Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
“Thank you,” Kendrick whispers.
Skylar murmurs a few words I can’t make out and casts a stream of light toward the ring. The moonstone glints in the light.
Natan holds it up and turns it this way and that. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
I cringe. “Please be careful.”
“What do you think is going to happen to it?” Skylar asks. “That he’s going to drop it in his mouth and accidentally swallow it?”
Remme peers at my ring from over Natan’s shoulder and frowns. “Those etchings on the inside—those aren’t from the old Eloran alphabet. What are they?”
“Good question,” Natan says. He tilts the ring left and right. “I’d need my books to confirm, but I think they’re ancient Elvish.”
“Elvish?” I ask. “You mean Fae?”
Natan spares me a glance before returning his attention to the ring. “I mean Elvish.”
“I’ve never heard anyone call the old fae tongue Elvish.” I ball my hands into fists at my sides, itching to snatch the ring back from him.
“That’s because you were lied to your whole life in Elora,” Remme says.
Kendrick nudges his friend. “What Remme is so clumsily trying to say,” he says, “is that here the elven fae are just fae, because this is an entire realm of fae. But in a realm that has both magical and nonmagical beings—say elves and humans, but no other fae to speak of—the elves are simply elves.”
“So what realm has elves and humans?” I ask.
“Elves have lived in many realms, including Elora,” Natan says.
“You’re trying to tell me that the elves are an ancient Eloran race,” I say, propping my hands on my hips. “And the magical words written on my ring are in their alphabet.”
“Sure seems like it,” Natan says, lowering the ring and handing it back to me. He turns to Kendrick and holds his gaze for so long I wonder if they’re having a silent conversation.
Kendrick blows out a breath. “Everyone needs to get some sleep. I’ll take first watch. We leave at first light.”
“But I get to go, right?” My voice is lined with a panic I can’t hide. I look to Kendrick. “Don’t leave me behind.”
“I never would’ve left you behind,” he says softly.
Everyone heads to the tree line, presumably to take care of their needs before turning in for the night. I move to follow, but Kendrick steps in front of me. His eyes are luminous in the light of the nearby fire.
“Why are you looking at me like that?” I ask.
Kendrick coughs out a laugh. “Why am I looking at you like you’ve been keeping secrets?” He taps his index finger to his lips. “Maybe because you have?”
“If I’d told you about the ring from the start, you might’ve taken it away from me. I couldn’t risk that.”
He glances over his shoulder toward where his friends have already disappeared into the trees. “I need you to tell me the rest. You don’t have to tell the others, but I need to know.”
“What else is there to tell?”
“Everything. Where in Elora did you get it?”
I shrug. “Fairscape—that’s where Brie and I grew up.” I glance up toward the dark sky, thinking of the tangle of fear and loathing that led me to that day. “I visited for my seventeenth birthday, and . . . I bought myself a ring.”
“From whom?”
“She was a witch.” I’ll never forget the old hag who called me into her cottage. Lured me in with promises of the wrongs she could right. “She terrified me, but she promised me a ring that would make my fear go away, and she delivered on that promise.”
He takes my wrist loosely in his big hand, running his thumb back and forth across the pulse point. “But you carry so much fear.”
“Not when I wear the ring.” I swallow the lump in my throat. I love him being so close, and I don’t know what to do with that feeling. “Or, at least, that was true at first. Now it seems like it’s sneaking back.”
“The magic is fading?”
I bite my bottom lip and shake my head. “I think so, but I’m not sure? Maybe not fading but changing?”
“I won’t depend on this ring to keep you safe if its magic isn’t reliable.”
“Let me worry about that.”
His expression is grim enough that I know it’s not that simple for him. “What other powers does it give you?”
I step closer and lift my fingers to his lips. His breath catches. I let them drop. “A deadly kiss.”
His gaze dips to my mouth and locks there. “And have you used this deadly kiss on anyone?”
I study his mouth and imagine how his lips would feel against mine, how he’d taste. “Yes. That’s why I wanted it. I wanted to be rid of every person who hurt me in that dungeon.”
His gaze locks on my mouth. “So you’ve kissed your enemies, but you won’t kiss me.”