Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“You can barely hold that thing,” she jeered.
“And you’re barely standing, leatha.”
She wanted to roar at him, but she had nothing left in her. She needed to outsmart him. Not fight him.
So, when he came at her, she ran straight toward him. She wasn’t fast. She had no magic backing her. But her body remembered the maneuvers she had trained relentlessly. She slid onto her side, ducking his sword and tangling his legs up with hers.
His body went down hard on his side, and she was already back up on her feet, racing to the artifact.
She snatched it up in her hand and breached the shield, watching as it sputtered and then fell. She’d done it. She had gotten the shield down.
Her heart raced. Trask was getting back to his feet behind her. She just needed Tieran to wake up. She needed her escape route to work.
But Tieran didn’t move. His chest rose and fell, but he didn’t stir.
“No,” she whispered.
She had run out of options. Officially. There was nothing left she could do.
“There’s no escape,” Trask taunted.
Tears of despair came to her eyes. After all of that … after everything, Bastian had really won.
Then, Trask’s eyes widened to saucers. Kerrigan whipped around and saw the shadows coalescing before her.
Shouts came up from the other side of the arena. “He’s missing!”
Then, Fordham’s face smirked up at her. He grabbed her tight around the waist.
Bastian roared, “Get them!”
But he was too late.
They vanished. A moment later, they stood in the aerie. Fordham collapsed to one knee. The knife was still in his back, and he was losing precious blood.
“Ford, oh my gods! Okay, hold on. We’re going to get you help.”
“Need … Netta,” he gasped. “Get to … Shadows.”
“No,” she said. “We won’t be safe anywhere.”
“Safe … in my … court.”
“We need to go to the portal room. We need to get help.”
“Court … can help.”
That sounded logical, but the House of Shadows agreed with Bastian. Had gone to war multiple times over the right to have humans and half-Fae as chattel. They weren’t going to go to war for the opposite rights, not after the Society screwed them out of their own rights. They were going to make peace with the first person who ended their isolation. That should have been Fordham, but it wasn’t. He never got the chance.
“Trust me. We have to get to the portal. We have to … we have to go through the portal to get help.”
“Cyrene?” he asked.
Which was a great thought, but even Cyrene’s world couldn’t take on the entire Red Masks. They needed bigger help. They needed Domara, the world of the gods.
“Do you trust me?”
He nodded once without hesitation.
“Then, trust me.”
His eyes were wide as he reached up and put a hand to her face. “I can’t feel you anymore.”
Tears came to her eyes. “I know.” She choked on the words. “I know. We’ll fix it, I swear.”
Then, he wrapped her up in shadows despite the pain written on his face and jumped to the portal room. It was overrun with guards, who gaped in shock at their appearance. They were tearing the portal down. Just as she had seen in her vision. They were preventing anyone from calling for reinforcements. This was their only chance.
“How?” Fordham asked.
But Kerrigan didn’t know how to answer that.
It would open for her. With that intention clear in her mind, she rushed past the guards, and the portal shimmered into an iridescent pool. The guards shouted in alarm, rushing toward her. There shouldn’t have been a way to open that portal. She didn’t even know how she had done it when she had no magic in her veins. Just her mother’s blood.
“Domara,” she gasped.
Then, she took Fordham’s hand, and they fell forward into the portal.
55
THE VICTORY
ISA
Isa stood at Bastian’s right hand.
Kerrigan had gotten away.
Somehow.
He was raging at Isa’s side, claiming that everyone had to find Kerrigan. That anyone who brought her head to him would be richly rewarded.
It was a lot of trouble for one half-Fae girl that he’d refused to let Isa kill for a year. She could have ended her life anytime she wanted. But no, the Father knew better. He had a master plan. It had all gone right just as he had envisioned. He’d claimed to need Kerrigan alive to make this moment a success. Only to lose her at the pivotal moment.
Still, he was calling it a victory.
Hundreds were dead in the stands. Dragons had been knocked out. Red Masks flooded the place. It was everything they had worked toward. It was everything they wanted.
And yet she felt … nothing.
Nothing, except a deep-seated anger.
Because this was supposed to be her moment too. It was supposed to be her rise out of the shadows. She didn’t have to be his pretty assassin anymore. She could be so much more.