Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 123190 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 616(@200wpm)___ 493(@250wpm)___ 411(@300wpm)
“So there’s no free will?” I ask.
He looks up from his spread of cards. “My child, for every vision that oracle had of you plunging the blade into your father’s heart, she had another of him cutting your throat while your first cries still filled the halls of his palace. Both cannot be true, so there is most certainly free will.”
I draw my knees to my chest and wrap my arms around my legs. “So you don’t think I’m being selfish for refusing to assassinate my father?”
He shakes his head but keeps his eyes on his cards as he shuffles one pile to the next. “My girl has never been selfish, though I might call her foolhardy.”
I scoff. “Foolhardy? How can you say that?”
“She who tries to manipulate the fates falls right into their trap.”
I shake my head. “I can’t do it. I won’t sacrifice Hale if there’s a chance we can bring Erith down another way.”
He flips over a card and smacks it. “Drat.” He sweeps the lot into a pile before looking at me again. “Are you asking about destiny because you’re curious about who you kill or because you’re hurt that the male you’re falling for has been avoiding you?”
I frown. Misha is avoiding me. He wasn’t in the training yard when I arrived there at sunrise today, even though I hadn’t spoken with him since we tussled there yesterday. Tynan ran me through my exercises. When I asked if Misha would be meeting me for breakfast, I was told the king had left the castle on court business and I could take my meal wherever I pleased.
I shouldn’t have spied on Misha and Amira. I was nervous that he was onto me, but afterward I realized that may have been nothing more than an excuse. I wanted to know what Misha was feeling, but hearing him contemplate a relationship with Jasalyn only left me morose.
I hate that yesterday’s fleeting moment together—whatever it was—scared him away. I’ve been telling myself it’s because my research on portals isn’t getting me anywhere and I may truly need him in order to locate the Hall of Doors. But the truth may be less devious than that. I enjoy being around the Wild Fae king, and even though it’s only been a day, I miss his company.
I’m ashamed to contemplate how much of the day I wasted stewing and pining when I needed to be researching. I skimmed through a book that discussed the merits of placing portals in the mountains, where their power would echo along the nearby cliffs and circle back rather than dissipate along an open horizon. That, however, does me little good when the Wild Fae territory has more mountains than plains.
“That’s what I thought,” Nigel says.
I make a face. “I am not falling for anyone, so stop it.”
His big eyes bulge. “She lies! I swore my allegiance to the child during her days in swaddling clothes, and now she lies to me about her heart.”
I look out the window and toward the valley in the distance. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You’re finally in love, and you plan to hide it from me?”
“Don’t be ridiculous. This is not love.”
He chuckles again and waddles toward me. “Silly girl. You forget how long I’ve lived. I know the smell of early love. It’s too stinky to miss—earthy and ripe, and laced with hope.”
I chew on the inside of my cheek. “He thinks I’m Jasalyn.”
He bops the tip of my nose with his knobby finger. “Ah, but he wishes you were not.”
I give him a quick smile. “Thanks, I guess?” Nigel always delivers words of comfort that don’t feel very comforting at all. “Is my mother okay?”
“Your mother was killed by your father the day he found out she hid you from him.”
I cringe. So literal. “No, I’m asking about Hale’s mom—the woman who raised me.”
“Oh. Her. She’s not dead.”
Ask stupid questions, get stupid answers. “Emotionally speaking, Nigel. How is she getting along?”
“Fine. Strong-willed, that one.” He shrugs. “She rarely calls for her goblin.”
I nod. She’s always been more interested in doing for others than in letting them do for her.
“What else is troubling you tonight, my child?”
“I keep thinking about the resurrection of the wicked king.” I can’t stop thinking about last night’s dream. The pain. Mordeus and his insistence that Jas has a magical gift shown to him by the oracle. Why would the oracle show Mordeus Jasalyn’s magic? And what kind of powers might she have for him to believe he needed them? Is she the necromancer he would need to make his resurrection complete? Is it possible that she would be more powerful than any necromancer Mordeus ever met? Even if she is, how would he convince her to use such powerful magic to bring him back when she would do anything to destroy him for good?