Total pages in book: 109
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 103548 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 518(@200wpm)___ 414(@250wpm)___ 345(@300wpm)
“Everything started going dark. I couldn’t breathe,” he whispered. “I was dying.”
“How did you get away?” I asked, matching his soft tone.
“I didn’t.”
My nose wrinkled. “What? But you said—”
“I didn’t get away, Daze. I was saved... by Ravi.”
“You mean by his ghost?”
He nodded. “The wolf that was his soul attacked him. Ravi went through his chest and the guy freaked out.” Nyx probed the back of his skull. “He dropped me and I must’ve passed out because when I woke up, they were all gone. The man and the ghosts. No one was there except for me and Ravi’s body.”
I found myself rubbing his arm, comforting him like he did me when he pulled me out of my own grave. “That’s horrible, Nyx. I don’t have words.”
“I carried Ravi’s body all the way home. I told them what happened, but they didn’t believe me. Father”—his lips twisted—“convinced himself that I killed Ravi. I took the whole sibling rivalry thing too far, killed my brother, and then was so horrified by what I’d done, my mind snapped and invented a story of ghosts and strange men lurking in the forest.
“He was raging,” Nyx spat. “So insane mad, Mom had to drag him off me.”
I hissed, hating that man more than I did at the start of the story.
“Mom didn’t think that I did it. She couldn’t. She was a healer and could see for herself that there wasn’t a mark on him. No ten-year-old was so sophisticated a killer they could kill someone without leaving a trace. But even though she didn’t blame me, she didn’t believe me either. No one did,” he said, gaze rising to meet mine. “And because of that, Ravi’s killer has walked free and clear for twelve fucking years.”
“Your brother deserved so much better, and so did you.”
He tossed his head. “I didn’t tell you this for sympathy, Daze. I wanted you to know so you’d have no doubt that I’m in this fight with you—one thousand percent. If you trust anything, you can trust that there’s no one alive who wants that soul-stealing bastard in the ground more than me.” His eyes pinned me through. “No one.”
Gazing back, I did what he asked of me. “I believe you.”
“So tell me your plan, Volana. All of it. And include the part where I kill that bastard.”
“Okay,” I replied, giving in to a request that I swore I’d reject when the time came. “But first, tell me about the shadow. Who are they? What do they look like?”
“I never found out his name or where he was from,” Nyx confirmed, deflating my hopes. “I also don’t know what happened to him after that day. All I can say is he’s tall—about six feet. He has dark skin and short, coarse hair that was already turning gray even though he looked like he was in his forties. He had a small scar on his left nostril and the upper corner of his lip. Almost like someone slashed at his face and nicked his nose and lip on the way down.” Nyx swiped his face, miming it. “But that’s it. Everything else about him was as common as it gets. Brown eyes, average looks, not particularly fit.”
“But you’d recognize him if you saw him again,” I pushed.
“Absolutely.”
I fell back on the pillows, gazing up at the vaulted ceilings. “But what are the odds of that? Long before we were chosen, I met and fell in love with Castor. Castor meets Edric who’s trying to save his sister from the council, because said sister discovers the council is rotten and untrustworthy long before the council has a chance to prove it to him the hard way.
“The three of us end up looking for the shadow, but you’ve already seen, faced, and survived him,” I said. “It does feel like fate was pulling us together long before we met on that rock. Maybe if we had come together sooner, Castor... Castor would still...” I trailed off, letting the wish fade away. It didn’t make sense to dwell in dreams and alternative realities.
Yes, Castor died looking for someone that Nyx identified twelve years ago, but there was nothing to do about that now. All I could do was take up Castor’s mission and kill that bastard... before I killed everyone else.
“Makes you wonder about Paxton, Orion, and Badr,” Nyx said, “and how they’re connected to all of this.”
“No it doesn’t. All I’m wondering is what happens now. Between us.”
He scoffed. “I thought that was obvious. What happens now is we call a truce, and go from enemies in this war to allies.” Nyx held out his hand. “Agreed?”
I hesitated, but only for a moment. “Agreed.”
I shook, and then I told him.
“WOW. THAT’S JUST... wow.”
“You’ve been saying that for the last ten minutes,” I sliced in, following the curve of the hallway around the corner. “Do you want to try another word?”