Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 115347 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 115347 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 577(@200wpm)___ 461(@250wpm)___ 384(@300wpm)
Forget calming. Hot coals heated the rage another hundred degrees. More moans pierced the air. More clawing. He’d bet the cats served as spies as well. Had they found the trolls and alerted Kaysar?
Inhale. Exhale. “Widen the circle,” he commanded. Out of his range. “Don’t stop until you calm.”
The soldiers stumbled ten feet back, and yes, the skin-peeling ceased.
I’m as much a monster as this belua. And a fool. Chest flayed raw, Micah castigated himself. He had played right into his enemy’s plans. Right into Vee’s. She’d never sought his protection. Only his attention. A distraction. She’d never been a vulnerable female fleeing a crazed male. Kill Kaysar’s parents? No. A story, nothing more.
Had she done this for payment? Were the two lovers? Family? Friends? They possessed similar abilities, which suggested they were born near each other, at the very least. Villages tended to produce a multitude of powers through the same glamara.
His hands curled into fists. The sooner he imprisoned her, the better. Nothing mattered more than her capture. Then, he could deal with the grotesque consolidation of creatures before him.
In more ways than one, this belua was different than any other he’d faced. When spears and swords pierced its bark, stone or foliage, it healed within seconds. He knew this because he had pierced it thrice. Not to kill it, but to learn.
A blast of a horn suddenly erupted. A short ring. The creature tensed, but not with fear. Instead, indignation and anger vibrated across the connection. The same emotions the beast projected every time the horn had sounded, signaling one of Micah’s men had discovered another jewel.
The very jewels he’d given to Vee. Pieces he’d foraged from trolls, centaurs and goblins all those centuries ago. She hadn’t lost or discarded the gifts, as implied. She’d stored them inside her trees, as if she’d sought to maintain a link between them. As if she’d missed him the way he’d once missed her.
More lies! He didn’t know why he’d commanded his men to alert him to the finding of each piece, to store everything for him and keep nothing for themselves. No, not true. He knew. Currently, the acquisition provided his only source of satisfaction—because he hoped to use the pieces to hurt Vee in some way.
Fuming, he stepped forward, erasing some of the distance between him and his opponent. Let the creature feel the full force of his dual chimeras. The felines moved with him.
The belua stiffened but didn’t growl yet; like the sandcats, it only made noise when one of his warriors neared or Micah issued a command to it. Warnings.
Vee wasn’t the only reason Micah let the creature live. So far, only leaves had grown from its limbs. No fruit or nuts yet. But sustenance would come—a feast for his people. He sensed this, too.
And then?
Micah would use the first seeds to foster a garden. He had only to tame the creature.
“Open. Your. Arms.” The same command he’d uttered every day.
As before, the beast had huffed and growled, doing everything in its power to resist the compulsion to obey his glamara. And failing. At least somewhat. Again and again, it had rotated its arms toward him, revealing more evidence of Vee’s unconscious form. The same occurred today.
The huffing started. Then the growling. Its nostrils flared, and its chest heaved. Stone muscles shook. Bark flared, sticking out in spikes. Vines slithered over limbs and branches like snakes.
The crack between its upper arm and chest widened bit by bit, a beam of sunlight flooding Vee’s motionless form. Like a man dying of thirst, Micah guzzled the sight of her. Her features were relaxed, her lips slightly parted. Golden skin glowed with health, those deceptively adorable freckles on display. A strand of scarlet hair caught and lifted in the breeze.
A familiar pang of connection erupted, stronger than what he felt with the belua, and he inwardly cursed. When would the link to her die?
The answer struck him as obvious: When I kill it. There was a way...
Satisfaction unfurled. Yes. Satisfaction, not dread. While there wasn’t a way to pry Vee from the protective grip of her “child,” there was now room to neutralize the wicked temptress’s glamara.
“The collar,” he called.
Norok stood off to the side; the warrior had refused to leave the area as well, lest Micah had need of him. The very reason the male had been awarded the position of second.
“The fortifications have been made to the metal, per your instructions.” The warrior pitched Micah the collar in question. A metal band embedded with multicolored stones, each performing a singular task, negating specific abilities.
He grinned. The bright red crystal in the center of the collar ensured he could find Vee, no matter where she happened to be. If she did somehow escape him, he could hunt her without problems.