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)
Good times. But I doubted this trip to the mountain would end the way that one did.
“You need to run if you get the chance,” the king whispers. “He won’t need me for long, and I don’t believe he has any intention to honor his word. I was a fool.”
“Yes, you were,” a familiar voice says. “You were a complete idiot, and it was my pleasure to work with you.”
I turn and Myrddin has a tent set up. He stands in the doorway, completely at ease as though it’s not frigid here.
As though death doesn’t hang over the mountain. Even I can feel the weight of it.
The king groans as the guards haul him toward the tent.
I think seriously about running, but there are two guards at my sides, each taking an elbow.
“Queen Zoey,” the wizard chides, his dark eyes on me. “You want to leave so soon? I’m afraid I have to insist on you joining our group. I have so much to show and tell you. I recently left a meeting with your brats.”
“You saw my children?” Fear is so much colder than the wind because there’s a smirk on his face that tells me he knows something I don’t know.
“Yes. Just last night. It’s why I had to leave for a while. They’ve gotten awfully cozy with Lucifer Morningstar and that whore Lilith. I was rather surprised when she showed up.” Myrddin stands in front of the entryway, blocking us and leaving me to feel the bite of the wind. “Naturally she fucked me over, but what else should I expect from the woman who spat Nimue from her womb.”
Nim’s mom? She never mentioned to me she had a mother. I kind of thought she sprang fully formed from the lake she guarded. I had a hundred questions, but only one mattered, and I couldn’t ask it because he lies.
Are my children alive?
I force down bile because I’m about to be at his mercy and he will have none.
Myrddin studies me for a moment. If he feels the cold, he doesn’t show it. He folds his arms over his chest. “That son of yours outmaneuvered me. Lucifer owed me a boon and I meant to collect Dean since they so thoughtfully brought him to the Hell plane. Unfortunately, Lee is fucking things up in all timelines, and I had to make do with tossing your little girl off a balcony and into the pits of Hell. Demons are probably polishing off her bones right now. Or they’re having a good time with her. I don’t really care as long as she’s dead at the end of it. You take my child, I’ll kill yours, Your Highness.”
He lies. He lies. He fucking lies.
I force the words through my head over and over because if I don’t believe them, I will break utterly. I cannot… Evangeline is not dead. She was there with Kelsey and her brother and Fenrir and Trent and Gray. They would not allow it. Fenrir would give his life for her.
Is he dead, too?
Is Kelsey in mourning?
It’s too much. Far too much. I can’t begin to process.
He lies and lies and lies.
“Nothing to say, my queen?”
He lies. Give him nothing. He’s doing it to get a rise out of me, to put me off. My daughter is not dead. Not dead.
How far could the fall be? She’s on her father’s blood. She can take a lot of damage. Fenrir would follow her. He would defend her. She is alive.
“I think you broke her,” Eoin says. “Pretty funny.”
Myrddin turns the guard’s way. “Watch what you say. I might hate the bitch but she’s so far above you it’s ridiculous. She’s a damn nexus point. She literally makes fate. Her choices change the world. Which is why I have to get rid of her at some point. Unfortunately, it won’t be today. Come in, Your Highness. See what your choices have cost you this time.”
He steps back, and I suddenly don’t want to know. It’s an instinct. Something terrible has happened. I don’t purport to be psychic. Not even close. I’m also crap when it comes to magic. I am what Myrddin called me. A nexus point. It means I have no particular fate and affect the world around me with my choices. I know we all do, but for me it’s on a world-ending fate level. I’ve had angels betting on whether or not I could change the fate of the world, and here we are again and I don’t want to know. I don’t want to see what he’s brought back.
Is it evidence of my daughter’s fate?
My stomach is in knots as they pull me in. I shrink back, not wanting to allow Myrddin to touch me, but he stops and his hand grips my chin, forcing me to look at him.