Total pages in book: 207
Estimated words: 196971 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 985(@200wpm)___ 788(@250wpm)___ 657(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 196971 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 985(@200wpm)___ 788(@250wpm)___ 657(@300wpm)
There were supposed to be thirteen bodies in the mass grave Martin had led her to, but only a dozen had been found. #13 was still missing, and Zari had a feeling the number was not a coincidence.
On the train ride back to Hudson Yards, Zari typed a quick email for Raffy and tinkered some more with their app in hopes of keeping herself busy. And for a while, she succeeded. For a while, she forgot.
But once she was off the train and walking five stories up to her subsidized studio apartment—-
She tried.
She honestly tried.
But as soon as she was inside, the door locked, and her home security activated—-
Despair surged up, and Zari was already crying just like young dead Martin even before her knees had hit the hardwood floor.
It had been four years since she had last seen him.
Three years since he seemed to have disappeared off the face of the earth.
And a year since anyone had last heard from Alexandru.
Most people thought him dead now, but all of them were wrong.
She would know if he were.
She couldn't not know, and it wasn't just because he was her Master and she was his pet.
She would know because she loved him, and he loved her, and God...
A sob rocked her body as Zari slowly curled herself into a ball. She closed her eyes, and another sob shook her to the core as memories of him instantly flooded her mind. She remembered how the sheer gorgeousness of him could easily take her breath away, remembered how the velvety wickedness of his
charm was always enough to make her blush, and most of all she remembered...
How good it felt, Zari thought painfully, just to be with him.
She remembered that one day he had visited her when she was still studying in LSL, and he had flicked her forehead hard enough to make her yelp in pain. 'What was that for?' she had demanded, and her Master had right away answered back in a mocking tone, 'Because you're too cute. Is that all you've learned in this school? Being cute and turning me on?'
Zari squeezed her eyes shut, but her tears refused to stop. It was those little things, just countless, silly little moments that she shared with Alexandru, just the little things really...
Those little things that kept her heart breaking even as she refused to lose hope.
I've kept my promise, Master.
I'm the one who can save lives now.
I'm strong...just like I promised.
So please keep your promise, too.
Come back.
I miss you so much.
Please come back.
Please.
The Vision That Broke
A Soul Seer's Heart
Chapter Two
IT WAS A VIOLENTLY stormy night in Chalys, savage winds whipping out of the silvery Woods of the Wraiths before slashing a destructive path into the rest of the kingdom. From the lofty heights of the angel-run territory of Ciel to the remote shores of Aquarius - no ducal territory was spared, and as rain that tasted of vengeance and fury struck their roofs, whispered rumors began to swirl about.
From elegant townhouses in the city to noisy pubs hidden in the back streets, the storm had heated debates arising between otherworlders of all walks of life. The storm, the older ones believed, was a harbinger, fulfilling an ancient prophecy about the return of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. The younger ones, however, dismissed this. There were no such horsemen, and the storm, mysteriously vicious its strength might be, was still just a storm.
Zari, however, was one of the few residents of the kingdom who cared naught about the raging storm that battered against the fortified walls of her school. She was too busy raiding the wine cellar, and once she had a bottle of Brimstone's finest whisky hidden under her shawl, she wasted no time running up the steps and locking herself in her room.
It took a while for her to figure out how to uncork the bottle, and a strong scent immediately filled her room.
She poured herself a glass. "Cheers, Master." She drank the whole thing in one gulp and poured herself another...and another...and another until she was so maudlin and her senses properly befuddled, that Zari, in between drunken hiccups and chest-heaving sobs, finally mustered the strength to speak of the words that had been haunting her for weeks.
I had a vision, Master. And in it, all I could see was death. It was all around me. So much death, and I don't know if I have the courage to change things, knowing what might...
Her throat tightened.
I'm scared, Master.
I'm so stupidly scared.
I wish you were here to tell me I'm strong enough to do what's right.
I wish...I just wish you were here.
The (Half) Angel Who's
(Sometimes) Up To No Good
Chapter Three
ZARI WOKE UP THE NEXT day with a pounding headache. Kinda like someone with a hangover, but in her case, it was because she had ended up crying herself to sleep.