Series: Lords of Rathe Series by Meagan Brandy
Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 95227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95227 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 476(@200wpm)___ 381(@250wpm)___ 317(@300wpm)
For a heartbeat, we just stare at each other: the cold, immovable king and the chaos he probably wishes he could catapult back to Exile. Then he exhales through his nose like he’s had enough of me for one lifetime.
“I don’t have to tell you that you don’t belong here. You know it as well as I do. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re the one in control. There is something going on and you are at the center of it. I will find out what it is, what you did or the part you’ve played, and I will end you if that’s what it takes to fix—” He cuts himself off, his chin lifting as his eyes harden.
He’s clearly said more than he wants to.
Not that I’ve got any fucking clue what he’s trying to say, but whatever.
I just need to pee. “Are you almost done?”
His mouth thins into a hard line. “You’ve got classes again tomorrow,” he says. “Be on time. Wear the uniform. Try not to cause chaos in the first five minutes.”
“Okay, in my defense, the professor said fight. He didn’t tell me not to kill him and back home, fight means kill…because you know we can’t die there.”
His expression grows thoughtful. After a moment, he gives a small nod. “Okay. Fine. That’s fair. Still, I am telling you now and my word overrules anything you think your professors want you to do. Or what you’re used to. If you’re not sure about something, ask. Trust your Pathway Codex. It won’t lead you astray. It’s incapable.”
He watches me closely, and then his head tips slightly. I feel a brush of something against my temple. No, it’s in my mind.
He’s in my fucking head!
“Dude!” I jolt, shaking myself as if that will change anything. I think of that one time back home when Zevryn and I hid in the trees and threw animal bones at a couple getting down in the mud until they spotted us. One of them slipped trying to get to us and broke his wrist. Zev laughed so hard he fell out of the branches. He dislocated his shoulder. I reset it with a rock.
I force the image into my head on repeat like a war drum. Bones. Blood. Zev’s unhinged cackle. Anything to keep Creed from sniffing around in places he doesn’t belong. Not that I have anything to hide.
Creed’s brows snap together and he takes a step forward. “Who is he?”
My smile is slow. “Ahh…so that’s the part that stuck. Does everyone know your gift is Mind Mirroring? Pretty fucking wild to be able to see inside someone as if you’re them.”
“Who. Is. He?”
I chuckle lowly. “You’d have to take a trip to the isle to find out.”
Creed huffs, shaking his head. “There is no mating bond within you, is there?”
Something annoying inside of me heats at the reference to the little king.
Aches a little.
But I’m not about to tell him that.
“I told you. I’m not his mate and even if I were, which I’m not, I don’t even know what a mating bond is.” Not really, anyway.
He steps up to me, toe to freaking toe, though he is a whole ass head taller. “Bond or no bond, Legend believes a bond pulses within him, but I know something is twisted. So you need to behave, or he will lose his shit.”
“What makes you think I care?”
Creed’s features harden, his eyes glowing white as he pulls his power to the surface. “He watches, because the so-called bond demands it, but he’s yet to arrive. Don’t give him a reason to abandon his current task until it’s done.”
Okay, that is basically an invitation.
I grin to myself, already thinking of ways to piss off my—
No not my.
Just Legend.
He’s just Legend.
Right?
Chapter Ten
Haide
The next morning, campus is already a fucking zoo.
Students swarm from the dorms, every single one of them moving like they know exactly where they’re going. Fucking sheep. I just let the current pull me along, trying to map it all out.
I stumble out to the main courtyard, a huge open space paved in dark stone that looks slick in the morning light. Archways branch off everywhere, with runes twisting over them. Laughing students cluster around a black obsidian fountain that spits out water with weird blue shimmer. They trade looks that probably mean something. Something I don’t give a shit about.
I veer left, heading toward what I’m pretty sure is the lecture hall from yesterday. The path winds through a covered colonnade, the ceiling arched high above and carved with images of battles I don’t recognize. Creatures with too many limbs clash against warriors wreathed in fire, their faces frozen in silent screams.
Cheerful.
A group of girls pass me, their voices high and sharp, laughter spilling out like broken glass. One of them glances my way, her eyes flicking over me with the kind of casual dismissal that makes my fingers itch for a blade.