Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Oh, I was going to be way nicer to our temple when we finally return to it. I’m going to say hi and everything. And talk to it because it’s a very good temple. Eoin is also being extremely optimistic. “Myrddin is out of here the minute he has what he wants. He won’t bother to track down my son. By the way, he’s going to be harder to deal with than you think. He’s not merely a Green Man or an elemental. He’s a warrior, and he will fight.”
“Then he will lose,” Eoin concludes. He points his sword. “Get in close. We’re going to meet the wizard and finish this. Tonight we dine in the palace, and it will all belong to us.”
A grand cheer goes up, and I know there will be no talking this man out of his foolish plan. I will have to figure it out once we get to the wizard, though I can try to delay as long as possible. When Danny realizes he can’t find me, he’ll send Neil, and we’re not so far he can’t find us. Neil can track me almost anywhere.
I need time. I need to buy my son time to get Shy somewhere safe, time for Danny to save Dev and then me.
I always need time, and it’s almost always the one thing I don’t get.
“He can’t travel like this.” I gesture to the king and his wounded torso. “I assume that’s cold iron. If it stays too long in his body, it will kill him, and then Myrddin won’t get what he needs.”
Eoin sighs as though all of this drama is extremely boring. “I suppose you’re right, though I can’t have him healing too soon.” He nods to one of his guards. “Secure the king.”
One of his men rushes forward with shackles I’m sure are made of cold iron as well. They will make his wrists ache and send pain through his body, but they won’t kill him. Those arrows will. I start forward to try to find the gentlest way to remove them, but his men are at work on that as well.
The king shouts out as one of the men pushes at the arrow. He falls to his knees, the arrow still lodged in his shoulder, but now it’s sticking out the back. The man takes a knife and slices through until he can pull it out the other side.
The king is in a heap on the ground, the contents of his stomach on the grass next to him after they’re done and both arrows are removed in the most savage way imaginable.
I drop to my knees beside him, trying to help him up. He’s covered in blood and pale. I hope my Devinshea is only half as bad.
I hate. I hate that I hate. I hate what Myrddin has done to me because I hate that man. If I were a witch, I would forsake myself to ensure his demise. I would hex and hex and hex him. I would pour my soul into each spell, giving away pieces so the world is safe from him.
I am the worse version of myself because that male exists and thrives.
I try to help the king stand, offering him my shoulder to balance against. He’s pale and unsteady as he gets to his feet, but he forces himself to face Eoin.
“Do not harm her. Let her go, Eoin. We were friends once. She is the only person I have ever loved. Honor our friendship. Let her go,” he says, his voice shaking.
I can tell him it won’t work. I can certainly tell him that I am not the woman he loved, that he didn’t love her enough. Instead I stand there and wait for the inevitable because there’s nothing else to do. There’s nowhere to run, and I can’t get into a fight because they’ve already shown they don’t mind lodging an arrow in a person. The problem is if they lodge one in me, they might hit my daughter, and I cannot risk that.
Eoin’s head shakes, and he pulls out a sphere. It’s a familiar one. This has to be a gift from Myrddin. Sarah played around with them as transportation spells. A sphaera motus.
“I don’t trust you, and the wizard was specific about who I was supposed to bring.” He stands close to us and drops the orb.
It hits the ground, and there’s a whirring sound and the world goes fuzzy. I hold on to the king, and in a flash we’re in a completely different place. The bubble around us dissipates and I’m suddenly cold, harsh winds blowing my hair back.
I look up and recognize the mountain. Not this one, but the same in our timeline. This was where we’d once looked for the Blood Stone all those years ago, where Danny had taken on a frost giant and at the end of our successful smash and grab I was sold into sexual slavery to a goddess named Nimue.