Total pages in book: 140
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 531(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“Mordeus will be too powerful once he takes over your body,” he says, the need to blindly obey the Enchanting Lady making him take me literally.
“But I’m dead in ten days. What would he want with a dead body?”
“Not a dead body.” He shakes his head, and I can tell he’s trying to resist the need to give me what I want.
“What do you mean takes over my body?” I ask.
“It’s your gift,” he says, as if that makes any sense. “Your body will go on as long as there’s a consciousness attached. And he needs your body because his cannot sustain life. He’s in limbo right now—his consciousness resurrected without a body that can hold him.”
“You’re telling me that Mordeus will be in me? My body, his mind?” Everything in me rejects this notion. And yet I know what it’s like to have his mind inside me. I’ve known for a while now. I’m going to be sick. “Why didn’t Kendrick tell me this?”
“He didn’t want you to know,” he says, pointedly staring at the ground. There’s more that he’s not telling me. More that he doesn’t want me to know.
“Natan, look at me,” I say. He grimaces but obeys. “Why didn’t Kendrick want me to know about Mordeus taking over my body when my time runs out?”
His eyes glaze with the power of my enchantment and I know I’ll get the truth. “He didn’t want you to hurt yourself to prevent it. He still believes there’s a way to reverse all of this.”
“And you’ve been researching for him, right?”
“Of course. Looking for where they’ve hidden Felicity and how to help you. Every day.”
“In all that research, have you found a way to cut off the connection between me and Mordeus?”
“There isn’t much out there on blood magic. The Elorans banned it years ago and the Seven either destroyed or confiscated every book written about it. We know from history that blood magic is used to connect the magic or life force of two individuals, and that the scars appear when the magic is called upon.”
I nod. He told me all this the day I left them, not that it makes it any easier to wrap my head around.
“And since Mordeus performed countless blood magic rituals, he connected your life forces over and over again so he could call on that connection again and again.”
“Have you learned anything new since I saw you?”
“I’ve been researching instead about interconnected souls—what happens when the consciousness of two individuals are bound together as he seems to have bound yours. It is that interconnection that allows him to take over your body for periods of time and it’s also what will allow him to stay there once you cease to be.”
“Because of the ring. We’re connected because of the ring.” I look down at my finger. We all should’ve listened to Skylar when she suggested cutting off my finger to get it off me.
“No,” he says. “The ring strengthens the bond between you, but it’s the blood magic that keeps you connected. And the two together make it a complicated knot I have yet to learn how to untangle.”
I can see why Kendrick might think I’d hurt myself to avoid this. I lived through those days of wanting to disappear, wanting to cease to be. How ironic that only now that I finally want more do I need to release this life for the good of everyone around me.
“So it’s hopeless? All I can do is wait and pray to the cursed gods that one of you will plunge an iron blade into this chest the moment he takes over?”
The devastation in his eyes isn’t about the ring or the enchantment he’s under while speaking to me. It’s not even about the destruction Mordeus will bring on this realm when he has the power of my body. Natan cares about me. They all do. And I lost eight months that I could’ve been working with them to find a solution. Lost it because I couldn’t trust anyone. Lost it because, despite this ring that won’t come off my finger, my fear was controlling me.
“We’ve missed you,” Natan says, as if he can read my thoughts. “And I won’t stop looking for a way to reverse the connection the blood magic created or for a way to get you back the life you traded for that ring.”
But it’s the blood magic that connected us—the blood magic that will mean more loss than just my life. “Natan.” My head snaps up and I stare at him. “If Mordeus can tap into me—if my consciousness is connected to his—wouldn’t the opposite be true? Couldn’t I tap into his consciousness and find out where the Sword of Fire is?”
“If he can access your consciousness, then yes. You should be able to access his as well.”