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)
After she’d eaten and drunk only enough to keep her going and not enough that she’d have to use the tub very much, she sat on her cot with her magical knife in her lap.
I’ll need clothes for tomorrow. All they offered was a drape, she thought, hoping Tarian was paying attention.
I am, was his reply, and she could hear the fatigue in his mental voice. The healers are allowed to supply their champions with whatever they need tomorrow, including the weapons Faelynn stored for safekeeping tonight.
Every champion only had one weapon left to them in here, just in case. She’d obviously chosen the magical knife.
What have you been doing? she asked, missing him. Feeling homesick for him in a way that she’d only ever felt for her family.
It felt like lips pressed against hers, his phantom, magical touch. Fulfilling my promises.
Images of a hallway, a door, and a room beyond filled her mind. Of a beautiful man screaming. Of revenge. The princess had mishandled his toy, and he was now breaking all of hers…and breaking them in specular fashion. His vicious brutality would make even Zorn blink rapidly.
Shivers washed over her body.
I never claimed to be a nice boy, remember? Tarian told her. I am a nightmare forged in fire. I am not dark by nature. I am dark by necessity. I wield their shadows like a weapon.
She knew that. She loved that about him. Still, his refined brutality made her belly dance, a confusing blend of nervousness and excitement.
Get some sleep, little dove, he murmured. Tomorrow, your opponent will likely be harder. Stay alive. It won’t be long now.
She wanted to ask for more details. To ask if he’d gotten enough information to find their way out. He was the one working out the end game in the shadows. She was the distraction, the reason Tarian couldn’t miss visiting the court and now something for the king to focus on, but she wished she was more of a participant.
She didn’t ask, though. She trusted him. They’d made a pact to work together, and so far, he’d followed her lead blindly. If he wasn’t giving her more information, there had to be a reason.
She just hoped they were close. She didn’t think she had much time before the shit hit the fan.
29
Daisy
She startled awake right before a hand closed over her nose and mouth. She struck upward with her knife, her fingers curled around it in sleep. The blade sliced through the covers. The body she was aiming for barely twisted out of the way.
A crushing blow slammed into her side, the force so extreme that bone cracked. Pain flared, eclipsing her thoughts for a moment. The large hand cut off her air.
As always, Zorn’s voice shoved its way to the forefront of her mind.
Panicking will slow down logical thought and might mean the difference between life and death.
She tried to cut out the pain as the shadow of an arm cocked back, readying to throw another punch. She angled her knife and sliced, the movement sending waves of agony through her torso. The attacker didn’t twist enough this time to get out of the way. The blade cut through skin, earning a deep grunt.
Her lungs burned, needing air. Trying to force his hand off would cost her valuable time, though.
She braced against the pain and thrust her dagger, but the blow had already started to descend. If he hit her again, the broken rib might splinter, piercing a vital organ. She healed fast, but not fast enough for a wound like that.
The male was ripped to the side unexpectedly, allowing her much-needed breath. His fist went low. It thudded off the wood frame of the cot. She finished her strike, agony nearly drowning her. Her blade hit home, but given he’d moved, not where she’d aimed. It wouldn’t kill him.
He grunted again as she gritted her teeth and prepared for another strike, yanking out her knife and aiming. She turned it so it would find purchase and nearly blacked out from the pain of her broken ribs. The male fell, though—no, he was forced down, shoved by someone behind.
A creature hiding in shadow lifted a knife and brought the hilt down hard. It hit the attacker’s head as the body finished the fall, splaying across the ground. Dead or knocked out, she wasn’t sure.
Tears rolled down from the corners of her eyes as she tried to see who held the knife, wondering why they hadn’t used it.
The shadow drifted away as the creature stepped forward. Lank black hair hung beside a pinched face with full lips. It was the fae that had been looking at her earlier when everyone else ignored her.
I didn’t save your life, said a beautiful voice, high and light and like a spring morning breeze through meadows of blooming flowers. The sound felt so distinctly fae that Daisy would’ve wept if she hadn’t already been crying from the throbbing pain.