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)
Long, white locks swirled around me—alive with the same energy bursting beneath my skin. I knew as my lips parted that it was over. Meallan would wake up minutes from then in the pits of hell, cursing his failed coup to the far corners of his fire pit and back.
“El—”
Pain exploded in my temple. I went flying, thrown off my hands and knees—tumbling through the snow. The glow left me, racing away with my magic behind the barrier as if it was never there. Never anything but a fool’s desperate dream.
Meallan stood over me, holding the branch in his grip. Behind him, Alisdair lay broken, bleeding, and still.
“What was that?” the woman whispered. “How did she do that? I thought her magic was bound.”
“I don’t care why or what the fuck she is. Kill her and be thorough,” he said. “I’ll take care of Shadowsoul’s body.”
I lay in the cold, my spinning vision making my stomach twist.
Meallan snarled when no one responded to him. “Tullia! Kuan! I told you to—” He spun around on their bleeding corpses. Three bodies littered the snow, and my husband wasn’t one.
“Wha—? Where is he!”
“I believe I promised—”
Meallan twisted, raising his meager wooden weapon high.
Alisdair severed his hand at the wrist.
“Ahhhhh!”
“—to feed this to you,” Alisdair finished. Snatching up his hand, he shoved it in Meallan’s bellowing mouth—choking him on his own fingers.
Bronze flashed in the moonlight. Alisdair buried the sword in his abdomen, cutting his muffled cries short. Meallan thudded to the ground—the shortest coup in Lumenfell history over in a blink.
My husband dropped down beside me. “Princess.” He touched the side of my head, his fingers coming away tacky with blood. A furious growl rumbled his chest. “I’m sorry,” he said, apologizing to me for the first time ever. “I should’ve... been f-faster.”
Somehow, I smiled. “You were fast enough. Let’s get you—”
He collapsed.
“Alisdair!” Scrambling up, I fell next to him—a cry trapping behind my teeth.
He looked terrible. A frightening mass of blood, torn skin, and gore. I didn’t know how he’d found the strength or magic to summon a sword, let alone use it. He looked like it was long past the time he should’ve entered the Meadows of Meya.
Alisdair coughed and blood spurted from his lips. “I always knew... you’d be the death of me, woman.” He chuckled a laugh that was more a gasping wheeze. “Leave it to you to... do it cleverly.”
“Stop your nonsense,” I sobbed. I gently cradled his head, placing him on my lap. My tears dripped down his cheeks—shedding the tears he couldn’t. “You’re not going to die. You can’t because...” I moved down, laying my palm over his scar. “Because I love you.”
“C— C—” He reached for me, straining to speak.
His hand flopped down at his side. Alisdair’s final words to me disappeared with the light behind his eyes.
Chapter Thirteen
It took half the night—screaming and pulling Alisdair behind me—before Foalan heard me over the howling wind. He, Eadaoin, Aeris, Bradach, and a contingent of guards rushed out to meet us. Aeris screamed at the sight of him. Eadaoin threw up.
Bradach grabbed his brother and took to the skies, flying him straight to the healers.
I raced all the way up to our bedchamber, and was thrown out the door by the head healer.
“We need space, time, and everyone,” she barked at me. “Get all the healers. Now!”
For hours I hovered out in the hall—pacing, crying, and shaking off everyone who tried to help or comfort me.
It made no sense. I began the night with every intention of killing him and running back home to Lyrica. Nothing had changed with that plan until he said—
“So? What does any of that matter? She is my wife. She can murder me a thousand times, but no matter what she does, it is my honor to die for her, and my pleasure to kill for her.”
“How could he say that, the frustrating, changeable beast!” I pounded my head, wishing I could bang his words out of my skull. Of course he had to go and say something so confusing, so ridiculous, so stupid, and so wonderful. He had to hopelessly jumble my mind until I said something equally stupid and told him I loved him.
I groaned, sinking down to the floor. I loved him. I loved Alisdair Shadowsoul, and I realized it in time to betray him in the worst possible way, and then get him savagely maimed.
What if he doesn’t make it through the night? What if this is how it ends? Me left alone to rule a cursed kingdom and wage a borrowed war. What if I never get the chance to make that irritating fool realize that he loves me too?
“My lady?”
I shot up, hurriedly wiping my face. Healer Soulstitcher stepped out of our bedchamber.
“Is he okay?” I asked. “Is he... Is he still—?”