted. There were war crimes being committed by the government, and nothing could stop that from being true.
All she wanted to do was return home to Venatrix.
Her mother was in mourning. Kivrin’s death had blown out the last light left in her chest. She was being watched day and night by Arelina. Alura should be there.
She should be there and with Arelina, who she had spent many years courting. The knowledge had made her father furious. She had done it partly because of that. And to remain undercover at the mountain, she’d had to part ways with Arelina.
A means to an end.
She had to remember that it would be worth it. It would be one day.
A click sounded in her chest.
Everyone fell silent. Alura’s eyes were panicked. Had Kerrigan begun the attack? It was too soon. They were all still in the mountain.
People were shouting, demanding to know what was happening.
Alura’s eyes latched on to Bastian, who sat at the head of the council room. He had frozen to stone, his hand on his chest just as the rest of them were. It was affecting them all.
It hit Alura then what had happened.
“She’s done it,” she whispered.
Kerrigan had found the metal crown. She’d used it. She was going to change the bargain. Holy gods!
Then the bond was ripped from her.
The room filled with screams. Some of the council members had had their dragons for hundreds of years. Two Fae fainted entirely, unable to pull themselves together at the absence.
Bastian still hadn’t moved, and then he tipped his head back and he roared.
Alura couldn’t stop the satisfied smile even with the horrible absence in her chest.
“Even playing field,” Alura muttered. “Your move.”
***
Fordham reached for Kerrigan in the frost. Her body had gone limp as the ice rushed across the crypt.
“Kerrigan!” he yelled.
The crown was still on her head. He couldn’t wrench it off. He was going to lose her. He couldn’t lose her.
“Please,” he gasped. “Please, don’t take her. Not her goodness or her hope or her life. Not a single part of her. We need her. I need her.”
Then he felt a click as if her magic had latched on to him.
It wasn’t the bond. He could still feel her through their mating bond. That was the only way he knew that she was still living, because she had stopped breathing, as if her entire body had gone into stasis. But the mating bond said she was alive and well. It made no sense. And this click made no sense either.
That was when he realized what it was—his bond to Netta.
He burrowed down into that bond, felt where his dragon settled into his chest, and leaned into it.
Her voice was soft in his mind. “Has she done it?”
“I don’t know. She is incapacitated. I might lose her.”
“You could never lose her.”
Netta put warmth down the bond.
And then with a terrifying efficiency, the click happened again, and the bond was severed.
His hand went to his chest as agony swept through him. Not from the loss. It felt more like it had never been there. Never existed at all. But that hurt more than ever. Because Netta was a part of him. Had been since they had locked eyes in the cavern at the end of the tournament. She was his.
And now…she wasn’t.
“What have you done?” Fordham whispered to Kerrigan.
Irena’s stone sarcophagus cracked down the middle. The ancestor of his house had been shattered. The crown at her temple was broken.
A gasp came from Kerrigan, and then with a clink, the crown fell off her head.
“Kerrigan!” Fordham cried, throwing his arms around her.
“I’m okay,” she whispered.
“What was the price?” he asked as his hands ran over her body like he could see through her to what had happened and what had been taken.
“The end of the bargain,” Kerrigan said simply. “You can’t reach Netta, can you?”