Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 81261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 81261 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 406(@200wpm)___ 325(@250wpm)___ 271(@300wpm)
My hand slides between her legs—I fucking hate these denim pants she wears—but good thing my magic is strong and I can dispose of them quickly. I’m interrupted before I can make good on that thought.
“Pardon me, Your Majesty.” The voice comes from behind me, and I spring to my feet and whirl that way, snarling with menace. I put myself between whoever it is and Nyssa until I can confirm if it is friend or enemy.
And yes, as the king, I have plenty of enemies.
I relax when I see it’s Truett and Uriens, looking incredibly apologetic about disturbing me in an intimate setting. They can’t see the beautiful scenery I’d set with the thick grass, apple trees, and running stream, but they could see me on top of Nyssa.
Thank fuck I didn’t make her clothes disappear because her body is for my eyes only.
“What is it?” I growl, irritated my time with her has been interrupted.
“Calashte is under attack,” Truett says, and I lock tight over the hardness in his tone. “A legion of demons, twisted fae, and some nobles.”
Rage sweeps through me, and blue arcs of electric magic crackle from my fingertips. “Nobles? Who?”
“Jago,” Uriens says. “He’s leading them.”
“Ariman?” I ask.
Truett shakes his head. “He hasn’t been spotted, but that doesn’t mean he’s not out there. It was a blitz attack, and they’re sweeping through the city. Our people are fighting, but we can’t push them out. We need your help.”
“Of course,” I say and then turn to Nyssa who scrambles to her feet. She looks scared, and I quell the crackle of power as my hand rests against her soft cheek. “It will be fine. I’ll go fix this, and I’ll have Uriens return to the castle with you. Stay in my suite until I come for you, okay?”
Nyssa nods and I bend to kiss her. As I start to pull away, her hand locks around my wrist. “You won’t get hurt, will you?”
Fuck, that makes me feel good… that she worries. A first for me too. “I’m the mighty king of the Underworld. I’ll be fine.”
Her smile is wan, but she nods again.
I turn to Uriens, an original fallen and as trustworthy as they come. He’s also powerful, and I’ll need him. “Take her straight to my suite at the castle and then join us in Calashte.”
“As you will it,” he says with a slight bow. Reaching out, he takes Nyssa’s hand and bends distance away.
“Let’s go,” I say to Truett, prepared to bend distance, but something on his face halts me. “What is it?”
“Sorcha has been staying on the outskirts. A small house.”
“And?” I prod impatiently.
“She’s gone. There’s blood everywhere.”
I don’t feel bad that Sorcha’s potentially dead. She should be in the river, and had it not been for Nyssa’s kindness, she would be. But I don’t like seeing my friend upset. Sorcha is his sister, and he bears love for her.
“We’ll find her,” I say, but it’s the least of my worries for the time being. “Let’s go.”
Truett and I bend distance to a small plateau that overlooks the small valley of Calashte. There’s active fighting going on in the streets, buildings burning. The first thing I do is quell the fires, and they extinguish with a hiss, leaving nothing but smoke wafting upward, which I blow away with a mere thought so I can see what’s going on.
My eyes scan the distance, my powers allowing me to distinguish the demons from the fae. They’re the monsters Kymaris created when souls were sent her way. She’d take the most evil and vile—serial killers, rapists, sociopaths who had no conscience—and she’d recreate them into horrid-looking creatures, hideous even by Underworld standards. She had hordes and hordes, locked in cells in the mountains around Otaxis, and part of her plan to overrun the First Dimension was to let them loose on the population. She would have succeeded, if it hadn’t been for Zora and Finley vanquishing her.
Well, Zora, really. She held a part of Kymaris within her after the changeling ritual was completed, and it was her death that killed our sinister queen. Finley’s part was important too. She figured out that she had a twin sister, rode into the depths of Hell to free her, and then ultimately, she was the one who had to drive the dagger into her sister so Kymaris would die. I hated her for that, but once Zora was reborn, I let it go.
I wish I had time to round up the demons and toss them into the river en masse, but I don’t. I send out a searing blast of power aimed only at the twisted, and they all burn from the inside out. Their screams pierce the air, startling the enemy fae. Their physical bodies crumble to ash and float away, their evil souls being unmade.