Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“She is your Queen now, Elgiana,” Lady Nolana said loudly, glaring at the other woman. “I suggest you respect her—especially considering what just happened to your accomplice!”
“Oh, I respect her!” Elgiana gave a crazed laugh and I realized uneasily that her mind must have given way. “I have plenty of respect for anyone who’s about to kill me!”
“I never said—” I began.
“But I’m not going to die alone!” she continued. She held up the crystal vial of antidote and waved it at me. “Because your two half-breeds are going to die with me!”
It felt as though my heart stopped dead in my chest.
“Wait,” I said, putting out a hand to her. “We can talk about this, Elgiana.”
“Talk about what?” she demanded. “Are you going to offer to trade my life for the lives of your half-breeds? Well tell me this, Princess, what kind of life would I actually have? Are you going to strip me of my title and servants and lock me in the basement of the Palace with the Lesser Fae? Because I’d rather be dead!”
And with that, she flung the crystal vial as hard as she could. I watched it arc up into the air, glimmering in the light of the bonfire in the center of the clearing…and then smash against the trunk of a tree and shatter into a million tiny pieces.
Lady Elgiana began to laugh hysterically—a sound that had no sanity in it whatsoever.
“There!” she screeched. “Kill me if you want to, but they’ll die with me! Good luck finding some more bitterworm antidote because there isn’t any!”
I turned to Lady Nolana, feeling sick.
“Is she telling the truth?”
“I’m afraid so.” She looked stricken. “Bitterworm is an incredibly dangerous poison—it’s said that working with it for too long can drive you mad—which is why the old King, your Royal Father, outlawed it. Elgiana is probably the only one foolish enough to have it in her possession—which means she’s also the only one who has the antidote. Or had the antidote,” she added sadly.
Suddenly I couldn’t stand there one more minute talking—I had to get to my guys! If they only had a little while left to live, I couldn’t leave them alone.
I dropped Lady Nolana’s hand and ran from the Hallowed Clearing, heading for Sel and Krynn.
I just prayed I wasn’t too late to see them one last time.
51
Lily
They were still there, still tied to the tree branch with their arms stretched above their heads. Krynn had slumped to his knees, his tattered wings dragging the ground. Sel was still somehow upright, but he was barely breathing and when I put my hands on his cheeks and lifted his head so I could see him, his eyes were such a dark brown color they were almost black.
“Princess…” he rasped out. “You…came.”
“Of course I came!” I was crying—the tears rolling down my cheeks though I barely noticed. “Oh Sel, please don’t leave me! Please, I need you both!”
Krynn raised his head with an obvious effort.
“Can’t…help it…my Lady,” he breathed, his voice barely more than a whisper. “So…sorry.”
“No, I’m sorry! I should have found a way to save you!”
“Excuse me, your Highness?” someone said. I didn’t realize they were talking to me until they repeated the title and then said, “Queen Lilliana?”
The sound of my name got my attention and I turned to see a squadron of the Palace Guards standing there, shifting uneasily from foot to foot.
“Forgive me, my Queen.” The young Fae guard at the head of the squadron bowed deeply to me. “But is there anything we can do to help the Captain?”
“Cut him down!” I somehow managed to say. “Cut both of them down. I need…need to be with them at…at the end.”
The guards obeyed quickly, cutting the ropes that held Krynn and Sel in place. They laid them gently, side by side on the ground under the giant oak tree they’d been tied to. I sat between them, heedless of the dirt and mud getting on my gown, and cradled both their heads in my lap. The guards stood by watching uneasily but I was too upset to ask them to leave.
Suddenly, Lady Nolana was there again at my side.
“Oh my dear!” she exclaimed. “I am so very sorry!”
I was too—but I didn’t want to be. I didn’t want to give up!
“There must be a way!” I sobbed, my tears falling like rain on both of my guy’s faces as I cradled their heads. “There must be some way to save them! I can call lightning from the sky and make a freaking thorn bush grow in under a minute—there must be a way I can reverse this poison!” I looked at Lady Nolana hopefully. “When I bite them, I’m able to heal their wounds afterwards. Maybe if I tried to suck out the poison…”