Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Later, though. After Daisy was safe. She had to help the living first. The dead were used to waiting.
“How can you see us?” Finally, the leader realized what was going on. “You are a useless human. What power is this?”
“A real good one. What happened here?”
“How did you come by it? Do you have fae blood?”
“No, thank the heavens. I’m giving you a chance to answer my questions on your own. If you don’t, I’ll make you answer them. I have the ability. Now, what happened here?”
It turned out he wanted to do things the hard way. No problem.
After she’d heard all she needed to and a few things Kieran wanted to know, she cut out their voices as she disintegrated their forms. There was no afterlife for them to retire into, no veil for them to slip behind, but this place had spirit woven into its fabric, like in her lands. Hopefully like in Faerie. It was what allowed a soul to exist. Now they would be part of it, no longer existing as themselves. Fuckers.
“Interesting,” Kieran said when she’d finished. “The courts are not harmonious. The Sapphire Throne seems to want the power for themselves even though they’d need the Obsidian Throne to help them make the bridge.” He thought for a moment. “They probably wanted Daisy to give themselves the upper hand. Hold her, hold the power.”
“I still don’t get what kind of power she has. She has no magic other than what I gave her. And that’s just standard blood magic. That barely shows up on the testing units without power of her own.”
He shook his head as Bria’s third cadaver shakily rose from the ground. Lightning streaked across the sky and a saddle went floating by, Dylan and Donovan testing their magic in this place, ensuring it worked like normal. So far it did, Lexi’s included.
“It sounds like she sets off the power, somehow,” John said, having listened to everything. “He said she made it come to life, thereby increasing his power. Remember in the sergeant’s barn? You were standing around for a while, but it was after she got in there that they started to buzz and vibrate. That can’t be a coincidence.”
Lexi squinted at Kieran, knowing John was right but still not understanding. “What kind of magic is that? I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“Something the fae want,” Kieran said with a look around them. “Something the dark fae know how to use. Something they’ll kill for.”
Bottom line, they didn’t need to understand it. They just needed to get to Daisy before the dark fae created that bridge. Once she was no longer useful, they’d kill her. Given the fae had a head start and those chalices, it didn’t give them much time.
She stood. “Bria, we need to find a few fae who have been back and forth through the Faegate. I want to know what to expect. Tomorrow, we confront the Celestials.”
10
Daisy
The slap rang out before the pain across her cheek registered.
“Wake up, you vile human.”
The stone slab had been straightened, and she hung from the chains, her feet dragging against the ground. A male fae stood in front of her, and another stood back by the door of her opened cell. Deep night had fallen, only a silvery slice of light coming from her window. It was just barely enough to make out the fae within her space.
They each wore a sturdy tunic of forest green, belted at the waist with two sheaths each for long knives. Embroidery ran across their breasts and down the sides, leaving the stomach area mostly bare. Their sleeves flowed with a material similar to silk, showing more embroidery, which matched what circled the bottom of the tunic. Something like tights covered their legs in deep black, ending in supple leather boots. The fabric was cut simply and looked of moderately good quality, but nothing at all like the Celestial she’d seen in the human world. Unless she was mistaken, their attire and presence here suggested they were a middling sort of servant. Not someone with mindgazer magic. Not that it mattered if they planned to drag her to the king or some other noble. Or take her for themselves.
Her stomach fluttered as she remembered what Tarian had said. She hoped someone had alerted him and he could get here in time if anything should happen. Otherwise, she’d kill whom she could and hope for the best.
A mask of shadow did not cover their faces, but strange black lines crept from their eyes and over their cheekbones. More spiderwebbed up from the high collars on their necks and along the edge of their jaws. She didn’t know if that was ink or something else. Their skin looked sallow, but that might have been a trick of the light.