Total pages in book: 200
Estimated words: 189930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 950(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 189930 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 950(@200wpm)___ 760(@250wpm)___ 633(@300wpm)
“How?”
“It’s so thick, you just don’t see anything. You think you see everything.” A strange light filled his pale blue eyes. “The mist that blankets the Skotos Mountains is there so anyone who dares pass through will want to turn back.”
“And those who don’t turn back?”
“They don’t make it through.”
“Because...because Atlantia is beyond the Skotos?” I asked.
“What do you think?”
What I thought was that talking to Kieran was an exercise in patience and energy, two things I was running low on.
“Are you going to bathe yourself?” he asked.
I wanted to. My skin was not just dirty, it was also chilled, and I was still wearing his bloodied shirt.
But I also wanted to be difficult because I was so freaking confused by everything, and as he had warned, I was tired. “What if I don’t?”
“That’s your choice,” he replied. “But you smell of Casteel.”
I jolted at the sound of his name. His real name. “I am wearing his shirt.”
“That’s not the kind of smell I’m talking about.”
It took a minute for me to get what he was referencing. When I did, my mouth dropped open. “You can smell…?”
Kieran’s smile could only be described as wolfish.
“I’m going to bathe.”
He chuckled.
“Shut up,” I snapped, gathering up the new clothing and hurrying into the bathing room. I closed the door behind me, annoyed when I saw there was no lock.
Cursing under my breath, I looked around and found several hooks on the wall. I hung the tunic and breeches there. I quickly stripped and stepped into the bath, ignoring the twinge of pain in a very private area as I sank into the lavender-scented water. I didn’t allow myself to think about anything as I got down to scrubbing off my blood and…and his. My stomach turned over as I used the bar of soap to wash my hair. When suds ran down the back of my neck, I dipped under the water and held myself there.
I stayed until my lungs and throat burned, and white spots sparked behind my closed eyes. Only then did I break the surface, gasping for air.
What was I going to do about him? About everything?
A strangled, hoarse-sounding laugh escaped me. I didn’t know where to even begin to start figuring out this mess. I’d just learned that the kingdom of Atlantia still existed, and that seemed like the least crazy thing to have discovered. Gods, I still didn’t even understand how I’d gone from learning who he truly was, stabbing him in the heart, to then willingly falling into his arms.
Squeezing my eyes shut, I dragged my hands down my face. I couldn’t blame the bite, even though it had some kind of arousing effect, just like his blood had. And who, by the way, would’ve ever thought that would feel good?
But damn, it had…
I shivered as a tight curling motion bloomed low in my stomach.
That was the last thing I needed to think about right now if I had any hope of figuring out what I needed to do.
And I needed to come up with some kind of plan and quickly because even though he didn’t seem to hold my attempt to kill him against me, I wasn’t safe here. I wouldn’t be safe anywhere with his people. They hated me, and if half of what he and Kieran claimed about the Ascended and what they’d done was true, I couldn’t blame them, even though I’d done nothing to them. It was what I represented.
Still, it was too much to believe that the Atlantians were the innocent party, and the Ascended were the violent tyranny that had somehow managed to turn an entire kingdom away from the truth.
But…
But I’d never seen any of the third and fourth sons and daughters who were given to the gods during the Rite.
I could never understand how those like Duke Teerman and Lord Mazeen had received a Blessing from the gods.
But never once had I seen an Ascended lift a single finger to fight the Craven, the one thing the people of Solis feared more than death itself.
The one thing they’d do anything and believe anything to remain safe from.
He had claimed that the Royals used the Craven to keep the people in check, and if that were true, it worked. They gave up their own children to keep the beasts at bay.
It had to be true.
Worse yet, others must be involved in this. The Priests and Priestesses. Close friends of the Court, who hadn’t Ascended. My parents?
Gods, I couldn’t lie to myself any longer.
What had happened with him was proof enough. His blood had healed me, not turned me. His kisses had never cursed me. And so far, neither had his bite.
The Ascended were vamprys—they were the curse that had plagued this land. They used fear to control the masses, and they were the evil hidden in plain sight, feeding off those they had sworn to the gods to protect.