Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Where I killed Theophanie.
Xaden.
The wall of shadows… My heart sinks. What the fuck is happening? How did I get here? Why is my head so hazy? Am I concussed?
“You’re dismissed,” Brennan tells the rider. “Keep this classified until we have a full report.”
“Just because she’s your sister doesn’t mean she’s not the fastest way—”
“Dismissed!” Brennan snaps, and the rider backs away.
“Do you know where he is?” Brennan asks me softly once the other rider is fully out of earshot. “Riorson? You heard what Weilsen said. We have dead dragons and riders and missing eggs, and if you’ve seen Riorson, I need to know, Violet.”
“I…” Words fail me. Why can’t I think? “I don’t know.” I raise my hands to my mouth, and a piece of parchment in my front pocket catches on my arm, then falls.
Brennan catches it. “Cardulo?” He lifts his eyes to Imogen.
“I haven’t seen him since yesterday,” she says, her voice low, almost monotone. “Lieutenant Tavis?”
“Among the missing,” Brennan answers gently, then glances my way and does a double take. “Holy shit, Violet.”
“What?” I lower my arms. Garrick is missing, too? Who else makes up the four riders Weilsen mentioned?
“Your finger,” Imogen says, then stares at the ground.
My finger? The snap. Right. “I think I broke my arm.” I glance down and stare.
My left arm is splinted, and a beautiful gold ring with an emerald the size of my thumbnail sits on my hand. Oh gods, I know that stone. It matches the others from the Blade of Aretia upstairs on Xaden’s nightstand. Is it the missing one? “What is happening right now?” I ask slowly.
“You don’t know?” Brennan lowers his voice.
I shake my head.
Brennan turns to the paper from my pocket. “This carries the seal of Dunne,” he says. “May I open it?”
I nod, gawking at the ring. It’s not just any ring on any finger. It’s the finger. But how? I was in the field battling Theophanie this afternoon, and then she desiccated and I burned myself straight into unconsciousness. Now it’s three a.m. and I’m in Aretia, and there are murdered dragons and riders, missing riders and missing eggs? Xaden wouldn’t do that.
Would he?
The storm of shadows. My blood chills. How far had he gone? I fling myself down the bond, but there’s nothing there. It’s gone.
Or he’s too far away to feel it, I remind myself to keep from panicking. When had he put this ring on my hand?
“It’s an official blessing of your legal, binding marriage,” Brennan whispers, stunned, then quickly rolls the parchment. “By the head priestess of Dunne’s temple.”
“To Xaden?” Gravity bends, warping everything I thought I knew into whatever this reality is.
Brennan nods.
My eyes flare. We’re married? A thousand emotions try to force their way through my jumbled thoughts, but the immediate rush of awe trips right over the logic of how. There’s no fucking way I’d forget something like that. Why isn’t he here? Where did he go? And why?
“I think the note on the outside is meant for you.” Brennan hands back the parchment.
I flip the missive over to see two sentences written in Xaden’s handwriting.
Don’t look for me. It’s yours now.
He’s gone.
I try to fumble my foggy brain through the overwhelming shock, but I can’t think straight. It’s like someone has fucked with my—
No.
My chest draws tight. “How long have I been missing?”
“Twelve hours,” Brennan answers.
“What did you do?” My head snaps toward Imogen, and a deep sense of foreboding takes root in my chest.
She slowly lifts her gaze to mine. “What you asked me to.”