Total pages in book: 96
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 89379 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 447(@200wpm)___ 358(@250wpm)___ 298(@300wpm)
“It wasn’t a gasp. It was a sigh. I was relieved it was almost over.”
“Great,” Sven said, still lying on the sand as he threw his arms up in the air. “We almost drowned because Vas can’t differentiate a gasp from a sigh.”
I was still staring at Vasilios, emotions clogging my throat at how he looked at me. He looked at me like he was so incredibly relieved I hadn’t drowned. He’d risked his life in the water to save me, and I still hadn’t come clean about the real reason I was in the prison.
“Vasilios, I need to tell you something,” I said just as a deep, cynical voice cut in.
“Well, isn’t this a turn up for the books?”
All three of us leapt to our feet. A man stood before us. He had shoulder-length hair that was the oddest colour I’d ever seen. Fire engine red, but somehow natural instead of dyed. His eyes were like amber whiskey in a glass, and a small woman stood behind him, looking terrified. She had long, straggly black hair and wide brown eyes.
“Red Armand,” Vasilios said, and horror dawned within me.
20.
“Hello,” Armand replied, his eyes on Vasilios before wandering to Sven and finally landing on me. “I knew if I reunited you with your beloved marked you’d finally become powerful enough to break free of that bespelled fortress.”
“That’s why you framed her,” Vasilios seethed. “You wanted us to escape?”
My heart pounded. It all made so much sense I couldn’t believe we hadn’t figured it out for ourselves. Bringing Vasilios and me together strengthened his magic. Once it grew strong enough for him to escape, nothing would prevent Red Armand from reaching both him and Sven. Once he framed me, all he had to do was sit back and wait for Vasilios and Sven to come to him. It was ingenious, really.
“How else was I to bring you home to your rightful place?” He cast a disdainful glance at the terrified woman standing behind him. “Carrabelle’s magic wasn’t strong enough to penetrate the wards surrounding the prison, so I had to figure out a way to make you powerful enough to come to me on your own.”
Vasilios looked like he was ready to explode. He looked like he wanted to destroy the world, and I could tell how much he resented the man’s manipulation, not to mention his intention to bring him back to Oreylia. I was pretty furious, too, given how he’d upended my life to achieve his aims.
“Carra,” Sven cried, stepping forward. “What has he done to you?”
“Sven,” the bedraggled woman answered, her voice little more than a whisper.
Armand stood in his way. “Touch her and die. She doesn’t belong to you.”
I remembered Vasilios telling me about the half-witch he knew in the mine, how she and Sven were close. The poor woman looked like she’d been to hell and back.
“She doesn’t belong to you either,” Sven seethed, his fists clenching, ready for a fight. I’d never seen him like that before. He was always so controlled. The woman obviously meant a great deal to him.
Carrabelle wore tattered, dirty clothes similar to the ones I’d seen myself wearing in the vision of my future in Oreylia. Red Armand, however, wore clean, expensive clothes he’d clearly purchased while in my dimension.
“You murdered Belinda,” I said. “You’re going to pay for that.”
His serpent-like eyes slithered to me, and a cruel smile shaped his lips. “He doesn’t know the truth about you, does he?”
“What are you talking about?” Vasilios demanded while my heart lodged in my throat. Red Armand knew. He knew I hadn’t really been convicted and that I’d entered the prison under false pretences.
I’d planned to come clean only a few minutes ago, but we’d been interrupted, and now, well, now, it was being revealed at the worst possible moment.
Vasilios turned to me now. “Darya?”
“Don’t listen to him. He’s just trying to mess with your head.”
Armand chuckled. “Am I? Well, listen to this. Would you believe me if I told you your precious little marked has been lying to you this whole time?”
A lump formed in my throat. I took a step toward Vasilios. “I was going to tell you. I was about to, just now, before he turned up.”
“What were you going to tell him?” Sven intervened, stepping between us as though to protect his friend. I tried to swallow down the lump, but it wouldn’t budge. Tears pricked at my eyes.
“I was never convicted of Belinda’s murder,” I whispered. “The Guard knew it was a set-up, and they offered me a chance to join their ranks early by going undercover into the prison.”
Vasilios’s gaze darkened. His expression was flat when he asked, “And what exactly was your undercover mission?”
I looked down, unable to meet his eyes. “To prove that you were the one who orchestrated Belinda’s murder. The Guard thought you were accessing your magic somehow, and they were right about that. But they were wrong in assuming you’d used your magic to frame me.”