Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
The Shadow stretches their arms out a second time, but then freezes and looks up, just in time for Xiaric to swoop in for his pass, snatching three up in his maw while knocking the rest off.
Beyond the wall, a ball of fire ignites as Valk hunts down fleeing Saur’goths.
“Should we go down there?”
“No, they have a handle on it.” Zander settles his arm around my shoulders, pulling me against him. “Lyndel is ours once more.”
We watch quietly as the sun rises and the enemy falls.
And neither of us say it, but I know we’re both wondering what Malachi has in store for us next.
44
Sofie
The morning peeks through the stained glass windows of the sanctum, bathing the patrons in dappled light.
“Your Highness.” The priestess Wendeline’s bow is slow and deep. When she rises, her eyes dart to my battered cheek. “Did you come for healing?”
“That is kind of you, but it will be gone by tomorrow.” And I would never allow a caster, even as weak as this one, to touch me with her affinity.
Malachi let me rest last night, dismissing me when I arrived in his chamber to discover him mid-copulation with that young wine maid. That is not my husband, I told myself repeatedly, tears streaming as I drifted off.
I slept both fitfully and soundly, my dreams inundated with intimate memories of Elijah that I had long since forgotten. They were so vivid, I could feel his touch on my skin when I woke with a start, my body aroused and my blood racing.
As for the wine maid, I asked around discreetly this morning for her whereabouts. No one seemed to know where she went, but the maids who cleaned Malachi’s room were as pale as the bundled bedsheets in their arms. I’m sure there will be a new servant pouring wine tonight. Ideally, someone less appealing to their king.
I slide into the same pew we occupied the other day.
Wendeline slips in beside me, her hands folded in her lap. She still cradles the once injured one, though it is as healed as it ever will be. “What brings you here today?”
“I thought I would see more of this city I now rule,” I lie smoothly. The last thing I care about is playing queen alongside a mad king.
“That is a fine idea. I believe the market is open today. If you travel past the apothecary, you will find it. It is not what it once was, but it is still something. I saw a few carts rolling in before daybreak.” She is trying her best to appear cordial, but she cannot hide her fear and disdain for me. I see it in the way she avoids my gaze, in the way she sits stiffly, ready to flee at the first opportunity. Is it for what I am or for what I did to her precious little thief?
“I will keep that in mind. Thank you.” It’s still early in the day, but people huddle in the front, their heads bent in prayer. “I hear the mortals are abandoning their keepers in droves.”
“There have been rumors of that, yes.” Her eyes flicker to the front, to a family who cowers in the corner. They’re too far away to glimpse their ears—to see if they wear cuffs—but the way the parents steal petrified glances this way, I would suspect they have either taken them off or plan to. “Now that the blood curse is over, many do not see why the old system should prevail. The keeper no longer needs them to live.”
“They are still seen as property, and no one likes to lose property.” Certainly not that which provides both manual labor and status.
Wendeline nods but says nothing.
The faintest breeze grazes my ear, and I instinctively turn into the emptiness beside me, the hairs on the back of my neck standing on end. It is the second time this morning I have felt that. I felt it last night, too, when facing Romeria and her clan. It’s almost as though someone sits close beside me.
On impulse, I let a tendril of Vin’nyla’s thread reach out, searching.
There is nothing there, nothing that my affinity touches.
I must be going crazy.
“What do you know about the exiled king’s sister’s whereabouts? Annika is her name.”
Wendeline’s eyebrows pop at the sudden change in subject. “I have not seen or heard about Princess Annika since before the attack. But I have not spent much time in the castle.”
“I do not think she is there, and there was no mention of her body found after the rebellion.”
“Surely, you would have heard about that,” she agrees.
“I wonder then, does she hide within the city?” I watch Wendeline’s face closely for tells. “Perhaps here?”
“She is certainly not in the sanctum. If she were, I doubt I would be left alive.”