Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Maybe the glass would stop on the outside.
The outside.
A distant possibility, and yet … and yet … she had done it.
And the glass was still here.
She had died and not died. Her black shadows scooping her up and out of the rubble by a miracle that wasn’t her doing. She’d lain on that riverbank until the glass disappeared again.
Then, she had dedicated herself to taking down her treasonous brother. Tracked his black shadows, the aura of his magic so like her own, until she found him on that cliffside. Then, he disappeared for days. She won then. And still, Kerrigan beat her.
Somehow, her shadows had failed her. When they had always saved her before. Perhaps the glass was worse on the outside. Worse without Aisling.
Because Aisling hadn’t come out of Lethbridge.
And Wynter hadn’t wanted to when she remembered that.
The door creaked open.
The male had tan skin with deep, dark eyes and even darker hair. He looked kind. His magic was a blue aura that she had never seen before. A glowy sea-blue color that was hazy at all the edges. Smudged like smoke.
“Who are you?” Wynter demanded.
“You’re awake,” he said calmly. “I’ve come to check on you.”
“Don’t touch me. I am a princess of the House of Shadows, and you will answer my questions.”
The male smiled. “Ah, well, I’m not much of a questions kind of male.”
“You will answer my questions.”
“How about this? I’ll check out your head, and then I’ll send someone in to answer your questions?”
“My head?” she asked in confusion.
“Aye. It’s not a healing sort of problem, but I’m working on a concoction for you to try to see if it helps. I’ve seen others with the same sort of thing, and as long as they take it regularly, it seems to settle down.”
She stared him down imperiously. “I will take no potion. Not until you explain why I have no magic and where precisely I am.”
“Again, I don’t answer questions. I just do what the boss says.” He gestured to her head. “Now, may I?”
“No. Find me the boss first.”
The male sighed. “All right. He’s not going to like that.”
“I don’t give a flying fuck what he likes. He’s holding me prisoner.”
“Not precisely,” he said with a sad smile. “But I’ll get him. Drink some water. It will help.”
As if she were stupid enough to drink the water. It was probably drugged with whatever had dampened her magic.
The door closed behind the male, and he was gone again for a long time. She had no concept of how long, but it felt like an eternity. Long enough for her to disappear into herself again.
A knock at the door jarred her back to herself. She stared at her surroundings in alarm. How long had it been that time?
When the door opened, one of the most gorgeous males she had ever seen in her life entered. He was tall. Towering over her, and she was not a small female. He had a wicked smile, eyes the color of dark honey, and hair like a fox—not quite brown, not quite red. He looked at her as if she were prey and not predator. No male had ever looked at her that way.
And then she startled as she looked at his bare ears.
He was no male at all.
He was a man. A human man.
“Hello, Wynter,” the man said, leaning against the door with feline grace. “I heard you wanted answers to your questions.”
“Who the hell are you?”
He smiled deadly, flicking an R pin at his lapel. “Guess this doesn’t mean a whole lot to you, considering where you’re from. I’m Dozan Rook. King of the Wastes.”
35
THE RETURN
Kerrigan returned to Draco Mountain to find a book on her bed with a note from Bastian.
Council finally approved this. Give it a thorough read. We’ll begin as soon as you return from Bryonica. —Bastian
Kerrigan frowned. Bryonica. So, that was the lie that had been spun about her mysterious departure. She had stopped overnight while returning home with Wynter, only to discover that two weeks had passed since her name day. At most, it had felt like a few days. They must have been lost in Titania’s spell far longer than expected.
Now that Wynter was secure, Kerrigan had work to do. The election was coming up, her nomination hung in the balance, and now, she had magical artifact training. All of that, and she’d lost two weeks.
The next morning, piles of missed assignments covered her study. She would have to look at that sometime later. She’d sent a messenger to Bastian when she got in late last night to let him know she would begin as soon as she woke. He’d returned a message, saying to meet in the arena. Then, she’d sent Benton and Bayton to retrieve Audria and Roake. It would be best if the three of them received the same training.