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)
Zander collects the portrait of himself for closer examination before his gaze drifts to the array, pausing on his parents for a beat longer than the rest. “Annika is missing from here.”
“They didn’t consider her a threat worth studying.” Jarek holds up a jar to the lantern light, showing off the dark liquid inside. My tainted blood, no doubt.
“Then they seriously underestimated my sister.” Zander’s frown is deep. I know he thinks about her often, worries about her. I wish I could have found her and brought her to Ulysede.
“Messages from her many spies.” He flips through a stack of unfurled letters in various handwriting. “There must be hundreds of them here. Maybe more.”
Abarrane holds up a page. “From Lord Muirn.”
“A well-deserved death. What did that snake have to say?” Zander mutters.
She scans it quickly. “Nothing we did not know or suspect. Information on Hudem’s festivities, access into Cirilea …”
I wander over to the bookshelf to check the spines of various leather-bound books. Biographies of kings and queens, royal families, mostly.
“Is there anything of interest here, Your Highness?” Lucretia asks.
“A lot of boring stories.”
“You should look more closely at the shelf below it.”
I pick up the quill that rests there. “This?”
“Perhaps. There is something here.”
“How do you know?”
“Because it glows in silver light, and that means someone has touched this with their affinity.”
“You can actually see an affinity?”
“The marks it leaves, yes. Even you wear faint traces, Your Highness, from the wielder who bound you to this world.”
Jarek pauses in his inspection of the map. “Wait, was there a light on the lever out there?” He jerks a thumb toward Princess Romeria’s chamber.
“Yes. And a trail of it along the wall leading to the fireplace. I saw it right away.”
“But we were in that room for almost an hour.”
“Yes. I enjoyed watching you search.” Lucretia’s musical laughter fills the room.
Jarek tosses a flat “Look what I have to put up with” glare my way.
But I’m more interested in what might be hidden in here. Inspecting the quill for a moment and then dismissing it, I turn my attention to the shelf, poking and prodding, the base, the sides, the back panel … looking for anything.
Suddenly, it pops open.
Zander notices. “What have you found?”
“I’m not sure.” A book and four stone figurines of the fates sit inside. I slide out the book and flip through it, noting the dates and the feminine scroll. Each page is signed off with the initial N. Recognition has my heart racing. “I think this is Neilina’s journal.” Or something like it. It’s not a daily recounting. Months pass between entries, years, even. And the entries span … I do a double take at the first record, to ensure I’m reading this accurately. It reminds me how old she was. How old I will be one day, living in this elven body.
“Has she admitted her role in her husband’s death? Or perhaps her exploits with Tiberius?” Zander smirks.
“I don’t think it’s that kind of journal.” As I scan the first entry and then the second, a sinking realization takes hold. “Oh my God.” I cover my mouth. Of course.
How could we not have assumed as much?
“What is it?” All humor has slipped from Zander’s voice.
“Ianca wasn’t the first elemental to summon the fates for Neilina.”
29
Annika
Tyree grunts. “Stop elbowing me.”
“I’m not elbowing you. I’m shifting my weight to get away from you.” It’s not working. Our bodies are tangled in this net, thighs and shoulders and ribs pressed against each other, as we hang high in the air above a growing audience of mortals. I can’t even say for how long anymore. The sun left and came back, my stomach growls, and my bladder threatens to burst.
“Yes. By using your elbows,” he hisses.
“Would you prefer my knees?” I say with mock sweetness, lifting my leg.
His thighs clamp down hard, stopping me just short of connecting with his groin.
I struggle to jerk my leg out of his grip, but he holds me there with his flexed muscles, and I’m capable of doing little else besides rubbing my body against him.
A lazy smile curls his lips. “Yes, I think I prefer this. A little higher and more to the left.”
“Release me, pig,” I demand through gritted teeth, giving up.
He chuckles, a glimmer of amusement in his eyes. “Or what?”
I slide my dagger from its sheath and hold it up in a silent threat.
Tyree spears me with a warning glare. “You wouldn’t dare.”
“Wouldn’t I? We’re in this mess because of you.” I sigh dramatically. “But I won’t because I don’t want to listen to you whine again.”
He rolls his eyes. “Here, let me see if I can cut through this netting. I’ve never seen such a metal. I do not know what it is made from.” He holds out his hand.