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)
“I won’t,” I swore.
“That’s my girl.”
Ash’s lips crashed into mine. The kiss was deep and fierce, an urgent clash of tongues and fangs that sent a jolt of raw energy coursing through him to me. It was a proclamation that became a promise as he spoke. “The next time we kiss, it will be over Kolis’s body.”
A savage smile spread across my lips. “I can’t wait.”
Letting go of my neck, he held on to my hand until I jumped from the rock. Ash and I stood vigilant, like a pair of sentinels.
“The ceeren have slowed,” Ash noted.
Every muscle in my body tensed. Time seemed to slow to an infinite crawl, and then I heard Nektas’s voice once more. Phanos’s ships are nearing the bay. There was a pause. Ehthawn can see soldiers on the gangways. Some are beginning to lower boats.
My hands fisted as I repeated the update to Ash.
“I know we want Kolis out in the open before striking, but we can’t let those ships get close,” Ash reminded me. “They get on shore, we’ll be swamped.”
Holding his gaze, I nodded. Concentrating on Nektas’s imprint, I exhaled slowly. Burn the ships coming toward the bay. All of them.
There was silence once more as I turned my gaze back to the sky. Theon had been right. From where we stood, we couldn’t see the bay or where Ehthawn and Crolee were hidden in the eastern mountain coastline. I didn’t even see or hear them take flight, but I didn’t take my eyes off the sky over the bay. The clouds were scattered and wispy but still provided some level of coverage. I held my breath and counted to five.
Suddenly, the two dark shapes belonging to Ehthawn and his cousin appeared above the clouds. In the next heartbeat, they broke free, diving toward the bay. Twin streams of flames erupted from them. I sucked in a short breath as the entire landscape suddenly lit up with the silvery glow of draken fire.
We couldn’t see the ships, but we heard the exact moment the fire struck them. It was a boom of splintering wood and a rage of crackling embers that muffled shouts of pain. The feeling of death followed and kept coming, pressing down on my chest as Crolee and Ehthawn flew over each other, raining down fiery destruction as they continued farther out.
A piercing whistle came from the sea by the bluffs, jerking our attention from the silvery glow. The ceeren were moving once more, racing toward the shore.
“Fire!” Theon called from below.
The sharp whistle of arrows taking to the air quickly answered. I wanted to look away but forced myself to watch as the projectiles plummeted at neck-breaking speed. Lean bodies suddenly jerked while others swam past. Fins disappeared under water rapidly turning a reddish hue.
Another volley of arrows was released as the sea churned with raw, primal ferocity when the ceeren breached the surf. They didn’t even miss a step. Saltwater coursed off their lithe forms, and they shed their iridescent scales in a shimmery wave of eather as they withdrew their swords. Within a few heartbeats, the shore was filled with ceeren. Our soldiers rushed from the caves. Swords met as arrows ripped through the sky above them, aiming for those in the water.
My nails dug into my palms when I saw one of ours fall. Eather pressed against my skin as I caught sight of Theon driving his blade through a ceeren’s chest. I stepped toward the bluff’s edge—
Clashing of swords from the eastern forests rang out, whipping our heads around. Branches rattled and snapped as bursts of eather lit up the shadows.
The echo of death was continuous now.
Our first line in the forest fell with shocking swiftness, causing my heart to stutter. Essence poured into my veins.
“Breathe.” Ash captured my hand. The feeling of his flesh against mine was grounding. “You need to conserve your energy for when Kolis gets here.”
It took everything in me to hold back as Kolis’s soldiers burst from the shadows of the forest hugging the field’s edges, a sea of crimson sweeping across the land.
A crackling bolt of eather echoed from below, slamming into the center of the soldiers as Attes led the second line out onto the field in a clash of shadowstone and eather. It was hard to make sense of what I was seeing for a moment. The fighting was chaotic and brutal, drenching the tall grass in shimmering red.
A shout from behind us caused my heart to drop. I turned to the trees, fingers splaying wide as blades streaked against blades and armor echoed.
“They got behind us somehow.” Ash cursed. “That division must’ve split off at some point, skirting the area to come up the bluffs.”
I reached behind me and unsheathed my sword, catching quick, darting glimpses of crimson among the trees.