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)
I choose the form of my reality.
What if the thing itself doesn’t change—always was, always will be the same—but how I see it makes the difference?
“Talk to me, Shy,” the queen begs, and I see the tears in her eyes. “Can you move? I don’t see rope but you’re not moving.”
Because I’m bound in magic. I find it hard to speak as well. I think he plans to take me somewhere, and this is how he will transport me. He put me to sleep, took my voice, paralyzed me and bound me in chains no one can see.
Poor guy. He underestimates me. There are some magics that might work, but I shrug this off.
“I’m fine,” I promise as I stretch my arms and move for the first time in what feels like hours.
I catch on the spirit that’s followed me and wonder how I never noticed her hands. I always notice the blood, the scars, but not the actual color of her skin. Where the hands are not torn, her skin is a deep brown. Like mine.
I allow the queen to help me sit up.
“The wizard said you would be asleep for hours,” a tall Fae with a crossbow in his hands says. He has the look of one of the palace guards. “He said you would not be able to speak even when you woke.”
“She’s not dangerous,” the queen begins. “She’s a medium. Do you know what that is? She can talk to those who’ve past on. She’s not a danger in any way.”
I wouldn’t go that far. Now that I’m awake I can feel my blood humming. I’m close. Close to all those restless souls. Close to…Devinshea.
Oh, my heart aches because I feel him.
He’s dying. The only thing keeping him alive is the god inside him.
“Don’t try anything. I’m not allowed to kill you, but he didn’t say the same thing about her,” the guard explains and moves back as though we’re not a real threat at all.
Which at this point we aren’t.
The mountain calls. It’s hard to think when those souls are so damn near. They’re screaming in my head.
And I can’t seem to come to terms with the fact that Devinshea is going to die. How do I even comprehend the outcome? But I don’t see a way out. I feel power, but I don’t know what it means. I can break Myrddin’s bonds, but I don’t know how to stop him. If my power is death, to turn the wheel, then how do I do it? I’d asked that vine Rhys tied me up with. I don’t think Myrddin will agree to begin again. He likes where he is. He has all the power. He won’t allow me to send him through.
That’s what I did. I sent the vine through. Not a light. The vine doesn’t have a spirit the same way a conscious creature does, but it has energy, and I transformed that energy into something else. Something new. The energy wasn’t gone, merely changed form. But I forced the change.
Can I force Myrddin to change? Do I have to get my hands on him? How do I fight him?
“We need to find a way to get you out of here,” the queen whispers in my ear.
I can feel water on my skin. The Drowning Woman is so close. So close. Closer than ever before. She’s right beside the queen, almost standing in her space.
“There is no way out,” I reply. I know it deep in my bones. I was always going to be here. The trick Myrddin played was to get Devinshea here. That’s obvious to me. But why, then, had Mallt-y-nos talked almost exclusively to me? Why had she insisted I come? “Arawn didn’t call me. Myrddin did this to bring the royals here.”
“To bring me here.” Dev looks so pale.
I allow the queen to help me stand, and I am face to face with the Drowning Woman. I want to look away but I don’t give in. I stare at her. “I don’t know why you’re here, but I promise if I survive this, I will find a way to help you.”
The water seems to almost calm for a moment, and I can see a glimpse of a face.
It is almost familiar to me.
And then I hear the screeching of all those souls in the mountain. I put my hands to my ears as though I can cut them off.
I can’t. It turns my stomach, but I have to fight through this. I force myself to walk to my father-in-law. “Yes, Myrddin did all of this to put you and the queen into the position where he can force Bris into whatever trap he’s laid. Rhys and Lee and I discussed the fact that the crone he sent actually lives on this plane. She left Arawn’s service long ago, and it seems she was likely bribed to do Myrddin’s bidding.”