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 stopped those thoughts. Now was so not the time to focus on that.
“Nice of you to finally join us,” Ash spoke, his voice calm but each word laced with hatred.
Kolis leaned back, letting go of one of the spikes protruding from Nab’s back. His golden hair fell over his forehead, obscuring a part of the crimson wings he’d painted on his face. How cute. Now, he matched his minions. “You burned my ships.”
I snapped out of my stupor, stepping forward. “We burned Phanos’s ships.”
Eyes streaked with crimson slid to me.
“Do not look at her,” Ash growled, his flesh thinning and shadows appearing underneath.
Kolis smirked and continued staring down at me.
The shadows in Ash’s flesh darkened as tendrils of eather spilled out of him.
He’s about to lose it, Nektas warned me.
I reached over, fingers gliding through the icy eather gathering around him. Placing my hand on his arm, I squeezed gently.
Ash’s eyes flashed pure silver. I feared he would launch himself at Kolis for a moment, but then the mist around him slowed.
“Charming,” Kolis remarked. “That Fate claimed it would just be a meeting among us three.”
“And you agreed to that. But, unsurprisingly, you did not honor it,” I retorted, letting go of Ash’s arm.
He gestured idly to the fighting on the field below. “It appears to me that neither did you.”
“Of course, not,” Ash replied. I saw Bele creeping closer through the trees to our right. “We knew you wouldn’t be brave enough to show alone.”
Nab snarled at Ash as Kolis leaned forward. The curve of the Primal’s lips immediately set off warning bells.
“Do not say whatever it is you’re thinking,” I warned, eather crackling in my veins as the field below us lit up with streaks of eather. I felt Phanos’s arrival.
I wanted to turn to the fighting but didn’t dare take my eyes off Kolis.
His grin grew into a twisted smile, causing the wings painted on his face to lift. “Nephew,” he purred, and my skin crawled. “I can still taste her blood in my mouth and feel her on my fingers.”
There was no time to feel anything in response to his words. Not disgust or shame. Not even anger. Ash shifted instantly, his flesh hardening and turning as dark as the night. Eather swept out from his back in twin arcs. I grabbed his arm again.
“Don’t.” I held on. “Don’t give him what he wants.”
Frigid air poured across the bluffs, a thin layer of ice forming on the compacted soil and rock. The sound that came from Ash rumbled over the area, and I knew I needed to act quickly. Nektas drew his head back, his frills beginning to vibrate. We’d gotten what we needed. Kolis had been lured out. Now, we just needed him off Naberius and preferably not on a damn cliff above us before I summoned Thierran.
Ash was beginning to rise beside me. “You came here for The Star,” I shouted, my grip on Ash’s arm slipping. “Being disgusting won’t help you get what you’ve always wanted.”
Kolis didn’t look away from Ash as he said, “I’m curious. What exactly made you change your mind, Seraphena?”
“I want this to end,” I answered, hearing Ash’s growl grow louder. “Too much blood has been spilled.”
“You’ve spilled far more than I,” he replied. “You’ve cost me Embris, Veses, and Kyn.”
“I have, but that is nothing compared to what you have done in all your years or what we will both do if we continue fighting.” I was relieved to see that Ash had regained some control over himself. He returned to the ground beside me, but his skin was still the hue of shadowstone. “I want to end this. Right now.”
Kolis’s chuckle turned my stomach. “What did I tell you, Seraphena? The last time we had the pleasure of being in each other’s presence?”
“I don’t know,” I gritted out. “You talk a lot and yet speak only bullshit, so it’s kind of hard to remember everything.”
His upper lip curled, and blotches of crimson appeared on his skin. “You had your chance to accept the deal I offered. That is no longer on the table. You will give me The Star, and I will have both of you in chains.”
Kolis lifted his hand. I heard them before I saw them, the rasp of their claws against rock.
They came from behind Kolis, as large as warhorses, their slick, obsidian skin as hard as shadowstone, and their heads featureless except for the thin slits above their gaping maws.
Dakkais.
Dozens of them.
Naberius rocked back, pushing off the cliff with a powerful sweep of his wings as the dakkais leaped into the air.
“Fuck,” Ash growled, pulling his swords free once more.
There was no way to keep track of Kolis as the nightmarish beasts rushed us.
I unsheathed the sword as Nektas’s head snapped forward. He caught one of the dakkais in his mouth. Turning his head sharply, he split the creature in two as one leapt toward Ash, but he was quick, plunging his sword into the creature’s chest.