Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 459(@200wpm)___ 368(@250wpm)___ 306(@300wpm)
“The timing of your landing isn’t up to me,” she said. “I am not the one who manipulates time.”
“Then who?” Because it wasn’t me.
She skipped right over my question. “Tell me why you seek the Ember of Everlight. Consider it payment for my presence. I’m eager to leave, you see.” To reinforce her claim, she glided back to the puddle.
Dang her. “Supposedly, I can use the Ember to stop the time loops, save Queen Sandrine and King Ahav, and spare Hakeldama from Ian and his monstra. Spare you from the monstra.” I hadn’t met her in the future. She might be a casualty of the war.
I didn’t mention my plan to free Jasher from his tie to the Guardian. She might refuse to help. “Payment has now been given. Your turn.”
She slipped into quiet reflection. “I know the Ember was found by the first of my kind, Andrea. Not Morris, as the Ori’Emets believe. She was his first wife, and she, through the Ember, ended the original monstra invasion.”
Andrea. Not a name I’d heard before. But like Elowen’s, I reacted to it.
“The Ember will indeed do all that you hope,” she said, “though perhaps not as you wish.”
I wouldn’t ask. “What’s the price for passage to Hakeldama?”
One of her brows winged up. “Passage for two, you said, neither of which is the queen?”
“Let me guess.” My dry tone drew a tinkling laugh from her. “This, you won’t give for free.”
Now, she stalked a circle around me, sailing between shadows and light. “Considering your monstra is the second passenger, I require a small…donation. As for Sandrine’s memory loss, I can do nothing. She drank a potion to hide her memories, and she made me swear never to restore it.”
“She wouldn’t do that.” I couldn’t reconcile the strong, vibrant mother I’d grown up with willingly wiping away her past.
“The loss of King Ahav broke her,” Elowen admitted quietly, scars stark. “She did it for her baby. Among other reasons.”
For me. Sorrow pierced me, an arrow straight to the heart. “She’s started to remember on her own.”
“Yes.” She said no more on the subject. “Daniel spoke true. This Jasher is probably playing a…what did he call it? Oh yes. A long con,” the maiden said, tone coaxing. Leading. “You would do well to end your association with him.”
“So you were listening to our conversation through the water.” Should have known.
“Perhaps you are like Andrea,” she continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Destined to learn the true meaning of heartache. The tide of your time rises for the final crash. Do you feel it?”
Yes. No. Maybe? Her words pricked me, but I didn’t know how, or why, and it didn’t matter, anyway. I would live this life as if it were my only one, just as I always had. Because this was my only one.
“Save your commentary, history lessons, and cryptic warnings, okay?” A means of jacking up the price, hooking my curiosity so I’d ask more questions. “Give me the price for the waterway.”
“Very well. You will drink a memory restoration serum. You lost yours when Sandrine drank hers. And you will do the drinking now. No dragging this out for days. We’ve been there, done that, and it’s ridiculous when we both know you intend to say yes. Before you issue a refusal—”
“Ha! I refuse. I’m not drinking anything of yours.” The risk alone…
“This price is non-negotiable and the only means of remembering what occurred in your other lives.”
Great! I was now officially tempted. Remember other lives? Yes, please. But just how many were we talking about?
“Perhaps you wish to stay in Ozworld. That’s an option, of course.” Elowen blew me a kiss, so sly it frayed my nerve endings. “Maybe I’m wrong and this isn’t your last life. Your next incarnation could be more accommodating. Yes, I’ll wait for her.” Her gaze flicked to Jasher. “Too bad she won’t be with him.”
My stomach dropped.
“Goodbye, Rye. Goodbye, Jasher.” She gave us both a finger wave and made to step into the water.
“Wait,” I grated, and she winged her brow again. I really hated water maidens. “I’ll drink your memory restoration serum. In return, you’ll provide passage to Hakeldama as soon as Jasher is metal free. But you can’t harm him, and you can’t help my mother follow us.”
“Deal.” Grinning from ear to ear, Elowen held up a small glass vial brimming with a glittering blue liquid. “Drink.”
I reached for it, only to draw back, pressing my fist against my chest.
She rolled her eyes, as if she’d been pushed past royal decorum. “Honestly, Rye. Your distrust wounds me. You should know me better by now.”
Breathe in. Out. I accepted the bottle. “Did you drink a serum? Is that how you retained knowledge of previous lives erased with each new time loop? No one else does.”