Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 153795 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 769(@200wpm)___ 615(@250wpm)___ 513(@300wpm)
“That’s a start,” the sorceress says. “But you must give me more. I must know why. Continue.”
Lips clamped tight, he takes several deep breaths through his nose as if he’s fighting to keep silent. “I…had…a brother…” His words come out strained and painful. “He… Fuck… I can’t.”
I have the urge to reach out to him, but I still can’t. My body is completely under her control. My emotions are not entirely my own, either. I can feel so much in this moment.
Anger.
Worry.
Fear.
Thane’s emotions have entwined with mine. I didn’t think he feared anything, but seeing him now in such a vulnerable state, fighting with his truths, makes me wonder…
“Do not resist,” Frevella commands. “Speak your truth. Your greatest fear. Your pain, I must feel.”
Maybe she feeds off emotions and gets her power from that somehow. I try to look at her, but the spell holds my gaze firmly on Thane’s face.
He manages to close his eyes. Frevella hangs on, and the tension finally leaves his body as he parts his lips to speak again.
“His name was Koa. He was… He was my little brother. He was killed in his nineteenth year, and…it was my fault.”
My throat thickens as I study the man across from me. His head sways with shame, and his mouth quivers. His eyes remain closed as he tilts his head back and swallows, the lump in his throat going up and down.
“I still see his face when it happened. I…I can’t forgive myself or the people who killed him. I never will. He told me all the time that he wanted to be just like me, but…I’m the worst person. My existence is riddled with disappointment and bathed in blood. I come from nothing, but he had the potential to become everything. It’s my fault he’s gone, but I want to make it right. I must make it right. My greatest fear is that I will fail him.”
Hot tears run down my cheeks as I watch him struggle with his secret.
His fear.
His truth.
Now I understand why he’s so guarded and angry—not only because of the past Algar told me about, but this, too. Now I understand why he wants to increase the power of his magic. Did his brother die because he became a shadow assassin? Or did he become a shadow assassin because of his brother’s death? How was it his fault?
So many questions run through my head, but they slip away as Frevella squeezes my shoulder and says, “Speak, girl.”
I can only stare at Thane, whose eyes open to focus on mine. “My greatest fear is…” I bite my lip. It seems cruel to say “losing my sister” after Thane’s retelling of his own brother’s death, but whatever spell she has us under compels me to speak. I decide to start from the beginning.
“I still have nightmares about my last day in Ember Coast,” I confess. “I’m a native. I loved it there and was so happy, but then the Ruvain attack happened.”
Frevella’s grip on my shoulder relaxes.
“I…I remember the explosions. The raids. The screams. Some of my friends’ bodies on the streets…dead. There were fires everywhere, and I was so scared.” My voice breaks as Thane’s eyes soften at the corners. “I still remember the desperation in my father’s eyes and the fear in my mother’s before Analla and I were hauled away to safety by soldiers from Meriva. The attack had gone on for four days before they found us.
“We’d been hiding in a fortified building, and we were lucky because not many of us made it there. But when we were taken, my parents insisted on staying behind to help. My father was a doctor and my mother a nurse, so it was in their nature to take care of others. Meriva won and drove out the Ruvainers, but…I never saw my parents again after we were removed from the coast. My sister and I saw so many of our friends reunited with their parents, but it never happened for us. Instead, we were sent to a refugee center for orphaned children in Meriva.”
I drop my chin as hot tears slide down my cheeks. “I know you think it’s reckless, Frevella, that we’re going to Elphar’s temple, but this journey is important to me. I’m doing it because I had everything ripped away from me before, and I couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Now my sister will be taken away from me, too, if I don’t act. She’s the only family I have left, and the truth is…” I fight through the emotions clogging my throat. “Well, the truth is I’m afraid to be alone. Without her, I’m afraid loneliness will swallow me whole. I hardly even have friends,” I say with a humorless laugh. “I have no one else. I need her, and I don’t care what I have to do to get her back. You ask what my greatest fear is? My greatest fear is not being able to save her. It’s knowing that if I fail, there will be no one else left in this world who loves me back.”