Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
“No, no, no, don’t go. I’m coming now. Just wait for me.”
“I can’t. You know I can’t. Just walk straight out the back door and come due west. You’ll find me.”
“Please, Xan, just wait.”
“I’ll see you soon,” I murmured and hung up. I left the phone ringing on the table when I went out the back door.
TWELVE
As I tore through the forest to reach the clearing where the rift was, I saw more people there than I had when I did my flyover earlier. My heart was in my throat as I saw thick roots on my side of the rift, curving sideways and entangling with those that looked like they’d appeared out of thin air, but that I knew were from the other side. A woman was standing on my land, her hands clasped together like she was praying, her head bent. Around her, on their knees, were five other women, all scantily clad, completely unlike the nymph I’d met in Declan’s office, who’d been outfitted like a huntress, covered from head to toe. Clearly, these were handmaidens who didn’t do a lot of running.
I could see twelve men as well, all outfitted in breeches tucked into knee-high boots, long-sleeved tunics with armor over that, with fur capes and swords. They looked like every fantasy character on every book cover I’d ever seen in my life. At least six vargrs prowled near them. It was the epitome of bad, but they weren’t what scared me. What sent ice down my spine, made my stomach twist and my heart nearly stop, was the man, probably seven feet tall, who stepped through the rift, walking on the roots of the tree and then stepping down onto the soil of my land.
He was enormous, all muscle, and outfitted for war. A sword hung from each hip, there were daggers in a belt across his chest, and what looked like two bears had been used to make his cloak, as there was a head on each of his massive shoulders. His hair was dark brown, which I could see only because the moon was bright. The gold crown around his head was encrusted with rubies. He was handsome, with a long aquiline nose, chiseled features, and a square jaw. His voice, when he spoke, was low and rough.
“You have done well, my love,” he said to the beautiful woman, who practically glowed in the moonlight. This had to be Gaeidhel, his queen, which was made clear by the item he now held. A moment ago, there was nothing in his hand, but now, suddenly, there was a crown, delicately made, in sharp contrast to the thick, crudely made one he wore. “You may take your place at my side in this realm.”
One of his knights—I wasn’t sure what else to call them—spread a beautiful gold brocade blanket on the ground, and the woman knelt and received her crown. When she rose, he took her into his arms and kissed her. When he let her go, he saw me, the first one to notice me.
“No,” he said, chuckling, glancing around at his people. “Surely this cannot be the mage who has given you all so much trouble.”
I would have corrected the mage part, but it didn’t seem necessary or smart. Better to leave the lie in place than contradict an assumption that might help me. I bellowed, “You need to return to your home. Get the hell off my land!”
He laughed. Of course he did. He was huge, and I was tiny in comparison. In that moment, I knew precisely how David had felt.
“I am Threun the defiler, and you are merely a whelp.”
I was so sick of the descriptions that came with his title. “I killed Rulaine,” I said, hoping that news would give him pause. I had rushed out into the fight as I always did, and now realized I was in over my head. At the same time, what else was I supposed to do? Let them get farther than the clearing where the rift was? Let them walk the length of Corvus, poisoning it, killing it, and then head for Osprey? I was the guardian, the protector, the shield. I was the raven of the woods as Lorne had dubbed me. This was my purpose, my sacred duty, to defend the land and protect the town. “I killed your man Sola as well. Do not mistake me for anything less than the lion who guards the gate.”
His queen sneered at me. “Rulaine was a weak, conniving whore trying to claw her way out of the swamp she was born in, and Sola was nothing more than an enchantment gone wrong. If you dispatched them, they were weaker than I thought and did not use the vargrs I sent with them,” she proclaimed in a voice dripping with disdain before giving me a dismissive wave of her hand that sent all six wolves at me at once.