Total pages in book: 362
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 347293 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1736(@200wpm)___ 1389(@250wpm)___ 1158(@300wpm)
Still latched onto her neck, I spun around just as a shadowstone dagger tore through the air. The blade struck the goddess between the eyes. Catching her sword as it fell, I released her body.
And locked eyes with another god. The stupid fucker charged me. Deflecting the blow, I landed a vicious kick to his knee, shattering it. He shouted, going down. I drove the sword through his skull and threw out my left hand. Streams of eather hissed through the air, hitting another guard as a pale-eyed Revenant took his place.
I yanked the shadowstone sword free as the Revenant came at me.
I didn’t have time for their shit.
Twisting, I swung the sword in a high arc, cleaving the Rev’s head from its shoulders. Remembering what I’d been told about Callum’s head reattaching itself, I kicked this one down the hall.
“Kolis!” I screamed. The door to my right opened.
A blast of eather knocked the sword from my grasp, spinning me back a few feet. I caught myself before I went down. My skin smoked, my flesh charred, and I couldn’t feel my blood-soaked hand. I lifted my head.
A god stood before me, breathing heavily. I thought he looked familiar as he lifted both hands and took a tentative step back, a lock of brown hair falling across his forehead.
“I’m not going to fight you,” he began.
“Shut up,” I said, snapping forward. I gripped his throat with my ruined hand. It hurt, but I drowned myself in the pain and sent a rush of eather through him.
The god’s head kicked back, and he screamed, eather pouring out of his open mouth.
I dropped him, throwing out my hands. Eather spread across the interior wall. “Kolis!” I yelled. “You wanted this! Face me!”
He didn’t appear, even as I moved deeper into the building, leaving a path of ruin in my wake. Panting, my steps slowed when I entered a windowless hall. I’d been here before.
I stopped and listened. The fingers of my good hand twitched, and my head tilted. There were sounds. There had been noises the entire time. Quiet ones. Moans. Whimpers. Some louder. But I didn’t hear the rumble of a draken as my stare fixed on the wall.
Kolis wasn’t here.
The son of a bitch likely suspected I would come for him and took his draken and most of his Revenants.
But I knew what he didn’t take.
My chin lowered, and I pulled the essence to the surface. It pulsed and then crawled over the wall. I tore the innermost wall of the Sanctuary down, block by fucking block, exposing what Kolis kept inside to the sun.
There were many of them. Hundreds of Ascended. Most started to run, their skin smoking. Some came at me. Others headed for parts of the Sanctuary that still stood. None made it, their flesh catching fire. My gaze collided with the fine features of one not much older than me.
Jove.
I couldn’t look away as his face contorted in pain—the same features I’d seen fear in not that long ago.
He’d been a Chosen.
But he hadn’t chosen this. He hadn’t chosen any of this.
The throbbing in my chest intensified. I staggered sideways and turned. Jove fell in a fiery heap. My gaze landed on the path of destruction I had left as the smell of burnt flesh filled the air.
Through the smoke and crumbled stone, I saw a section of the Sanctuary still standing with strips of white rippling in the wind. I walked through the smoke, jerking to a stop.
A group of Chosen stood huddled together, pressed against one of the walls. Most were veiled, but others were not, their faces masks of fear and horror as they…
As they stared at me.
“It’s okay,” I assured them, lifting a hand.
They shrank back, some even screaming. My gaze fell to my hand, where eather still swirled around my bloody, charred fingers, wisps licking the air. Through the gore, I saw the still-shimmering golden swirl of my marriage imprint on the top of my right hand.
Every muscle in my body locked up as patches of shiny new pink flesh appeared. What…What was I doing?
My gaze flew back to the Chosen—to those I would give a real choice to once I’d dealt with Kolis. They could serve as intended without fear of exploitation or return to the mortal realm. I would set them free. Not harm them. But it was clear they were terrified of me. And this time I…
I had given them a reason to be.
I reeled back, inhaling sharply, and shook my head in disbelief. Of course, Kolis wouldn’t have taken them. He’d known I would come. All the guards were proof of that. Yet he still left them here. He didn’t care about life.
Did I?
The strips of white billowed as the clouds overhead began to break apart. The sight of them cowering in fear was startling, but the realization of all that’d led me here was monstrous.