Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
What she coveted: A life free of them with a partner who loves and respects me.
What she feared: That I’ll accept anything less—or die before I get a chance at that life.
“Even if we found the battery, I can’t leave,” she told him. “Not until my mission is complete.”
Seeming to choose his words carefully, he said, “With all these vantages and blind corners, this lab will be a kill zone if your visitors reappear in here. We might actually be in trouble.”
She nodded. “Yes. And you should go if you can. I don’t want you to get hurt. But for my part, if I return home empty-handed, I’ll jeopardize my sisters.” She would do anything to protect them, just as they would do anything for her—including putting themselves in danger.
Fierce Lea would charge into the line of fire with a battle cry, studious Sage and mischievous Clove right behind her. Lethal Bella would fight to the death for just about any cause, but especially for Poppy.
“Rök, if I don’t find a way to stop the visitors, I sense that they will kill me and those I love. They won’t quit till we’re all dead.”
He appeared to wrestle with his thoughts. At length, he said, “Do you think the cursebreaker is in here?”
“Maybe?” She had to believe the answer was close.
Both of their gazes settled on an area in a far corner of the lab, one concealed behind an oversize curtain. Never a good sign.
He said, “We’re going behind that curtain, aren’t we?”
“Yep.”
“Not going to like what we see?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing ventured, huh. Just stay close, okay?” He started in deeper, using his enhanced sight to scan the shadows.
As they walked, she ignored the ancient spider eggs crunching beneath their boots and regarded his wounds. The doll’s blade had stabbed him through. “You were really hurt.”
“I’ll be fine.” He shrugged his broad shoulders, then winced.
His pain called to her, and she had to ball her fists to keep from touching him. “At least you’re regenerating quickly.” His eyes had already healed from the starbursts of red.
He gave a short laugh. “Am I, then?”
Sympathy elicited honesty. “If I don’t get another chance to tell you . . . I have heard all about your exploits, and they aren’t mediocre.”
He gave her a questioning look, as if she might be teasing him again.
“Even before tonight, I recognized how well you fight.” She’d been agog at his skill with a sword, his style a mix of demon brutality and cold precision. Fire and ice. “And your intel is next-level. Everyone knows that.”
“Thanks, Red. I appreciate it. I wish I’d gotten to do research on this place. Not knowing the ins and outs is throwing me.” He hadn’t had a chance because he’d rushed to her side.
“I’m a member of a forum that speculates on the mysteries surrounding Raven’s Murk. It’s a great place to exchange information, except for the literal trolls. They somehow found their way online. Anyway, the message boards contain a ton of details about this castle and the wizard. A lot of it is conjecture, but some has been proven correct.”
“Did those forum members predict this?” Rök waved at their surroundings.
“Could anyone have?”
As they passed the tanks with body parts, he swore low. “This lab couldn’t get any creepier.”
Lightning struck the rod at that moment, the glare blinding them. Electricity buzzed, traveling down the wires to those tanks. One severed leg juddered, the foot kicking the glass with a watery thud thud thud.
“It just did.” The portrait on the landing flashed into her thoughts. “I’m starting to suspect what the wizard was doing here.”
“Don’t say the reanimation of corpses.”
She sighed. “Totally the reanimation of corpses.” Thud thud thud. “He wanted to resurrect his wife and children.”
“Fantastic!”
“You really have a problem with dead things coming back to life.”
“You’ve discovered my no-longer-secret weakness,” Rök said. “He must’ve been keeping his subjects in that dungeon.”
They’d discovered the answer to another mystery: the wizard had indeed turned balls-out evil. “Then he was as horrific as my visitors.”
Rök frowned at her. “At our dinner, you never mentioned your curse, even though we discussed monsters.”
“Not something I lead with on a first date.”
He kicked an empty crate out of their way. “You tell that warlock of yours?”
“Ixius and I shared more than a first date.”
Rök’s jaw muscles bulged. Jealousy from the demon? Delicious.
She’d told Ixius because she’d thought he could help her. But warlocks were tricky, and good ones like her father were rare.
Most hated witches, were intimidated by their feminine strength. Others wanted to siphon off a witch’s power, while giving nothing in return.
Skewing toward the latter, Ixius had been disappointed when Poppy failed to manifest any abilities. In the end, she’d been well rid of him.
Rök said, “When I asked you that night why you thought humans liked horror movies, you got a strange look on your face and told me, ‘Because it feels like a near miss. And in the face of death, life is even more precious.’”