Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“A bad situation is an understatement. And it’s not like it got better just by being here.”
Danae nodded sagely. “That’s fair. You don’t have any reason to believe me, but I am sorry for what happened to you.”
“You don’t even know what happened.”
“I know you were sold and forced to move here against your will. That’s bad enough. I’ve been there. I was forced out of my home and taken to a strange world and had no idea what was going to happen. We look put together because we’re on the other side of it, but it wasn’t always easy.” Danae shook her head and gestured for them to continue walking. “And I don’t expect it to be easy for you.”
“How can it be when I don’t know what I’m even doing here?”
At least with Tarcus, it had been clear. Now, she felt even more in limbo. Not that she was upset that she wasn’t going to be used for sex, but why was she even here?
“My father has a long history with Tarcus. If he was going to purchase you, I suspect my father did it to save you.”
“That’s a hefty price for spite.”
Danae laughed softly. “I suppose it looks like that. He will find a way to make up the costs. He’s always been good at that. But I don’t think you need to worry about that right now.”
Kerrigan shot her a skeptical look. “And then what?”
“Well, what do you want?”
She almost laughed at the girl. What she wanted was so far out of her grasp right now that even suggesting it to Danae was absurd. She wanted to leave here, find Fordham, find her mother, and go home. But none of that was going to happen until she found a way out of this fortress.
“I want to go home,” she confessed instead.
Danae stopped in front of a room. Her gaze was off far in the distance. She swallowed. “Me too. What I wouldn’t give to go back to Andine. But neither of us is getting that today, are we?”
“I suppose not.”
Danae pushed the door open. “You’ll be safe in here tonight. No one will disturb you. Once you’re past the worst of the magic burn, things will start looking better.”
Kerrigan highly doubted it, but the exhaustion was creeping in even harder than before. If anything, at least Danae was willing to talk to her. She’d had no one while she was trapped with Flavia. A smiling face, even the daughter of her new owner, was preferable to solitude.
“Will there be a guard at the door?”
She shook her head. “No one will disturb you. You’re free to roam the house as you wish. Just stay off the grounds and don’t go near the fence. It’s magicked to a high shock, and then we’d be back at square one with your magic burn.”
Kerrigan filed that away. So, the magic she’d seen Constantine use went around the entire perimeter. That made sense. That didn’t mean there was nowhere to escape. It just meant she would have to find its weak points. Because no matter how nice Danae was and how Constantine seemed different, none of it meant anything in practice.
She stepped into the darkened room. “Okay.”
“Sleep well, Felicity,” Danae said with a sad smile and then pulled the door closed behind her.
Kerrigan was finally, blissfully alone. She could see little of the room because heavy curtains obscured the light. She pulled on one to let a sliver light in and saw that the room was beyond comprehension. Thick rugs under her feet instead of the cold stone. An enormous bed, draped with blankets and filled with overstuffed pillows. Tapestries hung on the walls, and expensive furniture littered the room. It was more extravagant even than her home in the mountain. Why would they have this waiting for her if he hadn’t planned to bring her at all?
She didn’t have answers, but she intended to get them.
It wasn’t until she crumpled into the bed, fully clothed, that she realized she had been running on fumes. When her head hit the pillow, her entire body fell into unconsciousness.
Sleep crusted her eyes as she woke abruptly. One minute, the world had been dark and her dreams empty, and the next, she was back in the bedroom of her owner. She hadn’t moved even an inch from where she had collapsed into bed. The magic burn must have been worse than she’d thought. She’d never experienced anything like it back home, but then again, she’d always had magic at her fingertips and friends to fix anything that ailed her.
She cracked her neck as she righted herself. Her body felt markedly better. Though hunger gnawed at her stomach. She stretched her shoulders and pulled back the heavy drapery to reveal a new dawn cresting the day. She’d slept the entire day and night again. Scales.