Total pages in book: 123
Estimated words: 114925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114925 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 575(@200wpm)___ 460(@250wpm)___ 383(@300wpm)
“I knew it would be you,” he said with a proud grin. “I always knew.”
“Bow,” Cyrus commanded without slowing a step.
The emperor lost his pride, his joy, and blanched. Though clearly grinding his teeth and stiff, he obeyed, bowing. “We’ll work together, you and I, and bring Soal to his knees.”
“No. We won’t.” Cyrus stopped mere inches from him and, without hesitation, palmed a dagger and slammed it into the emperor’s belly. Not once, not twice, but three times.
I pressed a hand over my mouth and stumbled away from the violence, my eyes going wide with shock.
The old man gasped and toppled, twitching on the floor. Cyrus stepped over him and continued.
My brain blipped. Had that just happened? Was it another vision? It must be. Because my Cyrus wouldn’t murder a man in cold blood, even someone as cold and callous as his grandfather.
“Arden,” he snapped.
Floundering, I gave chase. He led me to the catacombs of the palace, into a library. Not Soal’s but similar, with freshly polished wood, artifacts from eons past displayed in glass and a tree growing from the floor, blooming with shiny golden fruit.
“C-Cyrus?” I asked, uncertain, drawing my arms around my middle. “Why did you do that? Why did you kill your grandfather?”
He shot me a look, his brazen grin unfolding slowly. “Because I’ll share my throne with no one.”
Six golden stars flashed in his eyes.
Chapter Twenty-Six
You will find me when you seek me.
—The Book of Soal 1.24.29.13
“You host Astan,” I gasped out, shock waves crashing through me. Astan, creator of the Madness and leader of CURED, now abided in Cyrus, who had agreed to house him. They were together, two now made one.
A new swell of horror choked me, threatening to consume my entire being.
“Yes. And no.” He massaged his nape. “I agreed to do it, and I can sense him. I even know his thoughts, except they are my thoughts. That makes no sense, I know, but there’s no other way to explain it. I’m still me, just better.” His expression softened. “Accept Briar Rose, and I’ll give you the worlds, Arden. I swear it.” He cupped my cheeks as he’d done so many times before. “Be my wife. My everything. Help me destroy Soal, as we have dreamed for so long.”
The more he spoke, the more it felt as if someone had scooped out my insides and salted the wounds. “Do you even hear yourself?” Destroy Soal as we’d dreamed?
He pursed his lips. “I suggest you watch your tone with me, sweetness.”
Sweetness. Not Pink, or kitten, or even Bubble Gum, the very first nickname he’d bestowed upon me. But sweetness, the same endearment Astan had used with Briar Rose. An endearment Cyrus had used with me before this, and in the passage of my book. More proof Astan was at the helm.
“Or what?” I snapped, uncaring about the consequences. This was my worst nightmare come to life. There was more of Astan influencing Cyrus than we’d realized. I loved this man, but he wasn’t my devoted, protective, tender fiancé anymore. This man killed without remorse.
“Or I’ll be displeased.” Before my eyes, he schooled his expression into adoration. He traced the pads of his thumbs over the rise of my cheeks, saying, “Everything I’ve done, I’ve done for you.”
A lie. The first he’d ever told me. “You did it for yourself. I begged you not to.”
He forged ahead, unaffected by my declaration. “You told me to survive, so I did. I love you, and I want a life with you. That hasn’t and won’t change. Don’t you want a life with me?”
“With you, yes.” Desperately. I clasped his wrists, clinging to him, hoping to make him understand. “But I don’t want a life with you and Astan. I told you that. Warned you. I meant it then, and I mean it now.”
“You don’t understand. Not yet.” Leaning down, unwaveringly confident, he pressed his lips into mine. A soft, gentle act of affection. “But I’m assured you will.”
A flash of those golden stars sent a chilling rush through me. “Are you even Soalian?” He couldn’t be, not with Soal’s enemy—our enemy—cohabiting in his body.
Another flare of irritation. “That doesn’t matter.” He tightened his grip. “You’ll host Briar Rose, and you’ll see. We were destined to rule together.”
More scooping, more salt, the burn in the center of my chest almost unbearable. Destined, he’d said. My path was altered the day I bonded with Domino. Was this to be the result: a life at war with Cyrus? The very result I’d feared.
The very result my book predicted.
“Why did you accept him?” I rasped. There was no reason good enough. “Why?”
“I saw my future with and without him.” He gave my cheekbones another caress, then hiked his shoulders. “I liked ‘with him’ better. It was the only way to keep you.”