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 barn light flickered.
Frowning, I peered at the water, but it never stirred.
More sounds from Jasher. He climbed to his feet, not quite steady but strengthening quickly.
My pulse jolted. I stretched out my hands to stop him, but he looked beyond me. Guess he’d learned his lesson about the dangers of eye contact.
“You want to kill me,” he snarled. “I sense it. But I will strike first. I can already feel your beating heart in my hand.” His fingers unrolled to reveal a bloody palm dotted with cuts from his claws.
“I want to help you, never hurt you. Please, Jasher. Let me. Don’t fight—” When he flared his wings and braced, as if to attack, I shouted, “No! Stay!”
To my astonishment, he submitted, exactly as Emma had claimed. But oh, fury crackled in his sunset eyes, promising brutal retribution.
“How are you doing this?” he demanded.
Guilt surged as I lowered my arms. I’d known he would hate being powerless, but seeing that hatred live and up close was altogether different. I attempted a smile. “You wouldn’t want to hurt me if you remembered my importance to you.”
Hey! Maybe I could force the return of his memories. “Remember me,” I commanded.
He bared his teeth. “Die,” he snapped.
Great. There were some orders he couldn’t obey. Or maybe it took time? Maybe I could move his body, but not his mind.
Ignoring my abused, protesting muscles, I picked up the end of his chain. “I’m taking you home,” I told him. “Do not attack me.”
“I will gift your corpse to my brothers. They’ll feast for days.”
“Don’t expect them to thank you,” I snipped. “I’m a little too spicy for most monsters.” Eyes on the water. “Elowen, I paid your price. Deliver on your promise.”
Nothing.
“I paid your price. You owe me,” I gritted out. I don’t know why, but instinct urged me to add, “Until the end.”
I did, and ripples immediately erupted over the glassy surface. That worked, like a password of sorts? I expelled a relieved breath, then braced. Time to return to that brutal, horrific place where I’d nearly died.
I cast a last, longing glance through the barn’s doorway, finding the farmhouse in the distance.
Jasher pulled at the chain, reaching for the axes too far from his reach.
The water gurgled, the ripples coming faster and faster. Soon, a funnel formed.
Elowen didn’t appear, but I heard her voice dance through my mind. I’ve done my part. Enter or don’t. The choice is yours.
My mind locked onto my task. Find the Ember. That was it. When I succeeded, and I would, I would save my parents. Free Jasher. And defeat Ian.
This trip, I wasn’t going in empty-handed.
My mom’s pained bellow pierced the air, and I stiffened. Time to go.
Chin up, shoulders squared. Backpack and journal secure. Elowen had said the storms might carry me where I needed to go. Hopefully, this waterway did the same.
“Follow me,” I commanded Jasher, stepping into the rushing water.
He trailed right on my heels, without the axes.
A terrible suction yanked us down, down into a whirling sea of darkness.
Lights pulsed into my awareness. Bright pinpricks within an endless black void. Once. Twice. Thrice. The next flash lingered, bleeding into color.
A kaleidoscope of shades melded before fracturing. Again and again, faster now, accompanied by blips of sound. Not words. Not quite screams. Small, sharp bursts of indistinguishable noises. One pulse slammed into another until the darkness split.
War.
Monstra clogged the sky, nearly blotting out the sun as they rained down streams of fire. A market turned battlefield erupted into chaos. Soldiers screamed and scattered across cobblestone streets, knocking over carts and tables. Smoke curled from burning wares, veiling everything in a choking, panicked haze. Men on horseback charged through the madness, attempting to shield women and children with oddly long shields. But the metal melted under the relentless assault of flame.
I stood atop a mountain, watching it unfold, removed from the carnage. From all emotion. I was an observer, nothing more, untouched by the pleas climbing into the air.
A tall, muscular man in gold-plated armor strode up a hill across from me, bellowing orders. Soldiers snapped to attention, rushing to obey. A pack of monstra stalked him like dogs following an owner, their delight unwavering.
Ahav?
The king.
My father.
Still, I felt nothing.
He reached the top. All the monstra who followed him grinned—then unleashed hell. In an instant, fire consumed his body, even his scream.
Ash drifted away on the breeze.
Someone loosed a scream, agonized and broken.
From the desperate masses below, a lone woman rose, exploding into the sky. She wore art in dress form: a sheer green gown as delicate as the clouds, fabric whispering in the wind, clinging like mist to her emerald skin, catching the flickering firelight with an ethereal shimmer. A thick jade braid hung over one shoulder. But her face. Her face was blurred to my gaze, as if covered by a cloud.