Total pages in book: 44
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 42412 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 212(@200wpm)___ 170(@250wpm)___ 141(@300wpm)
He backed up, his black eyes widening, his mouth open to speak.
I didn’t give him a chance.
Moving faster than he could track, I was on him before he knew it, gripping his chin. “What was it you said about my claim in your silly missive? About my bloodline?”
He gripped my arm, clawing at the skin.
“I believe you said it was tainted.” I dug my fingers into the joints of his jaw, forcing his mouth open. “And I also believe you said something about those opposing the one true King and the Blood Crown falling.”
The cartilage along his jaw began to give way as he forced out, “You…will.”
“Hmm.” Cocking my head to the side, I reached inside his mouth, grabbed his tongue, and ripped it out. His muffled scream ended on a choked gurgle. “I don’t think so.”
I ended Ashwood, letting his body turn to ash as eather throbbed within me, responding to another. I tilted my head, picking up the distant sound of shouting. Shadowstepping into the smoke-filled hallway, I came face-to-face with a brown-skinned male god. Blood trickled from the corner of his lips and his shoulder, where a wound smoked. He wore crimson, and that was all I needed to see to know which side he was on.
The soon-to-be-dead one.
The male jerked back several steps, blue eyes with eather glowing behind the pupils widening as they swept over me. “What the—?”
I snapped forward, grabbing the god by the throat. “Where is she?”
Eather crackled over his knuckles as he returned the favor, wrapping his hand around my throat. “Who?”
Irritation flared, far more potent than the sting of his essence. Turning, I slammed the god into the wall. Plaster cracked. “Where is my Queen?”
Understanding flickered across his features as he glanced down at where his hand was against my flesh. His dark brows drew together as the essence burned my throat. “What…?” His eyes shot back to mine. “What are you?”
“Answer,” I growled, lifting him from the wall and then slamming him back against it, “my question.”
“Gone,” he spat, the pulse of eather flaring as his touch heated. “Likely dead by now.”
The knot of ice expanded in my chest.
Sliding my hand to his chin, I jerked his head back and struck, sinking my fangs into his vein. The god shouted, kicked, and twisted as he tried to escape, but I held on. I drank fast and hard, taking his essence into me. His blows barely registered as I heard voices rising, shouting that they needed to leave, that there was nothing to be done here. They became clearer, one of them standing out.
“Let me go!” a female voice seethed. “I will kill them all.”
“I don’t think that’s going to be necessary,” a male voice argued as the god’s fist banged against the side of my head.
Whatever else was said faded off as something like a hot poker struck my back. Eather. The pain rippled out in a scorching wave, something akin to touching a live wire.
Swallowing the last mouthful of blood, I pushed my essence through the god. The flesh beneath my hand shriveled and cracked, as fragile as a dry flower. The god shattered into dust as I lifted my head and was utterly no more by the time I faced the god behind me.
A bare-chested male stood before me, eather spinning down his arm.
“Where is she?” I demanded.
The god snarled, his arm rearing back.
Snapping forward, I drove my hand through the god’s chest, rending skin and crushing bone as I tore into his throat. He roared, grabbing my hair. I drank greedily before ripping his heart free. Crushing the useless organ in my hand, I then grabbed the side of his head and forced it through the wall, destroying the skull and what little was hidden inside it.
Another god appeared. Then another. I asked the same question to each. They all responded the same. So, they all died roughly the same. I fed. I killed, leaving a path of destruction behind me as I tracked the essence and her scent. They were all leading me to the same place.
And those voices, they were louder now.
“We need to go,” a male demanded, his voice tight with anger. “We need—where the fuck are you going?”
“I have to see this,” another voice—a deeper, raspier one—answered.
As I neared an intersection, flashes of silver lit up the hall. A god ran out, her long, blond hair streaming behind her like a white flag. She didn’t make it very far.
I arched a brow as an intense bolt of eather slammed into her back. The spitting, silver wave of light swallowed her whole. Nothing remained when the glow receded.
The Primal.
My lips curled up in a tight smile as I walked out into the space where the hall veered and turned right. The passageway was narrower and painted with destruction.