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)
Why isn’t he dying?
Her lungs burned. Blackness crept closer. Blood drenched them both.
She went after his neck with more force, trying to sever his head. Her knife turned into a saw.
He ripped her down, and they fell, but neither of them quit. She sawed into his neck. The diamond chalice fed her strength. It was the only reason she was still conscious.
The door burst open. Time was up.
33
Daisy
Violence will set you free.
The king should’ve been dead. Punctured heart, half a neck—this creature should’ve been dead.
When the time comes, you must not be greedy for the kill. One must never let down one’s guard, even when the enemy is on the brink of death.
You are the key. The only one who can do it.
Because she was the crystal chalice. It wasn’t a weapon that would kill this rotting, twisted, sour-magic thing. It was depleting his magic. It was taking the root of Faerie out of his body.
Shouting filled the bedchamber, but she couldn’t make sense of it. All she knew was her knife and the now motorized movements of sawing, every spare ounce of energy spent siphoning his magic. Her body had gone numb. Her vision had blurred and blackened to the point of uselessness, and so she closed her eyes.
Please, she said. She wasn’t pleading to the gods, though, neither old nor new. She was pleading with the king. Begging. Please, fucking die. Just fucking die, you saggy-balled prick.
She sawed for all she was worth. Pulled that magic. Continued to swear at him in her mind.
Hands grabbed her. Tried to pull her away.
No. No sound came out, not without breath to use. No, she mouthed, eyes closed, darkness sucking at her, trying to pull her away.
It was time to die. Past time. Lord Death was waiting.
But she would not give in. She would not leave Tarian to his fate. Besides, she hadn’t gotten this far in her shitty life, done so much to be the Big Chester Hero of the human magical world, to give in before the twisted fae king. She’d walk into the afterlife with no reservations…but not before this piece of shit went before her. She’d die on her terms, not his.
She yanked at the diamond chalice.
Power gushed into her. Stuffed her to bursting. Light flared behind her eyes. Strength fueled her increasingly limp body for one more push.
She redoubled her efforts. Renewed her sawing. Siphoned the last of his magic.
The fingers around her throat loosened. Then released.
A sweet blast of air filled her lungs. She coughed and gasped but kept going. Kept sawing.
“Be at ease, dewdrop.” His voice was like a gift from the heavens. His touch made sobs bubble up in her throat. Tarian. “Gods, help me. What did he do to you?”
He pulled her closer, but she resisted, hand still gripping that disgusting, bony shoulder. Knife still working at the end of an arm she could hardly feel—fingers that had long since gone numb.
“Almost…” Her voice was barely audible. She coughed, refusing to let go. “Has to…die.”
“Faelynn!” Tarian yelled. “Hurry!”
Tarian slapped the king’s hands away from her throat. The hands didn’t reach back for her. Trying to siphon magic came up dry. Her knife finally broke through, and the head rolled away. Twisted, churning magic clawed at her. Scraped against her. But that, too, released. Dissipated back into the fold, washed away by the pure, vibrant magic coursing within the room. She hadn’t known the twisted magic had been lashing at her. The hands strangling her had been more pressing.
She sucked in another sweet though ragged breath, clutching Tarian and trying to crawl farther into his arms.
“It’s over.” He rocked her gently, cradling her to him. “It’s all over.”
Faelynn knelt by Daisy’s side, pushing Tarian to give her room.
“No,” Daisy whispered, refusing to let Tarian go. She buried her face in the fabric of his shirt.
“Let her help you, little dove,” he murmured, his lips against her hair. “Let her heal you. You’re still bleeding. We need to stop the bleeding.”
The bleeding was nothing. Now that she could breathe again, the blood loss alone wouldn’t pull her under. The scars on her face, however…
Tarian chuckled softly, helping her turn within his arms so her front faced Faelynn.
“No, it’s okay. The chalice can help,” Daisy rasped, pulling on the diamond chalice once again. The king hadn’t been able to use it, not when it was across the room. He had to touch it. She had no such barriers. It was only now that she could fully appreciate the distinction. She wondered if Eldric knew.
“Get her something to wear!” Tarian barked.
This time, when Daisy pulled the white-hot power into herself, it smoothed over her body and took the slices with it. The scrapes.
“Why are you here?” she asked as the bleeding slowed. As the wounds began to stitch together. “I thought you couldn’t get in here?”