Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
And they were not only together, something in and of itself that increased their strength.
They were lovers.
The prophecy had been completed. They were at full force. Their power was disrupting the veil, regularly, mightily.
It wasn’t just powerful witches dying (although he sensed that was also happening, and he was keen to know why this was occurring so often), it was more.
Much more.
He feared what either one of them would do if he held this information from them, only to share it at a later date.
But if he could not gain control over Daemon, set him to do Jellan’s bidding, not his own, definitely not Marian’s, it would be essential that those prophesied remained at the height of their strength.
And that those powers grew.
Because if he could not control the Beast, someone had to eradicate it.
In the meantime, he had to find a way to ingratiate himself with the creature.
He had to find a way to lessen Marian’s hold over him.
And he had to discover what this “work” was that Daemon wished to do.
Thus, he had to have information. He had to know what was happening in the realms. He had to have time.
He had to plan.
He had his own work to do.
And in the now that work meant he was allied with Marian in one thing…
He had to delay.
134
The Finding
Teddy
Westernmost Lesser Thicket Forest
WODELL
“I think we’re far enough away, we can seek a road,” he said to Moira.
“I think we need to continue to be cautious,” she replied.
He shifted closer to her. “Moira, as I’ve said, we have much more of a chance of running into someone who can help if we travel the road.”
“Yes, and they know we’ve escaped,” she returned. “They were very intent on what they were doing, Teddy. They could be seeking us, and they can also find us on the road.”
She was frightened, as were all the women, and they had reason. He understood this.
Thus, he held tight to his patience, something he was learning well to do these past days.
“We have passed many a farmstead where we could have stopped and asked for succor,” he reminded her, still uncomfortable that they had, indeed, stopped, but not to ask for succor.
To take it.
They were now thieves.
Of course they would not have eaten in this past week if they had not stolen a cooling bread loaf from a window sill, several jars of preserves and pickles from a canning locker, a bag of shelled pecans left on a back stoop after the sheller was called away from their task, and a slab of cured ham from a meat stall.
But need was no excuse.
By his estimation they were still a three to four week walk away from Notting Thicket.
At least.
Not taking the road was adding to that and who knew what that creature had been up to in the meantime.
They needed to run into somebody.
They needed a conveyance.
They needed to be at Birchlire Castle three days ago.
“What do you think?”
Moira’s question brought him back to their conversation, and when it did, he saw she was asking the women.
They had, over the days, created a democratic way of going about their business. Although Teddy and Moira were looked to as leaders and to make final decisions, everyone had a chance to have their say.
And sometimes, like now, when Teddy and Moira could not decide, it was put to a vote.
“I’m not going on the road,” Terra said.
“Me either,” Kate added.
A number of the rest of them shook their heads while those who did not, did not seem averse to staying off the beaten path, they simply looked undecided.
This meant they would remain hidden by the forest and sneaking through fields, maybe adding weeks onto their journey.
While the Beast walked the earth.
Teddy sighed, but inside was a controlled panic that was coming more and more uncontrolled as the days wore on.
He also considered, once again, for perhaps the two-thousandth time, sharing with them.
Teddy knew for (relative) certain The Rising priests that had fled, if they had escaped the Beast, were not looking for Teddy and his women.
They were finding safety wherever they could find it.
But unless he shared the far more frightening information of why they needed to make a great deal more haste, he could not tell them they had nothing to fear from the men who took them.
This he found tremendously upsetting for, like in the now, the echoes of the terror of what they’d experienced, what they’d witnessed, and what might have befallen them if they had not escaped interfered with their common sense.
He wished them to know they did not have to live every second, petrified that they would be dragged back to that place.
But he did not wish to replace that fear with one altogether more paralyzing.
“We will carry on as we are,” he muttered.
“Teddy,” Moira called, and as he was beginning to resume their journey, he stopped and looked back to her to see his friend grinning at him with reassurance. “We’ll get there. Prom—”