Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 147891 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 739(@200wpm)___ 592(@250wpm)___ 493(@300wpm)
“I know I say that, but this time was not safe,” she murmurs. “I do not know this man. He could have hurt you.”
“Sorry, Mumma,” the pale one apologizes.
“No, he wouldn’t have!” the blue-eyed one retorts, then she backs away from Hassha and whips a sword out of a leather sheath attached to her hip. It’s not large like the other women’s, but its blade is flat, wide, and the tip gleams in the sun. “If he’d tried to hurt me or Maia, I would’ve gutted him like a fish and cut off his head,” she declares triumphantly.
“Minka,” Hassha sighs, and I notice she’s fighting a smile. “What will I ever do with you?”
“Who is this man?” Minka asks, pointing the tip of her sword in my direction.
Hassha forces the girl’s sword down, then side-eyes me as I step closer. She then rises to a stand again, putting her focus on the net the girls dragged over.
I look with her, and it’s Garrett, bloody and mangled. He’s still alive, panting raggedly.
“Let me out!” he shouts.
Love of Vakeeli. His voice infuriates me. I don’t know how he’s still alive, and I don’t care to stop my reaction. I deliver a swift kick to the side of his head, and to my surprise, that knocks him out. Really? A kick? After all the stabbing and punching I did beforehand?
“Ooohhh!” Minka squeals, waving her sword in the air. “I like this man! Mum, can we keep him?”
“We will not be keeping anyone, now you two get back to village with Carra,” Hassha commands.
Hassha watches the slim woman in white who approached with the girls steer them away, and when they’re distant enough, she asks, “Do you know this man?”
“Willow does,” I answer. “Apparently she was seeing this piece of shit while on Earth.”
“Willow. That is your mate’s name, correct?”
“Yes.”
“Her name runs through your mind a lot.” I start to ask her what she means, but she continues with, “How did this man wind up in Vakeeli?”
“He was going to attack Korah, so I knocked him into the portal she’d opened for me and Willow in order to stop him.”
With that, Hassha tips her gaze to mine. “You saved my sister’s life.” She steps away from Garrett, scanning him. “There is a dark energy feeding off of him—the same energy I felt on your mate. This man, he’s angry about something, and he’s being controlled by it.”
“I believe he’s a vessel of Decius, and I’m looking for a way to kill Decius so something like this never happens again.” I gesture to Garrett.
Hassha looks at me, stunned. “Decius is hunting you?”
“Me and my mate, yes. And he has my family right now. He’s threatening to kill them if I don’t return to him. I can’t let this go on any longer. I need him dead, and I’m certain you Regals know exactly what needs to be done in order to stop him.”
She squares her shoulders, looking off in the distance. I can tell she doesn’t want to deal with any of this, even more so when she clutches the end of the net Garrett is in and attaches it to one of her horse’s armored legs. “Come with me to the village. There, we can discuss more about Decius.”
Chapter 44
CAZ
I’d heard many rumors about the island of Kessel in my lifetime, but none of them live up to what I’m facing right now.
No one has ever really known what the island is like other than its inhabitants. Many men and women have tried venturing to the island only for their boats to explode or to simply fall apart. It could never be explained why no one could venture to Kessel, yet the people of Kessel could come and go as they pleased.
There have been stories about how it is the most beautiful, vibrant place in all of Vakeeli, even better than Vanora, and how there is freedom in living, no concerns over currency, and that all the water found on the land keeps you healthy and youthful. In Vanora, there was only the Lake of Youth, and that’s where we collected our barrels. But on Kessel, the source of water is everywhere and available to everyone.
The fruit is better, the animals healthier, lives are much longer. And there is one rumor that I never believed but turns out to be true: there are no men. Only women live on the island of Kessel, and that would be any other man’s dream, but not mine because they all stare at me with questions in their eyes.
It's been said time and time again that any man who entered Kessel was an immediate threat. Apparently, Kessel had been created by a colony of women who had been given the gift of procreation without man from one of the Regals. I now see that that particular Regal is Hassha. This meant that they could become pregnant when ready through a water ritual and conceive their own babies.