Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
She stared at me. “You want me to come with you?”
I nodded.
She moved forward.
Huntley’s arm flung out and caught her. “Your sister is still Necrosis.”
“Not by choice, but force.” I walked back, extending my hand to Elora. “My sister would never touch her, and even if she wanted to, I would never allow it.”
Huntley let her go.
Elora came to my side and placed her hand in mine, and we entered the black castle. The interior was quiet, the windows covered with black drapes. There were servants inside but very few. They greeted me wordlessly before they skirted into the corridors.
I moved to the top floor where the bedchambers were located. Her guard was there, and I asked to see her.
She stepped into the room a moment later, in a beautiful gown that Haldir would have asked her to wear, her dark hair long and down her shoulders. Her beauty was stunning, just the way Elora’s was. Her eyes immediately dropped to our joined hands. Then they flicked back up, looking at me in confusion.
My heart was in my throat because I’d waited for this for so long. Dreamed of this moment. The moment I saved my little sister. I dropped Elora’s hand and drew closer. “Necrosis has fallen.”
Her eyes widened.
“I’ve captured Haldir.”
Once she understood exactly what I was telling her, her breaths turned rapid, and her eyes glistened.
“Once I take him to the Bone Witch, we’ll both be free.”
She was always so poised and somber, sharing no hint of emotion even in Haldir’s presence. She had to swallow all her sorrow and bottle it deep inside her. But now, she could break free for the first time, could feel every emotion as deeply as she wanted. Her breath hitched, and her sobs broke past her rib cage and reached the surface. She grabbed on to me as she sobbed, sobbed her heart out.
I held her in my arms and felt my own tears breach the surface. Every day I’d had to suffer, watching my sister be the prisoner of a man she didn’t love, a man infatuated with her beauty but feeling nothing for her, for who she was. I hated to think of the nights she’d been subjected to, the hopelessness she must have always felt. “It’s over…it’s over.”
Necrosis lands were as large as the Kingdoms. Once you moved past the mountains, the soil was fertile and thawed, the heat reaching the southern region in greater abundance than all the settlements to the north. It meant we had the best produce, lush landscapes of grasses and flowers, places too beautiful to be enjoyed by those who were dead.
We moved as a caravan, approaching the rock that could be spotted from miles beyond. It was easy to recognize even from the greatest distances because it was carved to look exactly like a snake rearing its head, his jaws open with fangs exposed.
My sister walked beside me, and she turned back a couple times to look at the carriage that contained the man she’d been forced to marry. “I can’t believe you did it.”
“I didn’t do it alone. Without the Runes, this wouldn’t have been possible.”
“I had no idea you were undertaking all this…” She was still in one of her expensive gowns with pants underneath, her body adorned with expensive jewels to enhance her already goddess-level appearance.
“Couldn’t risk telling anyone.”
“So, it was just you.”
“Others were part of the plan, but they didn’t get the chance to leave Necrosis.”
She already recognized the rock because she’d been there before. The Bone Witch had turned her before she’d turned me. Even though nearly two hundred years had passed, it was impossible to forget that change, when your soul left your body. “Elora loves you even though you’re heartless and soulless?”
I gave a slight nod. “I don’t understand it either.”
“You didn’t eat her—so you must love her too.”
That was so obvious that I didn’t comment on it.
She glanced over her shoulder again. “One of your men stares a lot.”
“Which?”
“Has a black feather crest on his chest plate.”
I turned to look at Ian, and sure enough, his eyes were locked on my sister. “He’s harmless. Just an admirer.”
“When this is all over, what are we going to do?”
“I’ll return to HeartHolme to be with Elora. You can join me, if you like.”
She stared ahead for a long time, somber. “I don’t know where else to go. The lives we had have been gone for so long… I’m not sure how to start over. Everyone I ever loved has been dead for over a hundred years.”
It was such a depressing thought. “I know.”
“So, I’ll accompany you…and try to start over.”
Half a day later, we arrived at the cave. The carriage couldn’t enter the cave, so we pulled Haldir out and dragged him across the ground by the ropes. He was still out of it, but he was aware enough to resist, to refuse to get to his feet and walk.