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)
My guards remained at their posts, their focus straight ahead. As alone as I’d ever be . . .
Even as I trembled, I put my back to them and plunged a hand in the soft, sweetly fragrant dirt, digging until my fingertips brushed—I blinked. The seed had tripled in size and developed a smooth velvet casing. But. Um. I felt no protrusions. No roots or sprouts.
Frowning, I slowly, gently worked the precious seed from its bed of soil and . . .
That moment. That very second. I registered what I held, and my jaw went slack. Heart thudding, I hurried to close my fingers around the orb. Surely Cyrus hadn’t . . . this wasn’t . . . it couldn’t be . . .
But he had, it was, and it could.
“Is everything all right, Lady Roosa?” a guard asked.
Oops. I’d been making little strangling noises. Schooling my features into a semblance of calm, I glanced over my shoulder to meet his gaze. “Yep. All good. Thanks for checking. Just doing a bit of gardening.” With a chin wag to the pot, I added, “My preferred method of stress relief.” Was I babbling? Elaborating, as Cyrus told me not to do?
The pounding of my heart worsened as I returned my attention to the pot and smoothed the soil, being sure to keep my treasure hidden. If I got caught with this, I’d be jailed. Perhaps executed. Or worse! And yet, elation poured through me at record levels, drowning any fear.
I held a fragment of the Rock, the sole entrance into the Kingdom of Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow. Also the home of an invisible library filled with coded books that detailed our past, present, and future. There were other names for the structure too. Door to Shaddai, the utopia beyond the Library of Soal, was one, and oh, sweet goodness, this might be the greatest gift anyone anywhere had received ever. And I wasn’t being dramatic. The beautiful, priceless fragment had a translucent, mirror-esque exterior that revealed an intricate network of internal veins flowing with scarlet liquid. The cure to Madness.
My cells sang with joy. Cyrus had given me a prize beyond imagining. Maybe, just maybe, I could share this with a friend.
I would never forget the moment I had ingested a crumble just like it. A seed teeming with the essence of life. That was the moment the invisible scales had fallen off my eyes, and I’d finally seen the world unfiltered. Light versus night. Good against evil.
A loud commotion erupted beyond my cell, jolting me to my feet. Some kind of fight had just broken out. My guards abandoned their posts as my barred door slammed shut, sealing me inside the cell.
“You summoned?” The strong, authoritative voice hit my ears, and I spun.
My gaze landed on a striking, bearded man I recognized, and my jaw slackened. Domino Crane. A powerful member of the Tome Society, Soal’s elite force. Domino wore the same crimson robe he’d sported the other two times I’d encountered him. Like Cyrus, he was tall, muscular, and intense, but that was where their similarities ended. The high prince might be icy with anyone other than me, but this guy embodied the arctic. So much so, I felt a chill of his presence deep in my bones. Didn’t help that his arresting, rugged features appeared molded from steel, and his fathomless eyes examined me with unrelenting, unabashed curiosity.
“I know you,” I rasped at low volume, doing my best to hide my unease.
“That statement is inaccurate. You’ve met and spoken with me. You do not know me.” He offered the rebuke without any inflection of emotion.
Well, here’s what I did know. He wasn’t just a member of the Tome Society. He was a librarian. The elite of the elite. And he now stood only a few feet away, here but also not here in some kind of holographic form. Which was a major problem. Cameras were everywhere, and they recorded projections the same as bodies.
He’d just blown my cover.
“Help me get out of here,” I demanded in a rush. Expecting an army to arrive any moment, I pocketed the Rock and palmed a dagger I hadn’t yet stored. A special weapon with a hole in the upper part of the blade and a small canister of CO2 hidden in the hilt. With the press of a button, I could turn a stab wound into a fatal explosion. And I would do it, too, if I had to fight my way out of Fort Bala.
“No need to worry.” Domino spoke at full volume, unconcerned by the consequences. “I created a distraction to buy us a few minutes alone. You are the only one able to see and hear me. Not even the cameras detect my presence.” He partially turned and perused the room. From the carvings on the walls, left by past trainees, to the stained concrete floor and flat ceiling. His features pinched. “I know mice with better living accommodations.”