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)
As her gaze slipped far away, Micah’s mind began to clear. “It’s working,” he announced.
Kaysar vanished without a word. However, he returned only a few seconds later with a sleeping Drendall clutched in one arm and a cot anchored by the other. He placed the cot in the rear of the chamber, against a line of enchanted trees.
“Place my little love here,” the king instructed, patting the cot.
“You treat her like she’s still a child,” Micah grumbled. Though he hated to be without her, he obeyed, easing his bundle upon the taut fabric. Then he took the doll—their...child—and tucked her into Viori’s side and caressed her cheek.
“I’ll have you know I treat her as if she is precious because she is. Best you watch your tongue before I snatch it,” Kaysar groused as he led the vacant-eyed Amber to sit next to the cot, his touch surprisingly gentle.
Cookie secured Elena to a chair on the other side of the room.
“Norok expects you to strike tonight. He wants you to do so,” Elena piped up, imploring Micah with her gaze. “And if you don’t reach the camp by a certain time, he plans to bring the battle to you here. Why do you think he took out your beloved queen? He fears her monsters. He has scouts searching for the living belua even now, with orders to kill on sight.”
“As if we hadn’t deduced all of that on our own.” Cookie rolled her eyes. “Stating the obvious to earn our trust. It’s an adorable move that will gain you nothing but my wrath.” She waved in the other woman’s direction, and a poisonous vine grew from the one wrapped around Elena’s neck—straight into her mouth, silencing her.
The spy’s blue gaze pleaded with him. Believe me.
He did, and he didn’t. He needed to think. His heart had yet to slow as he, Kaysar and Cookie approached the table covered with maps.
Micah shuffled many of the maps out of his way, searching for a drawing of his camp. There. “Here, here, here and here you’ll find entrances to a series of underground tunnels and rooms. Before any battle, a contingent of soldiers usually wait in this one. The people are usually stored in this one. This is an escape route that leads to the wastelands. This is a trap rigged to collapse.”
“You’re telling us this because you’d like us to make the rooms collapse like the trap and crush your soldiers and people to death?” Cookie wobbled her head from side to side as if balancing a scale. “It’s cruel, but quick and effective. I like it. Though, honestly, there’s no reason to go to so much time and trouble when I can simply collect everyone with vines and pop off their heads.”
And she is my ally. The lesser of two evils. “The people aren’t to be harmed,” he grated. “If possible.” They sided with Norok and placed themselves in Micah’s crosshairs, so he couldn’t be blamed for a violent end. “Norok probably expects me to lead you to any of the rooms but the trap. Which means all the rooms will be traps, rigged with unknowns, making the trap I know about a viable option. As for your vines, there are traps set here, here and here. At the first sign of your glamara, you will be snared. And your voice won’t work,” he told Kaysar. “The entire army has already drunk surdi root tea, I’m sure, making themselves deaf.”
Kaysar rolled his eyes. “As if a beverage can thwart me.”
“You are not as indestructible as you think.” Norok and Micah had fought against one another for centuries. They knew each other’s strengths, weaknesses and preferences. To win, Micah would need to fight as he’d never fought before. A feat he was certain he had already achieved. Working with a former enemy. Intent on the death of his foes rather than subduing. A willingness to knock over anyone in his path. No mercy!
“How do you wish to play this then?” Kaysar asked him. “Because my sister seems to...hold you in some regard, I am willing to listen to your ideas.”
“She loves me,” he boasted, his chest all but swelling with pride. “And I love her.” With all his heart. Which meant he and Kaysar were stuck with each other. Forever.
His gaze strayed to Red, still on the cot, locks of scarlet hair spilled around her. His pride morphed into resolve, his muscles tightening. Really, there was only one way to play this. Go in alone. The oracle had said he would die if he did it. But so would Norok. And that would have to be enough.
Fayette would live, but so would Viori, Kaysar and Cookie, the two people able to protect his wife for the rest of her days.
A small price to pay, really. Kaysar and Cookie could take out Fayette later.