Series: Lords of Rathe Series by Meagan Brandy
Total pages in book: 104
Estimated words: 98580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 98580 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 493(@200wpm)___ 394(@250wpm)___ 329(@300wpm)
Laughter leaves me with every hit as I take them. Again and again, he moves from my face to my chest to my stomach. With a one hand, backhanded swipe, I smack the shifter to the side, and he flies into the air, over the chairs that line up the colosseum and into whatever abyss lies within the solar system of Rathe.
Running the tip of my thumb over my lip, I shrug. “Didn’t even break the surface.” I look at the line of remaining people. The ones who are still standing. “All at once.” I gesture for them to come forward, just as I hear Legend cackle behind me.
They rush forward with a roar of energy. More. I need more pain—
As if the thought alone somehow conjured the feeling, a sharp sting stabs at my spine, like the cut of a fresh blade slipping beyond flesh and hitting bone.
I tense a moment, brows slashing together as my vision blurs and heat explodes in my chest. I blink, and the Gifted men coming at me come back into view a split second before their blows connect. I open my arms, welcoming what they have to offer.
A loud piercing sound ripples through the air and everyone stops mid-fight. Hot wires coil in my gut and I feel time tick slower inside my head. It almost echoes through the space. Like a reminder of pain or the warning of it coming. The sound pushes past the throbbing of my own blood gushing through my body, and the hairs on the back of my neck prickle when I register what it is.
There have been three times this alarm has ever sounded. The first was to declare who had won the war—my father. The second time to announce the birth of the Dark Crown’s first heir, Creed’s birth, and the third? When my sister died.
This isn’t good.
Hands grab my arm and I flinch away from them, not realizing it’s Legend. I don't want anyone to fucking touch me. The thought of anyone, even so much as breathing too close to me, makes my skin crawl.
She did this to me.
“Knight!” Creed snaps, and everything comes into clear vision.
My breathing slows, finding my brother’s rampant eyes.
His hands come to my cheek. “We need to leave. This could mean anything.”
“I know.” I blink past my rage for a second, before Creed reaches into his pocket and I look around the space to see everyone else doing the exact same. “What is it?”
Legend shoves his phone in my chest, and I blink down at the alarm that’s going off in the background. This really wasn’t good.
“Are you fucking—”
“Look!” Legend pushes his phone farther into my chest and I watch as everyone around me slowly disappears. I don’t know if it’s out of sight or my own mind pushing them out.
I snatch the phone out of his grip and start reading the words on the screen. I read them over and over again until they begin to blur together. A hollow echo starts roaring in my chest.
“Impossible…” I whisper, all the anger I felt moments ago gone. Poof. Evaporated. “It can’t be…” I read the words again, the siren now scratching on my last nerve.
I read the private message that dings in our group thread next.
Mother: Meet at the Chamber.
I shove Legend’s phone into his chest, inhaling deeply and reciting the old tongue until black vines start growing from the ground until rounded into a perfect oval. The inside turns a deep obsidian black and spreads like a virus until it fills the space. I shove Legend through and quickly close the Chamber’s portal.
The silence is deafening, and the more that time goes by, the longer my agitation grows. I pull up another portal, the simple kind, a stark difference to the Royal portal, and step through when I see the headquarters.
The throne comes into view first and everything around it fails to exist. The meeting place where we’ve always held the Gathering of Stygians, now too big a space. The ceilings too high, the room too wide. I smell the twist of melted metal as soon as my feet hit the ground.
A wave of searing hot anger rolls over me. I flick my head to the side and the loud snap of his neck breaks the silence. My speed picks up, and the closer I get, the more the reality of what’s in front of me comes into view, the taste of blood slipping down my throat like it belongs there. All other details fade to nothingness as I bend down, swiping my finger in the sticky red pool at my feet.
I remember the first time I truly noticed my father’s eyes. I was young. Young enough to only just notice that they’re a twisted shade of blue. The kind that looks like enchanted skies or cursed waters. Blue, white, cobalt with a hint of silver. They were the color of everything, yet nothing at all.