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)
Holding my breath this time, I used the technique Ash taught me. Pressing my tongue to the back of my teeth, I straightened my spine and counted, repeating it until the sensation of fists clenching my lungs eased.
I slowly opened my eyes. My pulse was calm. So were my thoughts. I was…level.
My gaze flicked down. Sunlight glittered off the shadowstone railing that Nektas had been perched upon last night. I lifted my gaze to the sky and saw something I’d never seen in the Shadowlands before. Clouds—thick, fluffy clouds. And between those puffs, stars glimmering vividly. It was an unreal and beautiful sight.
Tipping my head back to the sun, I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply. The stagnant scent from before was gone. The air was pleasant, if a little on the cool side, reminding me of the autumns from my childhood memories before the days and nights became overbearingly hot and humid.
I looked out over the courtyard. Thin tufts of green broke up the barren brown land.
Was that what was happening in Lasania, too? Was the soil already beginning to repair itself and sprouting new life? Better yet, what did my stepsister Ezra think?
“What is my mother thinking?” I asked aloud and then let out a short, shaky laugh.
Honestly, they probably weren’t thinking about much beyond being so damn relieved. With the end of the Rot, more than just the decaying land would change. The weather would, too—the stifling heat and long droughts ended only by torrential downpours that did more harm than good. More fields could now be plowed. Crops planted. The people of Lasania had more than just a future. Queen Ezmeria and her Lady Consort Marisol could plan for a future, and that of coming generations. There was hope.
And I supposed once the shock lifted, they’d begin to think about how this was all possible. They’d probably assume I was dead. What else would they think? They both knew I couldn’t survive what we’d believed my duty to be—a fact that had always bothered Ezra.
And something my mother had accepted.
Though everything was different now. I doubted I would be such an utter disappointment to her when she realized I was Queen of the Gods and the Primal of Life. Maybe she’d be interested in actually being a mother to me.
I pressed my lips together as an uncomfortable mass of guilt frothed to life. Was it fair to think of my mother that way? I wasn’t so sure anymore, as I thought about her in the Wayfair gardens.
She’d found me sitting in front of beautifully scented flowers with purplish-blue spikes. She’d said that my father also enjoyed them. It had been one of the rare times she’d spoken of him. She’d been crying that night, and I didn’t think it had much to do with the ache in her head that often plagued her. Those tears had everything to do with my father. Her feelings were wrapped up in a whole lot of grief because when she looked upon me, she saw my father and felt nothing but heartache.
Still, I was her child. It wasn’t my fault that King Roderick had made that deal all those years ago, setting everything in motion and inevitably leading to my father’s death.
A biting ache I thought should’ve vanished by now sliced through my chest. Everything with my mother still cut deep, even after all these years—even as I grew to have a better understanding of her. And maybe that would never go away, only lessen with time.
But I wanted to see Lasania for myself. I wanted to see Ezra, Marisol, and even…gods, even my mother. But I knew that would have to wait.
I leaned out, stretching until I saw the Red Woods. “Good gods.”
The large swath of crimson leaves was afire in the sunlight, a sight just as beautiful as the sky despite the blood of the gods entombed beneath them that gave the leaves their vibrant color.
Gods that were as cruel as Kyn.
The skin along my neck tingled as I took in the shocking, almost twisted beauty of the Red Woods. Many of those gods had been entombed by Eythos himself. Not all. Quite a few had been placed there by Ash, but I knew those beneath the trees were the worst sort. Some were power-hungry. Others were lost to bloodlust. Many were abusers. Rapists. Most saw mortals as beneath them and only suited for worship and servitude.
I also knew they were loyal to Kolis—or would be if ever freed.
While Kolis hadn’t gone into that much detail with his plans for exactly how he intended to humble mortals if he Ascended as the Primal of Life and Death or continued on as he was now, I knew he sought a more active role among the mortals.
Those entombed gods would support such endeavors.