Total pages in book: 207
Estimated words: 196971 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 985(@200wpm)___ 788(@250wpm)___ 657(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196971 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 985(@200wpm)___ 788(@250wpm)___ 657(@300wpm)
The last ace she had up her sleeve, Soleil thought, but in this case it was in her pants. If things weren’t TARFU, she would have laughed at her own quip.
Aurora suddenly appeared by her side, grabbing Soleil’s arm as she muttered, “I’ve thought of something.”
“I’m all ears.”
“Call your heartkeeper.”
Soleil didn’t even hesitate. “No!”
Half of the wall crashed.
Her time had come.
Soleil prepared to run, but Aurora’s grip on her arm tightened, and the other woman insisted in a yell, “Call him! Your plan might work, but it’s not going to be without casualties, and you know it! But if you call him—-”
Soleil whitened.
“Call him!” Aurora pointed at the rookies. “If you care for them—-” She knew she was being heartlessly manipulative, but she didn’t care. “If you want to give them the best chance for surviving tonight—-”
“I hate you, Aurora.”
A whisper, but Aurora knew she had won. Thank God.
Soleil gently pushed her hand away, and Aurora let her.
“I’ll call him.” Soleil backed up a step. “But I’m also not going to wait for him to answer because...” Her upper lip turned up in an unusually mocking smile. “I do want to give everyone the best chance of survival.”
Aurora’s eyes widened.
No!
But it was too late, and Soleil had run past everyone, heading straight to the horde of imps.
“NO!” Aurora screamed and tried to run after her friend, but there were too many imps between them now, and she finally had to admit defeat.
Fleur reached her, demanding, “What’s the plan?”
“Help Soleil get to the center,” Aurora answered tonelessly.
Pain flashed in Fleur’s eyes.
Aurora furiously blinked back her own tears.
But they only allowed themselves a nanosecond of grief before throwing themselves into battle, knowing that it was what Soleil would have wanted.
SOLEIL WAS ABOUT THREE-imp-layers deep into the horde when she realized that her plan just might not be good enough.
A middle-level demon stood next to the hellhole, and as it locked gazes with Soleil, she knew there was a very good chance it might tear her throat out before she could even detonate the grenades.
The demon charged towards her with a roar, and Soleil’s reflexes kicked in. She rolled, crawled, and twisted, everything purely guided by her instincts. And all the while, she called to him, the man whose heart she was fated to keep in exchange of her soul.
Can you hear me?
Please come.
Please help.
Soleil called out to him with her mind, with all her heart, even thought the tiniest part of her thought it was too late.
The demon caught her just as she ran out of bullets. Its claws raked her body and pain engulfed her, but she managed to kick it away, the silver-coated soles of her boots leaving burning marks on its face.
The demon screamed.
What a baby, Soleil thought dizzily as she managed to pull the grenades out of her pockets.
The demon snarled at her, hitting Soleil with its tail and breaking her ribs in the process.
She snarled back, thinking absently that death was the only thing that could make her act this...childish. She was suffering from internal bleeding, with possibly severe injuries to a vital organ.
She calculated the time it would take her to die, and it wasn’t that long.
If you can hear me, please just save my soldiers.
Please.
Soleil closed her eyes as she started to unclip the grenades.
But nothing happened.
Instead, she felt wind so strong blowing over her, stinging her face, and somehow that wind managed to snatch the grenades out of her fingers. She heard it explode in the distance, and her eyes flew open.
Oh!
The grenades had been thrown into the hellhole, and it vanished a moment later, Hell protecting itself from more attacks at the expense of its spawn. Placing her hand over her wound, she looked around dazedly as she heard a tremendous cry of pain. Following the sound, she saw the demon that had attacked her falling to the floor, its decapitated head rolling towards her before it was crushed under the weight of stampeding...imps.
The imps were running away – from what?
She tried to see what was after them and caught sight of a streak of white, too fast for her eyes to follow as it slashed its way around the room.
Oh.
He had come.
A cacophony of cries and squeals filled the basement hall, imps dying left and right—-
Then she saw her soldiers breaking inside, fighting—-
Nausea hit her, and she fell back to the floor.
Thank you.
She closed her eyes.
And almost right after, she found herself being lifted and cradled in powerful arms—-
Pain pierced her throat, and she choked.
Blood filled her mouth.
Nooooooo——-
In her mind, she heard his voice for the first time.
Why have you only called for me now?
Chapter Two
“Le Marquis di Lunare,” the butler announced regally, and as the baron’s visitor strode forward, the butler bowed and did his best not to run away. There was something different about the marquis, the butler thought with a shiver of fear. Terrifyingly different, with the way marquis had made the vast parlor feel small and suffocating with his commanding height and dark presence.