Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
From the valley below, a draken’s panicked call sent dread cascading through me. The draken in the sky veered sharply and dove to the ground—to safety.
“No,” I whispered. I had no idea if the draken were now loyal to Penellaphe or not, but I didn’t want to see what I knew was coming.
A scream lodged in my throat. The eather struck draken after draken. Horror swamped me as they twisted and writhed in the sky, their wings crumbling and then disappearing. Essence flared in me, one, two, three…eight times as the draken shifted into their mortal forms, their bodies limp as they fell…
I couldn’t believe what I’d just seen. Shock paralyzed me when the draken on the ground let out anguished wails. Kolis had nearly wiped out all the draken of the Court in less than a minute. I didn’t think I would be capable of something like that even if I wasn’t a fledgling Primal. The kind of power it took to kill a draken…
His laughter ceased. Then, he began to sing, his voice traveling through the air like a sinister requiem that became a somber song. My entire being recoiled instinctually as the very realm shuddered, and the haunting hymn rose…
Something fell from above too fast for me to tell what it was, but it was too small to be another draken. I jerked, something else plummeting from above. Warmth flared in my chest. I looked up, the heat quickly returning as another object fell, then another, and another…
I saw things climbing out of windows and over balcony rails on the upper floors of the sweeping ivory palace, opening their arms wide and embracing the call of death.
Oh, my gods.
Horror rose. Gods and godlings, mortals and servants, embraced death. The fall from Mount Lotho would kill a god. It would likely even do serious damage to a Primal.
“You sick bastard!” I screamed, willing the eather to the surface to try to catch the ones I could, but the essence merely sparked and flickered. The delay was costly, and the fall was too quick. “Stop!”
The chilling song ceased.
My furious glare fixed on Kolis as another echo of death haunted me. “Why? Why would you do that?” I shouted. I didn’t know if I was asking about those he’d called to their deaths or if I was demanding to know why he’d taken my family. I wasn’t sure why I was asking either. I knew the answer. He was a walking nightmare. Still, I screamed, “Why?”
“You should know,” Kolis said, his voice no longer carrying the winds of summer. Now, it brought with it the nothingness of death.
“Other than you being absolutely demented,” I seethed, “do you even know why you are this way?”
A heartbeat passed, and then Kolis was directly in front of me. I didn’t even see the blow coming. His fist slammed into my jaw, the force cranking my head back.
Pain erupted, and blood filled my mouth, but I somehow managed to keep my footing.
“Did you really think that would hurt me? A Primal a millennium old?” Kolis’s laugh sounded like dry bones rubbing together. “You silly cunt.”
Head ringing, I straightened and faced him, spitting a mouthful of blood directly in his face.
Kolis smiled, and there was nothing fake about it. He licked the blood from his lips. “Tasty.” Crimson shadows blossomed under the flesh of his chest. “I should thank you for Ascending a Primal to take Embris’s place. I would’ve chosen someone different, but she…” His smile spread, and red swirled in his eyes. “She will be so lovely when she kneels before me and pledges her allegiance. Not as fulfilling as when you do, but still enjoyable.”
It was almost like his words were a different sort of siren’s call to me. Common sense jumped right off the cliff, along with Holland’s advice. Rage was an unending fire in my blood, even as instinct warned me that I needed to be careful. I had to put space between us. Kolis was old. He was stronger and faster. I had been weakened substantially, and the pain from my numerous injuries was no longer so dull. Tiny stings and sharp pricks joined the throbbing in my jaw, but all the drowning anger and sorrow was far greater, as was the knowledge that I was no longer afraid of him.
The palace trembled under my wrath, and I launched myself at Kolis, summoning the eather.
All he did was lift his arm, and it was like I fucking jumped throat-first into his palm. “As much as it pains me even to admit this, Seraphena,”—his grip on my throat tightened—“I admire your tenacity. If things were different, you would’ve sat at my right hand as my most vicious ally.”
“Thanks,” I bit out, grasping his wrist. “My life is complete hearing that—”
He squeezed, silencing me and cutting off my next breath. “Your mouth, however, is a different story.”