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)
The last time she’d birthed this many at once, she’d slept for centuries. This time, she might die afterward. Or would die, according to Amber. Or perhaps not. Perhaps Elena was right. They didn’t know what would happen now that they were working together. But if she died, she would be taking Fayette or Norok with her, leaving Micah with protectors and, hopefully, the means of creating his paradise, so...
Worth it. But she wouldn’t sing the last note unless things got critical. First, she would...what?
Don’t think. Do.
Without warning, screams and shouts pierced the air, ringing out from the camp. Hope collided with dread. Had Elena already succeeded in ending Norok? Or had Micah and Kaysar attacked?
With a gasp, Viori sprang from the line of trees. Shock overtook her when she spotted the campground now. Trolls had invaded, swarming the entire camp, trampling everything in their wake. Soldiers ran this way and that, chased by groups of the ravaging brutes.
Had Norok lost control of his hidden armies? Or had he done this on purpose? Willing to sacrifice his own men for revenge? Had he and the oracle abandoned the place, or did they hide within his glamara?
If Viori sang now, awakening their bones, she would kill the soldiers as well as the trolls.
Either way, she couldn’t allow these trolls to go free. Should she gamble and awaken her newest creations? Was that how she died? Falling asleep, thereby unable to protect herself from attack?
If she slept and traveled, she slept and traveled. If she died, she died. She’d lived a good life. The best. She’d known love, whether Micah had admitted it or not. She’d given it, too. And she’d meant what she’d said. These were her people. She would fight for them until her dying breath.
Except, she caught a glimpse of a running Fayette, weaving in and out between tents, escaping the action. All right. The song could wait. Remove the heads of the snake before dealing with the body.
Viori gave chase...
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
MICAH RUSHED INTO the midst of utter chaos, brandishing a pair of short swords. He thought he’d seen Graves and John in the forest, but he wasn’t sure. He’d been moving too quickly. Aggression teemed inside him, making him feel double his usual size. Muscles flexed and hardened. As he swung his weapons, his blood converted to liquid power. A troll head flew across the camp. Then another. And another. There went a clawed hand. An organ. He cut through opponent after opponent.
No mercy.
Dead bodies soon littered the ground. Trolls and soldiers alike. More soldiers than trolls. He inwardly cursed. The trolls were winning, tearing through tents as well as the army, unleashing centuries of stored-up rage. Pained screams pierced the air in a constant ebb and flow.
He wasn’t yet sure how so many trolls had gotten free of his compulsion. He felt no fear. And he’d never felt enough fear to free this many at once. Unless... What if this horde had never been under his compulsion? What if Norok had hidden his own army all along? His own backup plan.
That would mean he hadn’t betrayed Micah because of Warren’s death. Not fully. But also because the underhanded warrior sought power.
Where was Ragdar? Where was Viori? Micah must find her. Allow her to perish out here? No. If he had to die so that she could live, so be it.
Kaysar bounded to his side, catching a troll by the wrist before the brute was able to strike Micah from behind. A slash of the king’s free hand, and the creature’s guts spilled out. The troll dropped and writhed. Micah kicked him in the face, and Kaysar removed his head with those infamous metal claws.
“Leave,” Micah commanded as he slayed his next two targets. “You remember Amber’s warning as well as I do. If we’re together, we’ll die. Red will need you when this is over.”
“If my sister wants you, she gets you,” Kaysar snapped, killing another troll. “No matter how terrible I consider her taste. We will save her, and we will survive. No other outcome is acceptable to me.”
For minutes—hours? an eternity?—they fought side by side. He caught sight of Graves and John again. They attacked their opponents with relish.
When Kaysar launched into a song and grabbed Micah’s hand to steer him toward a certain horde, he realized this was the vision Fayette had shown him. And yes, she had twisted what she had revealed. Rather than Kaysar and Viori fighting side by side against Micah, the two kings worked together. True allies. For the first time, he enjoyed the male’s voice.
They cut through the horde with vicious precision. Any soldiers they came across joined their ranks, fighting alongside them. At the moment, they didn’t see Kaysar as an enemy but a friend. Someone they needed. It helped that they couldn’t hear him.