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)
His irritation intensified. He looked over my shoulder and nodded. “I’ll give you one last chance to make the right decision.”
A whisper rolled through my head. With me comes more than power. You’ll be loved and adored by all. And the abilities you’ll have. Never again will you be helpless. My power will flow through your veins, becoming our power. We’ll use it to save both worlds. Seeds and soil will be ours to nurture and command.
Briar Rose, here to deliver the final blow. More persuasive than Cyrus and Astan, seducing with my wildest dreams.
To resist, I had to scrape fragments of strength from the bottom of a barrel. If I did it, if I said yes, it meant helping the very beings who were responsible for twenty years of misery for me.
I pressed my fists into my temples. “Enough.”
But she wasn’t done. At least this way, you’ll have influence over Cyrus. You can steer his decisions the direction you prefer. All you must do is say yes to me . . .
A logic more tempting than any threat. It battered at my resolve. Because she wasn’t wrong. I could influence him for good. Keep tabs on him. Weaken Astan’s influence. Help people. So why not do it? Wasn’t the future more important than the present?
Ugh. Here I was, doing exactly what Cyrus must have done: rationalizing. Flirting with monsters and their agenda. Briar Rose played on my emotions, nothing more, eliciting a lethal mix of hopelessness and helplessness. An expert manipulation tactic.
Anger bubbled up, and I intoned, “No. I reject Briar Rose. I reject Astan. I reject . . . you.”
He pinched my chin between his fingers and lowered his other hand to my injury, squeezing the freshly patched gash. “Is this really the end you want for us?”
Sharp, searing pain rocketed through me. “Hurting me isn’t helping your cause,” I grated through panting breaths.
“You think you know hurt? I assure you, you don’t. None of you do. But everyone will learn, if Soal wins. How do you think I won over your precious fiancé? By proving the depths of Soal’s evil.” He squeezed harder. “I’ll do anything, even destroy those closest to me, to oversee his defeat.”
I waited, desperate for Cyrus to push to the fore and take over, not daring to breathe. But seconds passed . . .
His fingers clamped tighter.
Air hitched in my throat. “No.”
Briar Rose huffed with indignation, her presence lifting from me in a rush.
Cyrus must have sensed it. “Very well,” he stated, easing the pressure. Disgust and irritation glowing in his eyes, he shoved me from him. “You’ll live only until I rid myself of this irksome desire for you.”
I stumbled, tripping and falling when the hem of my dress caught beneath my sandal. Pain reverberated in my wound, and a fresh wave of dizziness filled my head.
The clack of high heels hit my ears. Agony exploded through my body as Lolli walked over me, stabbing my hand with a shoe.
Cyrus smiled without humor and stiffly offered his arm as she approached. “Ready to decimate Soal, sweetness?”
“Beyond,” she replied with an airy little laugh. She was decked out in a gown as sheer, gauzy, and pink as mine. “I was born for this.”
A statement Cyrus had made, as well.
“Let’s get this done, then. Pour yourself into her. Glowers are advancing on the gate, and your first order of business is catching them.” A cold laugh. “They’ll fuel us for centuries.”
Interesting choice of words.
The pair forgot all about me, as if I weren’t any kind of concern. But then, I wasn’t a concern. I could only watch, powerless, as they drew together, peering deep into each other’s eyes.
Lolli clutched at his shirt and gritted out, “Briar Rose is afraid you won’t want her in my body.”
He cupped her cheeks as he’d so often done to mine. “She is my sweetness. I want her, whichever body she inhabits.” He traced his fingertips over her face, so tender, and I imagined he mesmerized her with those starry eyes. “It’s time. You are our opening act in the new war. We’ve waited long enough.”
Lolli smiled, pausing to savor the moment. “Yes, Briar Rose, I accept. I am yours, always.”
A moment passed, but nothing happened. Not outwardly.
From somewhere in the castle, a crash sounded. Vibrations shook the floor, lights flickered, and dread licked up my spine.
Something big had just toppled.
The pair weren’t surprised or upset by whatever had happened. The opposite, in fact. He grinned, and she twittered. Their delight amplified as a cold wind swept through the room, carrying whispers so loud they were a scream. A horde of shadows swooped in next, glommed onto Lolli, and absorbed into her skin.
Appalled, I scrambled backward.
An invisible force lifted her off the floor, and she screamed without making a sound. Her head fell back, her arms spread, and her body arched. Vines coiled from the ends of her fingertips, around each of her limbs, and budded with flowers.