Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200096 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1000(@200wpm)___ 800(@250wpm)___ 667(@300wpm)
He leans in to kiss my lips. “Return to me quickly.”
“Always.” I chase his kiss with my own and then break free, aware of our audience.
Jarek looms on my other side. “I am going to assume they do not share your sense of humor.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass. Got it.”
His jaw tenses. “Be careful.”
My heart swells as I squeeze his shoulder. “Hey, Lucretia, keep him company?”
Jarek rolls his eyes as the sylx slinks over. “Thank you so much for that.”
With a wink, I step up onto the pavilion, studying first the stone altar in the center and then the two pillars I need to choose between. Vin’nyla ignored Neilina three times. Aminadav punished the entire realm of Ybaris because of her. I chew my bottom lip in thought.
Eeny meeny miny moe?
With one last smile at Zander, I pull a thread and reach forward.
64
Zander
“Where the fuck did she go?” Jarek barks, voicing the words a beat before I can.
One second, Romeria was standing there, smiling at me.
The next, she was gone.
Vanished.
“She is still there, but she is in a different plane of existence.” Agatha smiles, but I see the worry in it. “That means the fate she summoned has answered her call.”
“But she is in there.” I jab a finger toward the sanctum and then move forward.
“Stop!” Agatha yells, freezing my feet. “That would be unwise, Your Highness. While you cannot see them, once you step into the pavilion, they can see you, and within those four pillars, the fates take a physical form. If you anger them, it will not bode well for her. It has happened before.”
“What has happened before?”
“Various things. They sometimes take things. If they choose to demand it, Your Highness.” She averts her gaze. “It is expected that the caster complies.”
Her meaning dawns on me. “I should never have sent her in there.” I charge for the sanctum.
Jarek’s solid body blocks me. “It’s too late. Now you must trust her.”
“It is not her I do not trust,” I hiss, struggling to get around him.
Abarrane steps in. “In this regard, I agree with Jarek. You are no help to Romeria in there.”
Jarek shoves me back, setting his hand on his pommel. A warning that he will use it against me to shield her.
“You are a loyal protector, and I appreciate that. But if you do not get out of my way, I will kill you,” I push through gritted teeth.
His eyes are cold and hard. “I think Romeria will have something to say about that when she returns.”
She would never forgive me.
“Romeria will survive this. She always does. Listen to the old witch now.” Abarrane steps between us, and I see the silent plea for me to stand down.
I aim my anger at Agatha. “You should have told us before!”
But Jarek will have none of that either. “She would have gone, anyway. There is no stopping Romeria when she gets an idea in her thick skull.”
Agatha wrings her wrinkled hands. “The fates have been known to simply give. It has happened, sometimes.”
“And other times?”
Her brow furrows with worry as she regards the black stone. “They take everything.”
65
Romeria
I release Vin’nyla’s thread, letting it slip away.
“Now what?” I say more to myself. Do I sit here until she shows up? “How long should I wait before I try …” My words drift when I look back to find Zander and Jarek gone. So are Agatha and Abarrane. “Hey, guys?”
“You cannot see them, but they are there, child,” a breathy female voice says.
I spin around.
And try not to gape at the beautiful, shapely naked female standing at the end of the altar, her silver wings fanned out behind her. She regards me through large eyes with irises that remind me of my mother’s old tea set when it needed polishing. Her silver-white hair is pulled back in a tidy bun. She is ageless, neither young nor old.
“Hi,” I stammer. This shouldn’t be more nerve-racking than meeting all four nymph elders, and yet I struggle to regain my calm. Probably because I have no idea what kind of damage the nymphs can inflict on our world, but I’ve seen what the fates will do firsthand. “Thank you for coming.”
The corner of her mouth twitches. “You summoned me.”
“I know, but you didn’t have to answer.”
“Would you rather I did not?”
“No! That’s not what I’m saying.”
“Then what are you saying?” a deep male voice asks.
I spin around to find a tall, broad-chested male standing behind me, bull’s horns protruding from his forehead. They look identical to the one the golle gave me, in size and shape and color.
“You’re … Aminadav.” I lock my gaze on his face. It’s as handsome as the grand statue in Cirilea portrays, with a masculine jaw and a strong Roman nose. The rest of him is like the statue as well, and I’m doing everything I can to not gawk.