Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92232 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 461(@200wpm)___ 369(@250wpm)___ 307(@300wpm)
I make a mental note to sit with them all and see if I sense changes in the others. From now on, I plan to keep a closer eye on Yanique as well. Moving our powers along too fast or in an unnatural manner could cause us to go mad and lose control.
I’m not saying she’s unstable, but that wasn’t normal. In fact, it looked more like the powers of…
No.
I also need rest. Maybe I’m seeing things in my exhaustion. It could be the spell. Yes, I’m seeing things. I need some rest.
Kendrick
“What ails you, my love? You look exhausted,” I murmur against Venus’s temple.
I’ve been watching her since I arrived. She’s not her usual self. Her smiles haven’t met her eyes the same and she’s been distracted.
“I am fine. A bit tired, but it’s nothing a bit of rest won’t fix.”
I narrow my eyes at her. Reaching out with my powers, I go to confirm my feelings for myself. I’m met with a barrier, which raises my hackles.
I’ve never been met with resistance when it comes to her. I didn’t even know she knew how to block me out. I still my anger.
She has been training and learning. Perhaps she forgot to put her guard back down. We have no secrets.
I refuse to believe she’s done this to hide something from me. What could she possibly need to hide? I shake the thought off as she comes to sit on my lap.
I palm her face and run my thumb across her bottom lip. “Then I shall leave and allow you to rest.”
“Please, no. Stay and lie with me.”
I calm as she places her forehead against my chin and releases a heavy breath. Rubbing a hand up and down her back, I think to reach for her aura and feelings once again.
“Your arms are all I need. Will you stay?”
I grunt and nod. We will talk once she has rested. I lift my gaze and a bed appears above us. Lifting her in my arms, I then ascend to lie in the bed of my creation.
She laughs. “Why do you hate my bed so much?”
“It is too small and low. Besides, no one would expect us up here and they wouldn’t be able to reach us before I could become aware.”
“Always the alert warrior,” she says with a smile in her voice.
“Is there any other kind of warrior?”
“I guess not,” she yawns.
I turn her to spoon her from behind. Her lush curves fit right into me. She sighs contentedly. With a smile, I bury my nose in her neck and inhale.
I freeze as a small hint of my scent comes from her being. However, as fast as it comes, it goes. I inhale, trying to catch the scent again.
I shake my head clear and close my eyes to rest as well. I have been training harder in the valley. Maybe I’ve overdone it. Yes, that has to be it.
I also thought I felt someone watching me while training today. I didn’t catch a scent or aura, but I still felt like I was being watched.
“We both need rest,” I murmur.
“Um?”
“Nothing. Go to sleep, my love.”
Betrayal
“Benjamin, promise me you won’t do anything rash. There’s a reason they could not help us. I understand. It is our time. It is not for you to look for vengeance. Promise me,” Annabeth says breathlessly.
“I can make you no such promise,” I say tightly as I hold our dead daughter in my embrace.
She is gone and her mother is on the verge of her last breath. I’m losing everything. Those women refused to help us.
Always preaching how they are here to help, to heal and the one time they were needed—truly needed—they refused to help. I don’t care if this plague takes me. All I wanted was for Annabeth and our daughter to get well.
However, while I’ve gotten better and the cough and aches have left my body, Lily is gone and I’m losing Annabeth. I sob into my daughter’s hair. To hear her laugh once more would ease the pain.
Yet that will never happen again. I’ve lost that sweet giggle forever. Annabeth weakly places her hand on my head.
“Benjamin, please. I need to hear you say it. Give me that peace. Venus has been my friend.”
“Some friend,” I cry.
She falls into a fit of coughing. I lift my head to look at her as I wait for it to pass. However, it doesn’t.
Pain sears through me as I watch my wife take her last breath. I can’t breathe. This can’t be happening.
“Annabeth, no,” I cry out brokenly.
Anger washes over me. This wasn’t supposed to end like this. She was the handmaid to a powerful healer. My mother believed in their gifts. My grandmother shared stories of healers with powers like theirs when I was a young boy.