Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145341 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 727(@200wpm)___ 581(@250wpm)___ 484(@300wpm)
When she looked down into the deep, dark hole, countless pairs of glowing red eyes stared up at her with malevolence. She shivered in spite of the fact that they appeared to be some distance from her and not moving toward her. Demon fighter or not, she had a healthy respect for their capabilities.
Tell me what you need to close the portal for good.
Afanasiv. He seemed to always know when she was hesitant and in need. I can’t just close and lock the portal if anyone human is being held prisoner to force compliance with their demands. Who knows what they have done to these families to make them cooperate?
She wanted there to be a reason other than religious fervor. The Sacred Circle held with many of the same beliefs as the other religions, but they were far stricter when it came to what women could or couldn’t do. They demanded that bloodlines stay pure. In their fervor, they evidently thought it was okay to make a pact with the devil to ensure their principles prevailed.
She felt Afanasiv’s instant rejection of her hope that Barnabas had taken family members in order to get their cooperation, but all the same, he shed his physical body and, without thought for his own safety, entered the portal before she could protest. Her heart jumped into her throat. Even without his body, he was putting himself in jeopardy.
All around her, the fight raged on between demons and Carpathians. She had no idea how Skyler was faring with Barnabas. She stepped as close as she dared to the opening of the underworld, desperate to guard Afanasiv. For the first time, her hands shook as she held her crystalline sword pointed across the chasm to shed light down into the deep crack.
Stay back, my lady, Afanasiv instructed. You are a prize they seek. If you are concentrating on me, a demon could sneak up behind you and throw you into the portal. There are demons waiting down here just for such a moment.
Vasilisa swung her sword around in a circle to ensure no demon dared to come up behind her. The blue flame would cut them down in a moment. The turn took less than half a second, and she couldn’t see Afanasiv with her human or Lycan eyes anyway. She was his lifemate, and that was the only way she knew his exact position. He didn’t dare put out energy in the hostile environment, which meant he had to examine the steep walls and jagged rocks below for signs of humans or Lycans being held against their will. It seemed to take forever when, in fact, only a minute or two had gone by before her lifemate was back with her.
You can safely close it. If they took anyone, they did not use this portal to bring them through, Afanasiv assured her.
Thank you. Without waiting another moment, Vasilisa poured the hot blue flame along the wound in the earth, running along the opening as she did so. In her other hand was the vial of holy water, and she sprinkled drops of it into the crack. The drops multiplied and became a deluge, raining directly into the long zigzagging fissure.
“Mother Earth, take back this land. Heal the deep laceration with your skills. I invoke the laws older than time. Older than those who would commit such atrocities against all that is good, all that is natural and one with nature.”
She ran around the entire crack a second time, shining the blue flame deep into the portal and shaking drops of holy water from the vial into the fissure so that it rained directly down into the dark abyss.
“I close this wound with your aid. I close this portal between the underworld and this realm with your aid. I seal this portal so it can never be used again by anything foul or unnatural. I call on the properties of nourishment. The sun and moon. Water. The elements. Worms. Every living thing needed to supply and enrich the soil.”
Demons shrieked at her in madness, redoubling their effort to stop her. The Carpathians refused to give ground, fighting them off, sometimes taking on two or three at a time. They were outnumbered, but it didn’t faze them in the least. Afanasiv seemed to be everywhere, keeping a barrier between her and the demons desperate to prevent her from accomplishing her task.
Vasilisa made the run around the large fissure in the ground a third time, pouring the brilliant light into the abyss, along with the drops from the vial as she invoked her mantra. “Mother Earth, I give back to you this scarred region that was taken from you by force. It is precious to you and to us. Let us seal this ground from all who would use it for evil.”