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)
Wynter laughed, high and manic. “I have nothing left to lose.”
“You have your life,” Kerrigan snarled.
“And my brother has that no longer.”
Kerrigan didn’t think. She just charged at Wynter. A dagger slipped into her hand, and they clashed together in the snow. Two princesses determined to win against the other.
Wynter had been trained. Kerrigan would give her that. But she was at a disadvantage since she had only been trained in the House of Shadows. She’d only had the worst sort of people training her. Those who used her for their own aims. She had years on Kerrigan, and still, she was no match for what Kerrigan had gone through to get to where she was.
Wynter’s smile snapped when she realized that they were evenly matched. She had thought to overpower her. Though Wynter’s use of the dark shadows was superior, Kerrigan had better control of the elements and her spirit at her back for a worst-case scenario.
And worse … Kerrigan did have something to lose. Someone. Dying in the snow.
This fight couldn’t go on forever, or Wynter would win regardless.
“You can’t defeat me,” Wynter said, jumping backward once with her shadows.
“You can’t use those powers forever.”
“No, but long enough for you to lose everything.”
Kerrigan blasted her with air magic, which Wynter deflected, and used that distraction to raise the ground under Wynter’s feet. She rolled forward out of the attack at the same time Kerrigan hit her in the face with fire. There was water everywhere around her, but her control was rudimentary with the element on a good day. She didn’t have enough concentration to shape the snow to her advantage. So, Kerrigan used blunt force, which pushed Wynter farther and farther back but did nothing to end the fight.
Wynter cackled maniacally. “You cannot win this, little half-Fae. But I can.”
Wynter jumped in quick, grasping Kerrigan around the wrist, and then pulled.
Yet Kerrigan did not move.
Wynter’s eyes widened in alarm. The magic hadn’t worked. She hadn’t been able to jump away with Kerrigan and do something heinous, like throw her off the cliff for fun.
The Ring of Endings had stayed her hand. Wynter’s magic couldn’t work against her. Which meant Wynter’s element of surprise had switched hands. Kerrigan used Wynter’s own momentum to pull her forward. Kerrigan punched the princess in the face. Her nose shattered on impact, and blood gushed from the wound.
Wynter cried out and tried to fight her way out of the advantage she had just given away. But Kerrigan had her now.
She dropped a knee into Wynter’s solar plexus, knocking the wind from her, used her wind magic to shove her to the ground in a spiral, and then between one breath and the next, Kerrigan dropped onto the spirit plane.
Wynter was in her grasp, so finding her individual signature was like plucking a daisy already in her hand. Wynter appeared on the spirit plane. Her clothes were plain. Her hair a lank mess past her shoulders. Her eyes red with grief. With all of her rage stripped away, she just looked like a young girl.
“What did you do to me?” Wynter gasped.
She reached for her magic and tried to throw it at Kerrigan to stop her, but there was no magic on the spirit plane. And the person strongest in spirit was who controlled the plane. Wynter had no spirit magic. She belonged to Kerrigan in here.
“You’re on the spirit plane,” Kerrigan said.
She snapped her fingers, and a chair appeared. She pushed Wynter into it.
“Release me,” Wynter snarled.
“I think not. Here, you have no magic. You have no shadows. You can stay here until I’m ready for you,” Kerrigan growled.
Wynter’s eyes finally widened in horror and fear. There was nowhere to go, nothing she could do, and no one to fight.
“Sit here and think about what you’ve done,” Kerrigan told her.
Then, she dropped back into her body.
Wynter lay, sprawled in the snow. She wouldn’t be going anywhere anytime soon.
Kerrigan’s fear heightened as she dashed back toward Fordham’s unresponsive body. “Ford?” she gasped as tears hit her eyes.
He gurgled something. His eyes half-lidded as he looked upon her face. His already-pale skin had gone almost blue in the snow.
She hadn’t had a moment to process what was happening while fighting Wynter. But now, there was no one to fight. She couldn’t take the dagger out or else blood would gush from the wound. She needed to leave it there as long as he was still alive.
“I’m going to find help,” she told him through her tears. “Don’t you die on me. Don’t you dare.”
She was no better than Wynter currently sitting in the spirit plane. The love of her life was dying and there was nothing she could do. She had no healing magic of her own.
Kerrigan pulled on the bond with Tieran. It was too high for him to fly, but she had to try something, anything. She dropped back into the spirit plane and explained the situation to her dragon. Told him to find someone, anyone who could heal him. The Erewa tribe had to have healers.