Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 242728 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1214(@200wpm)___ 971(@250wpm)___ 809(@300wpm)
I tried to smile, but my lips were numb.
My heart beat too fast, and every instinct screamed to run.
Tral came to my other side, his huge bulk an imposing mountain blocking my path.
My gaze flew over the many pairs of eyes watching us, the many eager faces locked on their leaders and me in their middle. Shades of skin varied from night to day. Braided and flower-decorated hair ranged from sunshine to black and even the fiery glow of flames.
But not one had a smoky stare that had the power to stop my heart.
Darro.
Please...
Tral raised his arms, silencing the final whisper.
His dark chest strained with a deep inhale, and his voice echoed around the camp, cutting through the fire’s crackle and seeping into every listening ear. “Tonight, our Fire Reader was returned to us after he risked his own spirit in order to help our nameless guest find hers. For three days, he was trapped in the flames while this nameless guest went on her own quest to remember. It took a special clan member to find her and bring her back.” He glanced around, looking for Syn, who’d been shooed away from my side when I’d been led to stand at the head of the fire.
The lynx sat up from her pout, her whiskers glittering and tiny antlers proud as a crown upon her head.
Tral beamed. “We seem to have created a habit of adopting of late. First, a lynx cub and now a newly gifted Quelis girl.” His pride-filled eyes fell on me. “Thanks to our Fire Reader, she is no longer nameless, and she is no longer just our guest. She has been chosen by the flames to carry on a lineage that continues to keep us healthy, wealthy, and safe.”
Out of the corner of my eye, Aktor appeared, slipping from the leader’s lupic with a scowl. He moved with a limp, his hand wrapped around a sturdy stick that aided his wincing gait. His hips were wrapped in bison fur while the thigh that Salak had mauled had been tended to by a healer, bound in a poultice and wrapped in woven river reeds.
Our eyes met.
Memories of his hands around my throat made icy sweat roll down my spine.
Aktor didn’t hold my stare. His chin tipped downward as he moved to stand beside his mother, sister, and baby brother. Tiptu launched into a sharp, whispered conversation, directing a flurry of words into his ear.
He listened, then froze.
His head wrenched up, staring at me.
This time, his eyes were wide and disbelieving.
His chest was painted with ash and tallow, similar to the symbols Pallen had drawn on me when I’d first stepped into the trance with Solin. He wore two strings of beads with the tip of a bison horn dangling from the longest one.
He flinched as I glowered back, just daring him to lay another finger on me.
I would hurt him back.
I would use my sensitive power to step into Zetas’s wolfen spirit and borrow her fangs to tear another hole into his body.
A hole that couldn’t be so easily repaired.
Whispering back to his mother, Aktor’s free hand, that wasn’t wrapped around his walking stick, cut through the air with ferocity.
Another droplet of worry rolled down my spine as I watched the two argue back and forth. The longer they spoke, the more my instincts burned to bolt.
I shifted on my toes, tearing my eyes away from the male who’d hurt me, and searched for the male who’d saved me. The male who’d given me everything my lonely, forgetful heart didn’t know it needed.
I needed to feel him, touch him, so I didn’t give in to the crushing dread growing thicker and blacker with every heartbeat.
Squeezing my elbow again, Solin wrenched me back to the blazing fire and eager eyes. “Allow me to present...Runa. Chosen by the fire. Named after the ancient, dead language of Zenasha for bee, life giver, and light bringer. Adoptive daughter to Solin, first of his name and current Spirit Master, kin to Tiptu and Tral, chief and chiefess of the Nhil, marked by Quelis, and branded by the flames themselves.”
“Runa!” The clan raised their hands and voices—just like they had when welcoming Bon at his naming ceremony.
I twitched and stared into the deep, dark night, searching for a way to hide from so many seeing eyes.
Solin looked at Tral, who picked up a small carved bowl resting by his foot.
Solin continued in his assertive announcement. “Tonight’s feast is in blessing to Runa’s new path. To bring richness to her upcoming learning, prosperity to her fire-given existence, and abundance to her power and awakening.”
The clan all raised their hands to the sky, calling out as one, drumming their feet on the earth. “Runa!”
Once they’d fallen quiet, Solin said, “We welcome her spirit into our ever-growing family. May she be cherished and cared for by all and guided and taught by our collective wisdom, so that she may guide and care for us all when she becomes our next Fire Reader.”