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)
Sliding her feet into her slippers, she hurried down the stairs and opened the front door. “Won’t you dry yourself first—-”
Despite the shivers racking her body, Aurora still shook her head. “Let’s go,” she insisted between chattering teeth.
“But Aurora—-” Her senses prickled as she stared at her sister. Something was wrong with Aurora, Soleil thought. But what?
Aurora’s brown eyes blazed. “Are you going to leave me here to freeze to death?”
And finally, Soleil realized what was bothering her—-
Aurora’s still dripping gown...was made of blue silk.
She swallowed. “Aurora?”
“What?” Aurora stomped her foot in annoyance. “Are you coming or what?”
Staring at her sister, Soleil heard herself ask, “Why is your gown wet?”
Aurora laughed, answering lightly, “Would you believe me if I told you it was because I fell into the ocean?”
“I see.” Soleil forced herself to laugh even as words of the soul seer’s vision flashed in her mind.
Blue.
The shade of her death.
Blue—-
Like the sound of the ocean with its crashing waves, like silk tainted with evil and tarnished dreams—-
Soleil said quietly, “You’re not Aurora.”
Even if this woman looked and sounded like Aurora, this person was not her sister.
In front of Soleil, the person masquerading as Aurora became deadly still.
“You found me out sooner than I thought you would.”
Before Soleil could answer, icy fingers gripped her wrist.
“I taught you very well, indeed.”
Soleil jerked. That voice—-
The woman looked down.
When she looked up again, she no longer looked like Aurora.
This time, the woman looked like Crystal but not as Soleil had ever seen her.
Her hair had turned completely white, and her skin was oddly pale. Her lips were a ghastly shade of blue, her eyes red-rimmed. She looked...like how Soleil imagined a wraith would be.
A knife appeared in the air, and Soleil caught sight of her face on its shiny surface—-
Blue, like her dying, haunted eyes—-
The knife went down.
Soleil screamed, but instead of the knife finding its way to her heart it went completely past her.
It was as if Crystal was trying to cut something behind her.
She turned around and gasped when she saw that she was still on the bed, and a thread that seemed to sparkle with every color connected her two bodies.
Instinctively, she tried stopping Crystal from cutting the thread, but it was too late.
The thread snapped.
An invisible force swept into the house out of nowhere, sucking Soleil out of it.
The rest of the soul seer’s words echoed in her mind.
Don’t fall.
Don’t fall.
Don’t fall.
But she was already falling.
Chapter Eleven
An endless canvas of silvery white blankness spread out behind them, while in front of Soleil and Crystal was her bedroom. In it, she was still lying on the bed, pale and unmoving like a corpse.
Her family and the marquis stared down at her, grim-faced.
“Is it the curse?” the baron asked tautly.
Ilie shook his head. “No. This has a different taint to it.” He picked up her wrist, but the faint pulse offered only the smallest assurance. “She’s alive, but barely.” His jaw hardened. “Whoever did it is still here. Somehow, he or she is watching us. I can smell its scent.”
“How clever of him.” Crystal’s blue lips formed a smile that was almost eerily beautiful.
Almost, Soleil thought. Forcing her fears down, she managed to ask, “Why are you doing this, Crystal?”
The older woman sighed. “I am unutterably shamed, my dear. So very shamed, to hear you talk and know that I was like you once, concerned about the whys and the hows when we should always focus on the whats and the whos.”
She shook her skirts dry, continuing in an admonishing tone, “Your first question should have been, Where am I? What do you intend to do with me?” Her disapproving gaze settled on Soleil. “Protect yourself first, you foolish child.”
She gestured to their surroundings. “But since you won’t ask, I shall volunteer the information. This, my dear, is the world the nymphs and satyrs used to inhabit.”
“The woods?”
“No, no, that is merely a gateway, but one that has been closed and will remain so until the four horsemen unlocks it. Until then, this world, with all its beauty and magic, will continue to languish, inhabited only by those able to cross over.” When she saw Soleil’s eyes widen in understanding, Crystal’s smile widened into a grin. “Yes. You guessed right. I am dead.”
Soleil had been expecting that, but even so she couldn’t stop herself from sucking her breath at the confirmation. “I’m sorry.”
Crystal’s lips pursed. “There you go again, foolishly thinking about me when you should worry over yourself more.”
Ah. Soleil inhaled deeply, telling herself that she should remain calm in case the worst was true. “Then...am I dead?”
“It will depend on a few things, but alas, we are getting ahead of ourselves.”
A golden wingback chair appeared out of nowhere, and Soleil found herself falling on it. A moment later, she found her hands tied to the armrests and her feet bound together.