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)
I grabbed her hair with both hands this time, pulling her down so fast and hard her feet kicked into the mirror.
Veses grunted. “I’m getting really tired of you touching my hair,” she snapped, rising onto her elbows. Essence rippled over her. “You’ve made whatever point you’re trying to make. Congratulations. You’ve killed some guards and draken and destroyed my palace. You’re such a big, bad Primal now.”
“You think we’re here to just make a point?” I asked. “What do you think we’ll do after we’ve made it?”
“Leave and gloat while I crawl back to Kolis to tell him how powerful you are?” She shrugged a shoulder. “Honestly, I don’t give a fuck. You won’t beat loyalty into me.”
A laugh escaped me as understanding dawned.
The corners of her mouth turned down. “What is so funny, Seraphena?”
“Other than you?”
She rolled her eyes.
“You know, I expected you to run. I was surprised you didn’t.” I stared down at her. “I thought you were smarter than this.”
“She’s not,” Ash remarked.
Veses started to turn her head toward Ash.
I snapped forward, straddling her. I grabbed her chin, forcing her attention back to me. “Don’t look at him.”
“You that insecure?” she spat.
I laughed at her. “You stayed because you really thought we were here to prove some kind of meaningless point?”
She raised her brows at me.
Then I truly understood. “That is why you haven’t truly tried to defend yourself.” Part of me couldn’t believe it. “You think…”
“She does think you’re better than her. Better than Kolis and his loyalists,” Ash said. “And she’s correct, but she came to the wrong conclusion on what that means for her.”
He was right.
The way she went completely still beneath me said we were both correct. Her next words further confirmed it. “You’re not going to kill me,” she said, her lips twisted in a smug smile. “You had your chance before and you didn’t. And you won’t after what happened to Embris.” She let her head fall back. “You haven’t Ascended anyone to take my place. I would’ve felt it. I know you won’t allow what happened after Embris to repeat.”
I lowered my head until we were inches apart. “I didn’t Ascend another to take your place because I will.”
The smile slowly slipped from her face.
“I’m going to kill you, Veses.”
Her lips parted. “No.”
“No?”
“You wouldn’t.” Her gaze darted to Ash. “She won’t.”
Ash smiled. “She is.”
Her wide gaze fixed on me. “Then I was wrong. You’re no better. You’re not just or fair—”
“Clearly, you have no idea who you’re speaking to. He’s the inherently just and fair one.” I nodded in Ash’s direction. “I’m the one who has to work at it.”
“Work at it?”
“Yes. But you?” I tapped my fingers off her cheek as essence swelled in me—in her. “You’re not worth the effort.”
Pure, stark terror bled from her and choked the air.
I leaned in, my lips brushing the curve of her ear. “There is no room for forgiveness and fairness. I’m the reaction to your past actions. I am the consequence.” Tendrils of eather rose from the floor. Strands of pure energy swirled around us. “You should be grateful, Veses.”
“Really?” she gasped.
“A part of me wanted to make your death last for years—for the length of the deal you made with my husband. I wanted you to feel every painful, choking second of desperation and humiliation. I wanted to witness your pleas turning to silent screams of hopelessness. And gods…” I laughed again, the sound throaty and twisted. “That does sound like a good idea.”
“Liessa,” came the soft warning.
“But I am not cruel,” I said. “That is the difference between you and me. I don’t want to find pleasure in another’s suffering.”
She cried out as the eather lashed over her leg, stinging her skin.
“Okay. I lied. I do find a little bit of pleasure in your suffering,” I said, tilting my head. “But I will not extend it. Because for whatever fucked-up reason, you did try to warn us. For that, I will not draw this out.”
She inhaled sharply.
“I will take your Court, Veses, and I will make sure all knowledge and memory of you is stripped away. No generation going forward will know of you. You will not be forgotten, Veses. You will be unknown.” The eather lashed out again, taking a strip of flesh. “You will die today.”
Veses tensed, and I felt her summoning eather. It was too late for that. Jerking her head back, I struck, sinking my fangs into her throat. I drank deeply and hard, not allowing myself to taste her almost too-sweet blood.
She broke my hold on her arms, but Ash was there. He would touch her to protect me. He caught her wrists, holding them down as I pulled more and more of her life force into me. She bucked under me as another draken crashed into the palace. I drank and drank until I felt her heart stutter. I released my fangs then.