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)
I felt the distance between us. The bond we’d forged instantly snapped. “So, all this time, you were secretly working against me?”
“No,” I replied, fervently shaking my head. “Not all this time. After you explained everything about escaping from Oreylia and Red Armand coming to take you back, I knew you weren’t behind any of this.”
“Speaking of,” Armand interrupted. “I do believe it’s time for us to go home.”
“We’re not going anywhere with you,” Vasilios roared, and my attention went to the palms of his hands. They were popping and sparking with magic. He shot a bolt of lightning at Armand, who fell back, landing on the sand, his expression morphing into pure rage.
“You think you can defeat me!” he roared, and chills skittered down my spine because I could feel his demon powers pulsing to life. It touched my every pore and repulsed me down to my bones. Suddenly, Red Armand’s body disintegrated into a giant grey mist, just like the one I’d seen in the forest with Peter.
His wraith form.
It completely overwhelmed me, blurring my vision and draining my strength until I fell to my knees. The mist covered everything, and I felt like I was inhaling toxic fumes. That was my last thought before I lost consciousness and everything faded to black.
***
I woke up to the sound of someone weeping. There was sand on my face and in my mouth. I coughed, feeling like it had gotten down my throat as well. I sat up and looked around me. I was still on the beach, but Vasilios, Sven, and Red Armand were gone.
Carrabelle sat next to me, her head in her hands as she cried. I put my hand on her shoulder.
“Carra, what happened? Where are Vasilios and Sven?”
“He made me do it. He made me!” she wept, and my heart broke because I heard the pain in her voice.
“What did he make you do?” I whispered, my gut full of fear because if they were gone, that meant only one thing.
“He made me open the portal so he could take Vas and Sven back to Oreylia. They’re going to be put to work in the mine again, and it’s all my fault.”
“Why didn’t he take you? Why did he leave you here?”
“He has no need for me anymore. I have too many injuries to continue working in the mine, and he has Vas and Sven back now. They’re strong, still able to work. Red Armand is relentless when it comes to miners escaping. He’s going to work them a million times harder now. They’ll be just as broken as I am when he’s done with them.”
All the blood drained from my body, and I was clutched by a stark and undiluted fear. The last thing I remembered was Vasilios looking at me like I’d betrayed him yet again, only this time I wished I hadn’t done it. And now, the very worst had happened. He’d been stolen back to the place he never wanted to return to, and suddenly, my future made a little bit more sense.
When Sarasin had shown me visions of Oreylia, I couldn’t think of any logical reason for going there. But now, I understood. I understood why I would willingly travel to a city that sounded so hellish. I’d travel there to save the man who saved me from drowning, the one I knew infinitely better than I did before I entered the prison.
The one whose mark glowed bright and strong inside my chest.
I barely knew anything about the tired, injured woman who sat next to me, but as I turned to her and her brown eyes lifted to mine, I knew we shared the same goal.
“We have to save them,” I whispered.
She held my gaze, and though it was clear she’d been through hell, there was steely determination there, the kind of which I hadn’t seen in any other person. “Yes,” she agreed. “We do.”
To be continued…