Total pages in book: 401
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 390373 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1952(@200wpm)___ 1561(@250wpm)___ 1301(@300wpm)
When I stepped back into the circular chamber, my heart leapt at the sight of Vikter.
Part of me still couldn’t believe it was him, and this wasn’t a dream.
He had taken a seat by the table, idly rubbing the knee of one outstretched leg. He’d injured it while fighting some Craven shortly after I arrived in Masadonia—or at least that’s what he told me when I was older and asked about it. But now, I wondered if it was an even older injury. That odd sense of knowing didn’t magically provide me with an answer, but either way, I didn’t think it was fair that such aches still plagued him.
Vikter’s gaze flicked up, his hand stilling. “You okay?”
“Yeah.” I cleared my throat.
“Come sit with me.” He waited until I got my butt moving and sat in the chair on the other side of the table. “I need to say something to you. Something you’ll disagree with, but I still need to say it.”
I swallowed. “Okay.”
He took a ragged breath. “There were things I knew you were going through—the Duke, his lessons.”
Tension rippled along my spine, causing my stomach to dip. The reaction wasn’t unusual, but there… Something about Duke Teerman lingered on the edges of my thoughts, elusive yet unsettling.
“I didn’t know everything. I didn’t need to,” he continued. “I had to protect you, and by doing so, I couldn’t risk my position as your guard. If I spoke up—”
“You would’ve been removed or worse,” I cut in, and that was true. If he’d intervened, Duke Teerman would’ve had him demoted or made sure he disappeared. That was why Vikter couldn’t do anything, and it was something Casteel would disagree with me on.
“But that’s no excuse. And I don’t mean for it to be. Nor do I expect your forgiveness.”
“You have it.”
“I never should’ve asked for it,” he countered softly. “I just want you to know that I’m sorry you had to go through what you did. I’m so damn sorry.”
I started to repeat that he had my forgiveness, but I stopped myself. There was nothing for me to forgive. I wished there were because it was on him to forgive himself. “I understand.”
Inhaling deeply, he closed his eyes briefly.
“You know, he got his,” I said. “In his chest with his favorite cane.”
A rough laugh left him. “Yeah, he did.” His throat worked on a swallow as he opened his eyes. “And he got more than that. You should ask your boy about that.”
My brows lifted.
Vikter cleared his throat. “About what you asked before—why the other Arae wouldn’t be happy with you being here. Well…” He sighed heavily. “Some of the other Arae think having you here is too much of a threat.”
“A threat to what?” I prodded, running my fingers along the robe’s sash. Again, no answer came to me. “The balance?”
Vikter hesitated.
Tension crept into my muscles as I guessed what he’d meant. “I’m a threat…to them.”
“They don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to you.” Vikter leaned over and touched my arm lightly. “But I know you and what’s in your heart. They don’t.”
“Shouldn’t they know what’s in my heart?” My fingers twisted the buttons. “They are Fates, after all.”
“That doesn’t mean they know you like that,” he countered evenly.
I looked away, my gaze fastening on the window. “What do they think I’ll do? They’re Fates.” As in Ancients, I silently added. “And—”
“And you’re the Primal of Blood and Bone.”
Swallowing a shriek at the new voice, I sprang to my feet and spun around.
A fair-haired man stood at the floor-to-ceiling windows, his hands clasped behind his back.
“What the…?” I pressed my hand to my chest, my stomach clenching as I took in his all-white attire.
“You could’ve used the door, Lirian,” Vikter said. “You know, like a normal person?”
“What’s the fun in that?”
“Fun?” My heart felt like it might come out of my chest as I stared at what I instinctually knew was a Fate—an Ancient. And I knew it without sensing him. The fact that I didn’t sense his arrival was more than a little concerning. “I felt Holland when he arrived while we were…beyond the Veil. I didn’t feel you.”
“Your connection to the essence is severed here. Your powers are bound.”
My eyes darted between him and Vikter, then narrowed. “You bound my powers?”
“Not just me,” he stated, looking over his shoulder at me, revealing the deep-russet-colored pattern on his face. His eyes were a multitude of colors like mine, except there were no traces of shadows in his, nor had there been any in Holland’s. “All of us used our will to do so.”
I stiffened. “The…entirety of the Arae are using their will against me? I don’t know if I should be flattered that it took all of you or just angry.”
“It’s only a precaution.” Lirian faced me then. With his unblemished skin and broad cheekbones, the Fate was beautiful, but there was something off about his perfectly symmetrical features. Something missing. “You don’t know what you’re capable of, and you’re also known to have quite the temper.”