Total pages in book: 197
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 186911 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
“Come now, boy,” he barked, making Meallan jerk. “You lied, cheated, and manipulated from the shadows to get me this far, all because you were too much of a cowering little bitch to face me beast to beast.
“Now that you have made me as weak and helpless as you—attack. Claim the hollow victory handed to you by a little bird who’s smarter than you’ll ever be—”
“Kill him!”
The wolves charged, leaping on my husband four-on-one. Alisdair disappeared under a torrent of fangs, claws, fur, and blood. My scream shredded my throat.
For all his bluster, the poison had done its work. Alisdair should’ve transformed into his unstoppable beast form and ripped out their throats without blinking. He should’ve summoned fire from the pits of hell itself and burned their eyes out of their skulls. He should’ve been sauntering over a pile of corpses, smirk riding his lips, and claiming his prize—me.
But none of those things were happening.
Alisdair covered his head and face with his arms, his only protection against the onslaught. Meallan raked his fire-tipped claws across his stomach, spilling hot, steaming blood on the pure snow, sizzling his skin, and bellowing a roar out of Alisdair that made me sob. The woman was right next to him, sinking her teeth in his leg and tearing free a chunk of flesh and muscle.
Alisdair couldn’t stop them biting and tearing him apart, while the two focused on his head—pummeling, stomping, kicking on his arms to get through and bash his skull in, ending the fight before it started. Their laughter howled above the whipping wind.
“Stop it!” I shrieked. “Get off him. Leave him alone!”
I may as well have been an ant before a thunderstorm. They didn’t hear my screams. They didn’t care for such a lowly creature when there was devastation to wage. I was nothing. Queen of Nothing and feared by no one.
I twisted this way and that, looking for a weapon—something. Anything!
Nothing met my eye except for more snow and dead trees. If that’s all I have, at least I have something!
Meallan snarled when I jumped on his back and smashed a handful of snow in his face. He tossed me off and spun around, eyes widening in the bare second before I smashed the branch into his face.
His head snapped around, but didn’t bring his body with him. Meallan weathered the blow without rocking an inch off his feet. His growls ratcheted up tenfold as he slowly turned on me—eyes red and fangs glistening with his blood. It was impossible to me that this monster had anything to do with the sweet, kind, patient Foalan.
“I’ve had enough of you, bitch!” He raised a backhand, fire dancing on his knuckles. “Shadowsoul, I hope you’re watching this!”
“Don’t you fucking dare!”
His hand fell.
A hard force tackled me, blowing me off my feet. Meallan’s claws raked the air my neck no longer occupied.
Alisdair and I tumbled through the snow, his body shielding me as the wolves chased us—raining blows on his back.
“R-run,” Alisdair rasped. “Get far away from here. Leave me—”
They tore him off me. Throwing him on the ground, they descended on him—united in one goal: killing Alisdair Shadowsoul.
“Stop it!” I screamed, and screamed, and screamed.
Every ounce of Meallan’s hatred, brutality, and obsession with ruling fed his blows and the heat of his fire. They kicked, beat, bit, and clawed him again and again, my screams the backdrop of their fun.
Alisdair wasn’t going to survive. No one could.
Rage, fear, and desperation swelled in me, igniting the deep and pulsing well of magic resting within my soul. It bashed against its bindings—surging, swarming, swelling to reach the far corners of my being, and then burst beyond—eager to do my bidding.
It smashed against the barrier, and stopped.
“No!” I pulled harder—demanded more! “You’re my magic! You cannot be kept from me. You cannot be taken!
“Eldur,” I bellowed—unearthing a spell from another time and another life. “Eldur!”
My magic thrashed against the barrier, pummeling and beating it harder than the wolves beat me. It felt like I was being savaged from the inside out—taken apart by the seams. Any more and I’d explode.
I pushed harder.
My screams pierced my eardrums. My nails bent painfully back digging in the ice and dirt. Agony! Heart-wrenching agony!
And still I kept pulling, drawing, forcing my magic free of its chains.
Alisdair would not die like this—murdered by a pack of dim-witted wolves, led by a cowardly fuck who was too afraid to face him at full strength. If anyone was going to kill my frustrating, harsh, smirking husband, it was going to be me.
And I will fucking kill him if he dares to die and leave me forever cursed, forever lonely. Forever without him. “Eldur,” I screamed. “ELDUR!”
I broke.
Glowing, white light erupted from my skin and escaped the tree line, reaching for the heavens. Dark, swirling clouds heavy with ice cracked down the middle—peeling before the light beam. Our moon, our mother, our Meya of the moon, earth, sea, and stars rose from behind her own barrier and shone down on me.