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)
They trekked up the front steps of the haunted house. Dozan put his shoulder into the door to get it open. She followed him into the dusty mansion. It didn’t look like anyone had been here since she had been inside with Zina. The spirits buzzed all around her at her appearance. She smiled as they brushed against her skin. Somehow, they’d accepted her as one of them. Strange.
Dozan didn’t seem to notice them as he dropped the bag at the center of the room. When he opened it and found the candles, he arched an eyebrow.
“In a large circle,” she explained.
Then, she helped arrange them on the dusty floor.
She took a seat in the middle of the candles and gestured for Dozan to do the same. “If you’re going to stay, you should stay within the candles.”
He sat across from her. “Can I do anything?”
“Wake me if I go too far. Pull me back.”
He looked grim. “I don’t have magic, Kerrigan.”
“I trust you.”
“Your first mistake.” His smirk was immediate and unrelenting.
“Never.”
Then, she closed her eyes and let herself relax. With a flick of her hand, the candles ignited all around them. The brush of the spirits disappeared from her mind, and she was in quiet. Dozan’s presence was a gentle brush. She could recognize the signature of him any day. She had known it for so long that it solidified her as she dipped down into her magic.
She felt past her elemental magic to the spirit buried within her core. She remembered Cleora’s lessons. She had to hold on to the magic tight and then cast it not out or in, but to the future. She had no idea if she had enough power to force this to happen, but she had no other choice. She needed to find out about the wedding. She needed to know what would happen with March.
Her entire intention was focused on the wedding day. She held it with precision focus. Then, she cast her magic to the future.
She gasped as she felt the magic soar away from her, as if there were an invisible string connecting her to it. With the magic gone, she could feel how quickly she was draining. Not as fast as it happened when she had involuntary prophecies, but close.
Then, her vision clouded, and a tangle of images appeared before her eyes. She gagged as the taste of blood was in her mouth. Blood, blood everywhere. It rained blood. She coughed and spat the blood onto the floor as tears ran down her cheeks. Then, the image sputtered, and another showed a circle of thirteen from on high. She blinked. That couldn’t be. Thirteen were never called together, except for great workings. They disappeared again, and suddenly, the portal room appeared just as she remembered it. A giant archway, large enough for dragons to walk through, carved into the mountain with a shimmery entrance that meant it was open. Another blink, and the portal was crumbling. She screamed as it closed and fell apart into nothing.
She gasped, and the next second, she was lying on the ground in Black House. Dozan had scrambled to her side and was holding her head in his lap.
“You’re okay,” he said softly. The softest she had ever heard him. “Come back to me, Kerrigan.”
She coughed and spat, and blood landed in the circle. The blood from her vision had pushed through the veil into her. She came to all fours, gasping in breath.
“Oh gods,” she said, sitting back on her heels and wiping at her tears. “What the hell?”
“What did you see?” he asked, wide-eyed.
“I … I don’t know. It wasn’t the wedding.”
“You were convulsing.”
“I’m fine.”
“You don’t look fine,” he growled. “You’re pale and shaking.”
“It was … something else. I have no idea. Blood, a circle of thirteen, and the portal destruction.”
Dozan remained very still. “What does that mean?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. Nothing about the wedding. I need to do it again.”
Dozan arched an eyebrow. “Did you miss that I said you were convulsing? You can’t do it again.”
“It didn’t show me what I needed to see,” she said, already returning to her seat.
“Red,” he spat. “Listen to yourself. You don’t need to do this again.”
“I do.”
He took her hands. His look was pleading, a face she had never seen on her own personal monster. “If you don’t want to marry him, don’t marry him.”
She yanked her hands back. “It’s not that simple. He threatened me. He is going to go to war if I refuse. There’s no legal recourse to get me out of this, Dozan. I need to know if there’s a way. I need the visions to tell me.”
Dozan sighed. “The legal recourse is, you kill him. Then, you’re free and clear.”
“Fine. If the vision tells me to, then I’ll do it.”