Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“In coming here, I might’ve destroyed my chances of getting free, but I couldn’t help it. I couldn’t—”
“Tarian.” Lennox’s voice had an odd ring to it.
Daisy realized all the Fallen stood around Tarian, their souls registering now, whereas before she couldn’t focus on anything besides staying alive and breathing.
Tarian stiffened. His fingertips dug into Daisy, almost bruising.
She opened her eyes, her breathing leveling out. Faelynn’s widened eyes were just moving from Daisy’s quickly healing skin to the nearby body. Steam rose and curled from the king’s shriveling remains, the skin crackling like burned paper. His head, too, quickly deteriorated, his leathery flesh turning flaky and dusting off his strangely weathered bones.
“The magic that killed him…was also keeping him alive,” Faelynn said with a slow release of breath. She recoiled from the shivering remains as they dried and wrinkled and flaked. “That was how he kept going, even after Daisy had destroyed his heart and mostly severed his head. The magic was animating him. I’ve never heard of anything like it.”
“Like a zombie,” Daisy whispered, her throat hurting from all the screaming. Faelynn helped her into loose garments. “A magical zombie.”
Tarian’s beautiful green gaze moved to Daisy’s. His eyebrows pinched as he looked at her. Then he smiled.
“You’ll like that change,” he said, and she was too tired to ask what the fuck he was talking about. He shook his head, letting it go. “He died because you withered his magic.”
“Siphoned it. Took it away.”
His gaze turned focused. “No one else could have killed him. We heard accounts over the years of people trying. Not often, but occasionally, a rumor would circulate about it. I never believed them. Poisoning, assassins, his daughter trying to take the throne—I figured they were either tall tales or the king’s guard had stopped the attempts. His guard is one of the more robust of the realm. But seeing him still living after all that damage, struggling when his fucking neck was half cut off…”
“The twisted magic must regenerate the flesh,” Faelynn murmured, looking over the still-shriveling body, half the size of its natural counterpart. It was as if it were decomposing before their eyes. “I didn’t know twisted magic could actually kill. I didn’t know it would…do this—keep its host alive so it could infect others.”
“No one has ever let it go on this long.” Tarian’s gaze washed across the room, lingering on the bodies of the minions and sticking to the blood against the wall. Daisy’s blood. Fire kindled in his eyes. “Do you think the Celestials could’ve handled this?”
“Not with the deal they struck,” Lennox said, standing over them. “Maybe with a combined effort from the other kingdoms, but many of them seemed more interested in going over the fringe and conquering new lands.”
Tarian looked down at her again, his eyes deep. So vivid and beautiful. He stroked her cheek with his thumb. Then his eyes went distant. Lost focus. His brow pinched, and he looked to the side, as if searching for something.
Lennox stepped back, sucking in a breath. Daisy could feel other souls giving her and Tarian space as well.
“What is it?” she asked, pushing out of Tarian’s arms. Her body ached dully. Her skin stung, the magic taking its toll from how much she’d used. That, or just healing pains from regenerating skin so quickly. She could fight, though. She had enough strength to keep going.
It didn’t seem like Tarian had heard her. He braced a hand against the ground, leaning heavily on it. With his other, he hesitantly reached across his chest and to the back of his shoulder. He touched gingerly before glancing at Lennox.
“What?” Daisy asked again.
Tarian rose, his play of muscle delicious and graceful. He grabbed his shirt and pulled it over his head before throwing it to the ground.
“You did this,” he said, his voice tinged with awe and gratitude. Reverence. He turned his back to Daisy, but he wasn’t looking at the Fallen. He was speaking to her. “This is because of you.”
Blood welled up around the five discs of obsidian in his back. Red ran down the black ink. Then, one by one, each disc popped off. They slid down his skin and fell to the ground, leaving a bloody gash in their wake.
“I…” Daisy pushed to standing, still wobbly. Faelynn stood with her, bracing her.
He shivered, and a sheen of gold glistened across his skin. Starting from the top and working its way down, the black ink in the swirling designs on his back changed. Transitioned. Little by little and then all at once, gold ate the black…and then diamond dust ate away the gold until it had overtaken the entirety of the tattoo.
“Oh fuck,” she said on a release of breath. “What the fuck? I thought you said your kingdom’s ink was gold? Fuck that! I only get a tiny one and you get all that?”