Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“Done. I’m going to get cold weather gear and some supplies. We’ll leave as soon as I’m back.”
Tieran nodded. Do you even know where we’re going?
She had an idea, but she also knew that she would be able to find Fordham the closer they got. She had always been pulled to him like that. If she went all the way to the north Erewa mountains, then she was damn sure she’d be able to find him.
“North,” she said and then prayed to the gods that she had enough time and strength to get to Fordham before something terrible happened.
* * *
Kerrigan was in the skies before the sun rose on the horizon. She was exhausted from the night before, but at least her magic had finally settled. That was a relief and something Cleora should have warned her about. Though she probably hadn’t thought Kerrigan would be stupid enough to cast twice in one night.
All she wanted to do was sleep off the exhaustion, but they needed to get as far north as they could. It was several hours north to the House of Shadows. Then, they had to veer northeast and through the heart of the mountain range. It would be a full day from there to get into Erewa and worse to make it through their mountains.
She could push Tieran to make the trip as quickly as possible, but it would be safer if done in legs. Plus, she would be useless to Fordham if she showed up to him without her magic. She needed to replenish as she went so that she could face whatever was necessary.
They camped down near Ravinia Mountain at the end of their first day. She ate her fill of the supplies, and Tieran left to hunt for his meal. She cast her eyes northward, anxious to be with Fordham.
When Tieran returned, Kerrigan decided to leave the supplies with him to scout out the heart of the House of Shadows. A day in the saddle had been rough on her body. Her steps were awkward and painful as she crested a rise and came down upon the town of Cavour.
It was the cutest town she had ever seen. As if it hadn’t been touched by time in a thousand years. Which it hadn’t.
Cavour and the House of Shadows had been isolated from the rest of the world. Seeing it and remembering her walk through the town with Fordham made her chest ache. Back then, she had been so upset with Fordham. He’d dragged her into all of this without warning, he hadn’t been able to admit his feelings, and she’d felt lied to.
Now, she was racing across the island just to see him … to save him.
Cavour looked much the same, except quieter. So many of the residents had been half-Fae and humans. But as she surveyed the town, she saw only Fae. What must it be like for Fae to have to learn to do all their own menial tasks after the Society stripped them of their servants? It served them right.
Kerrigan was glad that she could give those previous servants a new life either in Kinkadia or in the new town in Bryonica. They deserved more than this.
She wished that she could get some insight into the mountain, but she was too recognizable to walk through the village. They were isolated for a reason. Any new visitors had to be a shock.
Then, she heard a trumpet. She ducked lower, uncertain where the announcement was coming from. The last thing she wanted was to be caught. But then a royal trumpeter marched through the center of Cavour with a large, fit Fae male in black-and-silver House of Shadows livery.
“In the name of Her Majesty, Queen Viviana Ollivier of House Blanchard, all Fae are to tithe to the throne,” the man bellowed.
Kerrigan’s eyes widened in alarm.
What in the gods’ name was Viviana doing? Her people were suffering. They’d been stripped of so much, and just as the wall came down, she returned them to isolation and taxed them?
A woman with three littlings sobbed into a handkerchief. The fact that she even had three that young was amazing. Fae didn’t have children easily.
“If you cannot pay your taxes,” the man bellowed over her crying, “then an indenture will befit you.”
Kerrigan’s nails dug into the grass. Despicable. So, Viviana had lost her servants, and she had found a way to create more. Instead of hiring the Fae who remained and end the poverty that most of her citizens lived in, she was putting them into an indenture to pay off their newly acquired debt. That was barbaric.
She needed to get to Fordham sooner than later. This was a disaster. The House of Shadows needed him more than ever.
* * *
Kerrigan returned to their camp shortly afterward and fell into a fitful slumber. She was up with the dawn the next day to be on their way. After a few hours, they left the Vert Mountains behind, crossed the northern hills and moved into Erewan territory. The temperature dipped below freezing in the skies as they flew ever northward. Even in wool clothing, a cloak, and heavy winter garb, she could feel the bite of the cold through her. Tieran had to fly lower so that her eyelashes didn’t freeze.