Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
That was why she’d been floating in the water, paralyzed, helpless. Serin had demanded it. She’d sacrificed herself for her guard. Normally, I wouldn’t understand that. But I knew that if push came to shove, I would probably try to protect Vishen too. He was the closest thing I had to a friend, to family.
“He was going to kill you,” Serin said, her chin angling up. “You were in immediate danger. I wasn’t.”
“I think the burns on your wrist said otherwise,” Nira shot back.
“In danger of pain, yes. But not death. You were about to die.”
“Was there another attacker?” I asked, knowing they could go around in circles about it endlessly.
“The troll,” Serin said.
“The troll?” I repeated. “The troll who originally kidnapped you?”
“Yes. Both of them were the same men who kidnapped me before. They work for Grimwood.”
“Fuck,” Vishen hissed.
“What happened to him?” I asked.
“The water took him,” Serin supplied.
“So he’s dead?” Vishen clarified.
“Yes.”
“What about the redhead?” Nira asked. “What was wrong with him?”
“What did you do to him?” Serin asked.
I sucked in a deep breath and looked at Vishen, who knew what I was asking, and nodded.
“This does not leave this room,” I said, waiting until Vishen checked outside to be sure. “I do have a power, one I never want my father—or anyone else for that matter—to know about. I can… pull things out of people.”
“That glowing ball,” Serin said.
“Yes.”
“What was it?”
“Every drop of joy inside him. I can simply pull it out, hold onto it, torture them with the absence.”
“I mean… is it really that torturous?” Nira asked. “I was wildly lacking in joy my whole life. I’m doing alright.”
“It’s different,” Vishen said. “It’s like you’ve been scooped out. All your joy, hope, love, everything good… it’s gone. All that’s left is shadow and a depression so deep you could drown in it.”
“How do you know that?” Nira asked. “Oh, God. You let him do it to you?”
“I needed to understand,” Vishen said, shrugging it off.
“But you put it back in Vishen?” Serin asked.
“Yeah. I can put it back.”
“But you didn’t do that to the redhead,” she said. “You… you squashed it.”
“Because that motherfucker didn’t deserve to ever have it back.”
“Okay,” Vishen said. “The question is… what happens to him now?”
“I don’t know. I’ve never done that.”
“If he has no joy, no hope, might he not seek the true death?” Nira asked.
“And before then, how motivated would he be to go back to Grimwood and tell him what happened? And at whose hand?” Vishen asked.
“If he has no joy anymore, wouldn’t that remove the desire for coin?” Nira asked. “Which would be the only thing Grimwood has to offer him.”
“Maybe. But Grimwood isn’t above hunting him down and torturing answers out of him. He might not feel joy, but he can still hurt,” Vishen said.
“Fuck,” I said, dropping down on the foot of the bed, scrubbing my hands down my face. “I should have just killed him.”
“Is it really so bad if people find out you have powers?” Serin asked. “Isn’t that a good thing? People are less likely to try to hurt you.”
“It’s something I might be willing to have known publicly when the throne is mine. But my father will turn me into a weapon if he knew now.”
“He can’t make you do anything, though, can he?”
“Sure he can. By using the people I care about against me. Vishen. Nira. You. Trust me, my father would have you strung up and tortured if it meant he could use my power against his enemies.”
“We could try to look for the redhead,” Vishen suggested. “Take him out before he makes it back to Grimwood.”
“If that is where he’s headed, he’s likely already there. I think we are going to need to assume that this is information that is going to come out sooner or later.”
“Which means we need to make our moves sooner than we hoped,” Vishen said.
I sighed.
“Yeah.”
“The tournament is in five days. It’s the most likely time you will face Grimwood again,” Vishen said. “We need a plan ironed out that we can implement directly after if he decides to out your powers.”
“Yeah,” I agreed. “Alright. All four of us. Daybreak. Bring your best—or most unhinged—ideas.”
It was time to take this throne from my father.
Before one of his enemies did it.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Serin
Hands shook me awake, making me gasp as the nightmare fell away, and I found myself face-to-face with Jet in a room lit only by the glow of a nearly full moon through the windows.
His face was cast in shadows, but those gray eyes of his seemed to glow even in the dark.
“It’s okay. You’re here with me,” he reminded me.
The first night, I’d been too exhausted by the events at the lake and then trying to think of ways to help Jet with his plan to do anything but fall into a deep, dreamless sleep.