Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“Do you think I knew then? Do you think I had any power with Myrddin when I could barely shape a spell with these useless hands?” She held them up and I was shocked to see the heavy veins running up and down the back of her hands only to disappear in that shield she wore. I knew what that costume was. It was a shield.
And unfortunately I knew what those veins meant.
Liv had been taking demon blood.
“Myrddin only cared about me because you cared about me. He didn’t tell me anything back then. I was trapped and scared.” For a moment she sounded like my Liv. “Casey couldn’t help me. Casey barely managed to get out on his own. He didn’t think to look for me. I was alone. But then I realized what an opportunity I’d been given. The Dark One offered me power, and I took it. I realized it didn’t matter what I had to give up. It didn’t matter. I felt better without it.”
“Without what?” I didn’t like the suspicion that was creeping across my mind. “What did you give up? How long have you been taking demon blood? Do you have any idea what that’s going to do to your soul?”
“Who needs a soul when you can have power?”
A cold chill moved over my skin. “Liv, what have you done?”
Her jaw tightened, eyes boring into me. “What I had to. What you made me do. Now I’ll ask the question I came here to ask. It’s more of a bargain. Stay out of this fight. I’ve talked to Myrddin and he’s agreed that if you go to your mother and brothers and live a human life, he’ll stay away from you. I’ll even throw in Trent if you can get that wolf to keep his nose out of our business.”
“Stay out of this war? So we can have a couple of months before demons take over?”
“I told you that’s not what’s happening,” Liv insisted.
“Because Myrddin wouldn’t do that?” I sensed a way to start shoving a wedge between Liv and her beloved maniac wizard.
“Because he would tell me if he was.”
“You’re still on the outside,” I said with a shrug. “He’s taken your soul and infected you with evil and he still doesn’t trust you. He’s lying to you. He’s planning on using the Sword of Light along with a spell from his grimoire to close the door to the Heaven plane and then he’ll open the one to Hell and they will rule.”
Her chin came up. “If he is, then he’s planning to take his rightful place as the leader of this whole plane. The humans have done nothing but fuck things up.”
I was getting to her. If I could just get her to see reason, I had a chance to save her. “Lucifer won’t cede the Earth plane. Not when he could take it. Do you honestly believe Myrddin can beat Lucifer Morningstar? The demons will make slaves of us all if you close the door to the Heaven plane. No souls will be able to move on. It will be Hell on Earth. Is that what you want? Do you want us all to die because you lost your power?”
Her eyes suddenly flashed fire. “I got it all back and more. It’s obvious you’re going to be stubborn. So I’ll simply take what my master needs.”
The tendrils in the outer chambers of my brain suddenly became talons, and she began her assault.
I slammed my mental shields down.
“Fuck,” Liv shouted in obvious pain as the world shifted around me and she was gone.
Like I said. I’ve bested far better mind readers, and that was before Marcus taught me how to truly control it. In my case, the demon blood in her system made her more susceptible to my power.
If only she was susceptible to my reason.
“Kelsey? Kelsey, baby?”
I blinked and Trent stood in front of me, worry plain on his handsome face. “So you weren’t the one who was stuck.”
He breathed a major sigh of relief and dragged me into his arms. “I was trying to tell you that we’ll be perfectly comfortable in the primal nest and you stopped. Like someone turned you off. You didn’t blink or respond.”
“Mistress, we were most worried. I arrived here and Master Trent couldn’t bring you out of it. I was about to transport back to Frelsi to bring a doctor.” Eddie put a hand to his chest as though trying to slow his heart.
My own heart felt heavy. Liv was so far from me, and the words she’d said had done their job. I felt guilty. I had brought her into this dangerous part of our world. Oh, I know on an intellectual level in many ways it had been the other way around. She and my brother, Nate, had helped the king bring me in, but I understood why now. That was something I’d forgiven long ago. Now I was left with the worry that she wouldn’t be here had I not brought her into my investigations, put her on the team. She’d been a happy teacher with a fiancé. I think what happened with Scott would have happened no matter what, but she was right about what had happened to her. It was my fault. I should never have involved her in such a dangerous case.