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)
I didn’t know why I hadn’t shared any of that with Casteel as he’d rooted through the bowl of sugary fruit, picking out the unbruised strawberries and putting them on my plate. It had been on my mind but so had everything else.
Maybe the everything else was why I was here.
Opening my eyes to the overcast skies, I breathed out, heavily and slowly, and lowered my head.
I couldn’t believe I’d come here.
The meadow was really just an outcropping of the Elysium Peaks, roughly positioned at a height just above the spires of the Shadow and Sun Temples and in the shadow of the mountains’ continuous rise.
Pink and violet wildflowers dotted the grass all the way to where clusters of tall elms crowded the base of the Peaks. The blanket of pretty, delicate-looking flowers ended only a handful of feet from the edge Sotoria had fallen from.
Where had the poppies gone?
Or had they never grown here, and what I’d seen in stasis had been a figment of my imagination?
Tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear, I turned slowly. It was so quiet up here. The sounds were the wind and the birds singing to one another.
I pressed my lips together, turned to the Cliff’s edge, and began walking. The meadow was surprisingly peaceful. It didn’t feel like it should be, but it was. I tried to imagine Sotoria making her way up here to pick flowers. It must have taken the better part of a day to do so.
I soon heard water splashing off the stone, and then the grass and wildflowers gave way to packed, rocky soil. My steps slowed and then stopped. Taking a deep breath, I looked down. Pale-gray rocks jutted out, forming small, narrow ledges between the sheer drops. Halfway down and beneath one of those ledges, white-tipped water spilled down the rocks, misting the air as it fell before vanishing into a lake as dark as a night sky. My gaze shifted to the banks of the lake, where the elms grew so thickly and abundantly, there wasn’t a single hint of the ground below. I followed the swath of trees to where Wayfair’s towers were visible.
I didn’t feel anything.
Just like I hadn’t when I held The Star. Perhaps that was why I’d come here—to see if I felt connected to the Cliffs. To see if being here made me feel sorrow or anger. Anything. But I didn’t feel a connection to this place. All I felt was annoyance with myself.
If this was where I had…well, run myself off a cliff, shouldn’t I feel something?
How embarrassing.
I found myself staring down at the face of the Cliffs once more as I fiddled with the hooks on the vest I wore.
Had Sotoria landed on one of those ledges below? Or had she fallen between them into the lake? Had it been quick, where she struck a hard rock at the right—or wrong—angle? Or had hitting the water killed her? The height would’ve made the impact devastating, and the fall would’ve been fast but not quick enough that she wouldn’t know what was happening—what was coming. I had to think, though, that her death had been instantaneous, giving Kolis no time to intervene. There had been no suffering.
That had come later.
Gods, why was I even thinking about this? It was beyond morbid, especially since I wasn’t just considering some random woman in a distant past. I was wondering how I’d died.
Because I was her.
I wanted to scream that I wasn’t, but the lie couldn’t even crawl its way up my throat. I was Poppy.
But I had been Sotoria.
Sighing, I tipped my head back and closed my eyes. I really shouldn’t have come here. There were so many other things I could be doing. Training. Working with Casteel and Kieran on how to control the essence. Finding a way to weaken Kolis. Anything would be more productive than this, including crossing the Veil and entering the Continents to see what new catastrophe the Ancients—
My eyes snapped open as my hand fell away from the clasps on my vest.
The Ancients.
Being they, too, carried the essence of life and death, they were more powerful than Kolis. And they wouldn’t be considered baby Primals either. They were—
“Also completely unhinged,” I muttered. Bringing the Ancients into this would be like fighting fire with oil.
And I didn’t need them.
I already knew what would kill Kolis, and I didn’t need him weakened to do it.
I ran my fingers along the hilt of the bone dagger strapped to my thigh. The grip warmed to my palm, unlike the bloodstone and wolven-bone dagger that never quite did so. I looked down, wondering what material the handle was made of. It was light.
Pressure coiled in my chest as I stared at it. What was I waiting—?
Awareness throbbed in my chest, causing my breath to catch. I turned as the air charged, raising the hairs on my arms. Silver eather sparked a few feet from me, rapidly spreading to form a thin streak of essence that quickly widened.