Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Sighing, I turned my wrist.
The crack of bone was like thunder, breaking her concentration. She clenched her jaw, choking off her cry of pain as her fingers spasmed open. The bone spike fell with a dull thud against the floor.
Lifting my gaze once more, I winked.
Then, I pushed.
Not with my hand. I didn’t want to waste the energy in doing so. I pushed with my will.
She flew backward through the air, crashing to the floor with a nice fleshy smack.
Swinging my leg off the arm of the throne, I rose as a raven flew in front of me. I walked to the edge of the dais. “Did he send you?”
Groaning, she rolled onto her side as several ravens circled above her, their wings cutting silently through the air.
“Or did you come all on your own?” I asked. “Hoping to prove your worthiness to the worthless.”
The god spat out a mouthful of blood. “What do you know of worthiness?” She rocked back, then staggered to her feet. “When you dare to speak of the true Primal of Death?”
“I wouldn’t consider it daring.” My gaze flicked to the closed doors, sensing the quiet throughout Wayfair. I wondered what kind of distraction she had created to pull Attes’s and Kieran’s attention from the castle, because I knew they weren’t within these walls anymore. They would’ve arrived by now, one of them—or both—accusing me of toying with my prey. “Nor would I call that bitch of a god daring.”
“He will have your tongue for that,” she seethed, throwing her head back. The hood of her cloak slipped, and my jaw locked at the sight of her hair.
It was red.
Red.
I quelled the icy rage before it could escape. It had taken leveling a city, collapsing a building or ten, and an explosion of a god or five before I learned how to find even a shred of calm. “He will have my foot up his ass for that.”
“You speak with such disrespect.” She faced me as she unclasped the cloak, letting it slip away from her bare shoulders. “And you think you can replace him?”
“I have no desire to replace him.” I eyed the crimson corset that cinched her waist and pushed her breasts upward until they appeared as if they were seconds away from popping free of the stays. “I only desire to shatter each bone in his body.”
Her laugh was throaty as her hand dropped to the slit in her black skirt. “As if you could—”
“I wasn’t finished,” I interrupted. “After I shatter each bone in his body, I will slowly dismember him, starting with his fingers and then moving on to his hands, then his forearms.”
She unsheathed another dagger, this one longer and made of shadowstone.
“Then, I will remove the rest of his arm,” I continued. “I will do the same to his toes, his feet, and his legs. Then I’m going to cut off his balls—that is, if he has any.”
“Insolent bastard,” she hissed, her grip firm on the hilt. “You won’t get close enough to touch a single hair on his head.”
“Considering I did far more than that the last time I was close to him…” My gaze flicked over her features, noting that the color of her brows was much lighter than that of her hair. “We will see about that.”
“What you will see is the realms restored to how they should be,” she shot back.
“And, pray tell, what is the way they should be?” I humored her, having heard it—oh, about seven fucking times now. Well, not seven. I lost my patience with at least three before they got to that part.
“The False Queen stripped from her throne in Dalos. The gods installed by her who rule the Courts struck down,” she said, her voice filling with the type of fanatical belief fueled by cultish devotion and idiocy. “And punished for their treachery.”
Tilting my head, I feigned interest. “Tell me more.”
“Instead of Kings and Queens,” she went on, essence—or perhaps madness—flaring behind her pupils. “We will rule the realm of mortals.”
“You mean he will rule,” I corrected. “And you will serve, enslaved like the mortals but with prettier chains.”
She sneered. “One cannot be enslaved when they willingly serve a god—” Her gaze shot up when the ravens descended, their wings casting flickering shadows as they landed on the vines spanning the Hall. “A god who deserves such loyalty.”
“And how does one, who has been entombed for a thousand years, evoke such loyalty?”
“Easy. He promised never to force us into slumber.” She sauntered forward, each step dripping with ignorance. “Nor bar us from entering the mortal realm, allowing us to weaken and be forgotten and replaced by cattle.”
“And what has he promised you?”
“I will be given a Court,” she said. “In appreciation for giving him your head.”
Amusement unfurled within me. “Is that so? Well, I wish you luck with all of that.”