Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
All the while she worked at very delicately merging with the monster, she had to avoid Raik’s attacks on her. She also needed to keep his attention solely on her. Tora had to be the one to keep Raik safe. She could fade into the background, preventing Raik and the sea demon from remembering she was in the room.
Do you feel the presence of evil? Silke asked Tora. She was sharing all information with her. If anything went wrong, the other slayers would need to know whatever she could find out about this demon as well as whether Lilith was looking at the slayer through the demon’s eyes. Although she was surrounded by evil while she was sifting through the demon’s memories, she didn’t feel as if Lilith was lurking.
Tora took her time, examining the demon through Silke. She was Carpathian, and just her presence, if detected, could tip off their enemies. Tora was ancient. She was extremely good at hiding herself from vampires and demons. She’d taught Silke so much. Her composure during every battle with the undead was shocking and something Silke aspired to.
Fighting a demon was always tricky. Very difficult. Fighting the undead was horrifying. Scary beyond imagining. Vampires did their best to get into one’s mind. They commanded victims to come to them and most did. They were the worst as far as Silke was concerned, although when Tora was forced to fight them when they came too close to the village, Silke always backed her. She had the scars to prove it.
I do not feel her presence, not like she is in him currently. More, it is his memories where the evil emanates from mainly. And him. There is no saving this creature, Tora added in warning.
Silke was aware the mutated demon was too far gone. That didn’t mean she couldn’t feel compassion for him. He had been mutated by Lilith and her army of mages and vampires dwelling in the underworld with her. She seemed to always be able to convince the worst of them to work for her, promising them she would free them if they pleased her. As far as Silke was aware, no one had ever been freed from Lilith’s service, but those in the underworld believed her empty promises. They were that desperate to escape their fate.
Lilith can enter and see through his eyes, Silke cautioned. She is notorious for leaving herself that door. When I draw him out, we’ll need a veil so he can’t send back to his maker what we look like. She may get a feel for us, but our scent, and hopefully our identities, will still be a mystery to her.
She kept Raik’s attention centered on her the entire time she studied the demon. At times she could take over a demon, draw him away from Lilith, but this one was beyond that. She would have to draw him out of Raik’s body. This one was savage and relentless, programmed to kill the wielder of the crystal sword. As she studied the demon’s memories to find the answers they needed, she still had to avoid Raik’s attacks. He was becoming more animalistic. Much more aggressive and vicious as the demon reacted to the lights of the sword.
Be ready, Tora, she cautioned. I’m going to draw him out. Raik will fight it. The demon very well could tear through his body to get free and come at me. If that happens, see to Raik first. Don’t let him die if there is a way to save him.
I’m ready, Tora confirmed. But know this, sisarke, if it is between you and Raik, I will save you every time, and it isn’t because you’re the demon slayer.
Silke allowed that declaration to warm her. She had Fenja, but Silke had been taking care of her adoptive mother since it became apparent that she was the demon slayer. Somehow, over the years, there had been a reversal of roles. Silke became the teacher and Fenja listened to her, drawing on her vast knowledge of plants and shrubs to aid the villagers when they were ill.
Fenja’s eyesight had deteriorated over the years. Her arthritis had curled her fingers into claws. Tora had healed her several times, but the condition always returned quickly. She had already been a mature woman, far past childbearing years, when she had taken Silke, a newborn baby, home with her. Tora treated Silke as a sibling. She wasn’t the most demonstrative of women, but she always made Silke feel loved. That brief statement Tora had made gave Silke the knowledge that she mattered to at least one person other than Fenja.
Once more she shifted the crystal sword, making direct contact with Raik. At once the sea monster reacted, thrashing and biting, moving toward the piercing colors, not away.