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)
“Should I accompany—” a guard began.
“No,” Ahav interjected. “She’ll return, safe and sound.”
I didn’t miss his use of “she” rather than “they.” Because he knew what I planned, and he was allowing me to do it.
At the shore, a good distance from the others and hidden by thick bushes, I dropped the pack and clasped Jasher’s other hand. He kept his focus just over my head, unwilling to meet my gaze. The sun faded completely, pinpricks of white glittering brightly enough to cast him in ribbons of starlight.
“Look at me,” I beseeched, a soft rasp. “Please. If you want to.”
His body stiffened, as though fused with invisible steel.
Heartbeat, heartbeat.
Finally, he slid his gaze to mine. His eyes were as wild as a storm. “I know what you wish to say. But if you do this,” he all but growled, “I will leave you. I won’t stay.”
I inhaled as though I’d been underwater too long. I’d thought…hoped… “What about the Ember?” I moved my grip to his shirt. “Don’t you want to try to steal it from me?” What are you doing? Begging him to stay?
“You don’t understand.” Torment twisted his features. “I feel him. Ian calls to me. All the time, he calls. Demands.”
Desperation slashed my calm. “Jasher.” Yes. I was begging, and I didn’t care.
“Leave me in the chains, and I’ll stay,” he stated, and it was as if he summoned a thousand memories to the fringes of my mind.
I drilled my knuckles into my temples, reaching for one recollection, then another. Again and again, they danced away. But I knew. Regardless of Elowen’s taunt in Kansas, I hadn’t teamed up with different clones. Always, only Jasher. He’d not been some nameless, faceless member of the hordes. We’d stood here, done this, said this, before.
“I won’t leave you in chains, even to keep you,” I said softly. I couldn’t live with myself.
“So be it.” He gripped my wrists and forced me to lower my hands. But he didn’t release me. Not yet. “Remember this. You can trust nothing I say. I will betray you.”
“If I shouldn’t trust what you say, I should believe you won’t betray me.” Please. Pick me. I tried one more time to reach him. “We don’t have to be enemies.”
“We do.” He yanked me close, erasing all space. His heart raced against mine. “Pain stalks you, Moriah. It comes hot and fast. Be ready.”
He kissed me—fast, rough, and far too brief. When he lifted his head, he steeled his jaw. His eyes flashed regret. Anger. Hope. Longing. Drawn as tight as a bowstring, he finally released me. Stepped back.
He held up his hands, the cuffs glinting in moonlight. “You do not need to remove them.”
Loss burned through me, torching my composure to a thin husk. But I schooled my expression, revealing nothing. He’d made his choice. I wouldn’t beg for scraps. “If you want to keep wearing them, fine.” My tone sharpened. “That’s on you. Go.” I shooed him off. “Do it. Leave.”
A muscle jumped beneath his eye. “You thought you were my jailer.” With a few twists of his wrists, the chains unlatched with a soft snick and fell. “You were not.”
I watched it happen, shocked, confused. “How? When?”
“Since I used Ian’s trick coin to retract the spikes,” he said, unrepentant.
My discordant breaths became a soundtrack to accusation. “You spied on me. Reported to Ian.”
“Exactly.” Step by step, he walked backward. “Remember my promise. If you aren’t careful, our separation won’t last long.”
My insides lurched.
“This is my favorite part,” Kevin said from his pocket.
“The note of nonsense,” Jasher added, snapping now. His words didn’t flow easily, but they did flow, as if he’d overcome whatever force held them in. “You didn’t send it to yourself…but to me. You trusted me to help you. It’s a code the monstra use. Look at the first letter of each word.” Then Jasher pivoted on his heels.
Just like that, he vanished in the foliage, the space he left behind louder than his presence had ever been. I stood rooted, shaking, ragged. He’d really done it. He’d chosen Ian, a vicious killer. He’d left.
But he’d also helped me. Kangaroos invade lava libraries. Mangoes adopt lost kittens; oceans moo. Ostriches rehearse. Donuts invent eclipses.
KILL MALKOM OR DIE.
Malkom, the enemy Elowen had mentioned. The one who ran with Sin.
Once, Jasher had compared the note to the poem we’d read in the forest. Foxes in need dream. Hills eat rain.
FIND HER.
Her, meaning me? Tears I refused to shed burned my eyes.
“I’m sorry, Oracle. For your sake, I’d hoped your Tinman would be different than Ian.”
The king’s voice startled me from my brewing spiral, and I spun. He stood in a beam of moonlight, leaning a shoulder against a tree trunk, both at ease and on guard.
I shoved the messages to the back of my mind and squared my shoulders. “So did I.” So Jasher had left me. It hurt. It hurt bad, but I would heal. I always did. Never mind that things were breaking inside me. Right now, I had a mission.