Total pages in book: 119
Estimated words: 116396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 116396 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 582(@200wpm)___ 466(@250wpm)___ 388(@300wpm)
“Son. I give you HeartHolme. I know you’ll take care of our people—and rule with love in your heart.”
He bowed his head, his breaths coming out shaky. “I love you.”
A small smile moved on to her lips. “And I you.”
“Now,” Ivory said.
I pulled out the blade in a swift movement.
Ivory pressed her hands into my mother’s abdomen and focused, her palms becoming bloody with the life that spilled out of her wounds.
Mother looked at both of us, like she’d never been so happy to see her sons. “I’m so proud…of you both.”
Ivory continued to work, hunched over my mother’s body as she put all her insides back together, attached the sinew, the tissue, the arteries. Minutes passed before she opened her eyes again and removed something from the contents of her pack. She emptied a bottle and poured it over the wound before she grabbed the cotton and began to wrap it around her midsection.
“Is she going to be okay?” I asked, needing that answer.
Ivory didn’t look at me. “I did everything I could. It’s out of my hands now. She needs to rest. We’ll know in the morning…”
Haldir was locked away in a cell while we finished the battle.
All the soldiers who could fit on the wall watched the dragons fly over Necrosis and burn the ones that remained. All the Runes in the city piled up on the hills on the outskirts, watching the fire streak across the sky and burn their enemies to the ground. Once it was safe, we opened the gates so our men outside could retreat, but half of them had been lost in the attack.
It took the rest of the night and part of the morning for the last Necrosis to be destroyed or chased off. Pyre and Storm took off to hunt down the ones that had managed to slip away, to make sure there were no more Necrosis in this world that could turn anyone else.
My mother had been taken to her chambers in the castle so she could get as much rest as possible.
My home had been attacked for a second time. Ash was in the air just as it’d been at the Capital. The last month of my life had been spent fighting battle after battle—and I’d won every one. The fields outside HeartHolme were either charred or still actively burning, and the stench of melted flesh was repugnant in the air.
Ivory came to my side. “Pyre said they caught the last few that tried to escape. They’re piling all the corpses onto the field now.”
My helmet had been tossed away a long time ago. Not sure where it had ended up. The sword Elora gave me was still in my scabbard. The sword I’d wielded for years had disappeared in the rubble.
She studied the side of my face. “Are you alright, Huntley?”
The softness in her voice made me turn to regard her. “Thank you for healing my mother.”
As her eyes shifted back and forth between mine, they softened. “You know you don’t need to thank me for that…”
“I lost my father in a brutal way. I want to lose my mother to old age. I want her hair gray and her skin wrinkled. I want her to pass in her sleep—in peace. After all her sacrifice, that’s what she deserves.”
“And I think that’ll still happen.”
“You do?” I asked, my voice rising with hope.
She nodded. “If she’s made it this long…I think she’ll pull through.”
I knew my mother would die with honor if she passed that day, but I still didn’t want that for her.
“You have the blood of healers, so I think that’s helped her as well.”
Thank the gods.
Her hand went to my arm, and she looked me over, even though she couldn’t see my flesh through my armor. “Are you okay?”
I was bruised and battered everywhere. I could feel it in my bones, feel it in my muscles. Once this armor was off my body, she would see all the discoloration, all the stress my body had endured this past month. Once the dead were burned and HeartHolme was safe, I wanted to retire to our home, to sleep in front of the fire and do nothing but make love all day long. But now, I had a kingdom to rule—and another battle to fight.
“Huntley?”
I gave her a nod. “What about you?”
“I’m fine.” The ash fell on her shoulders, having been caught in her long strands of hair. The sun had risen in the sky, but the ash was so thick it was just a haze of red. It brought out the color of her eyes, made them look as if they were on fire. “I think we should talk to Elora.”
My thoughts had been on my mother with such intensity that I’d forgotten. “You’re right.”
We moved through the rubble until we found her, sitting on a rock beside a man I didn’t recognize. His face was beaten and bloody like he’d survived the battle of his life, and she was touching him gingerly as if he was more than just a fallen soldier.