Total pages in book: 152
Estimated words: 145704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145704 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Zander isn’t often quiet, but now he says nothing as we try to make sense of Ianca’s ramblings.
Gesine purses her lips, studying the sleeping woman. “Perhaps we will get more out of her another night.”
I don’t think I’ll be able to sleep in the same wagon with them again after that, but I keep that thought to myself for now. There’s a bigger issue. “She said I wouldn’t have a choice. What did that mean? A choice about what?”
Gesine’s gaze flitters to Zander. “I cannot be sure.”
“I would not take much stock in it. She called me an angry nymph,” he mutters wryly.
“That’s because you were born on Hudem. You have their power in you. Right, Gesine?”
“That is correct, though none of you are actually nymphs.”
“Still, there’s a link to what she’s saying. It’s not complete nonsense.” Like all those crazy things my father said over the years, about demons walking among us, can probably be tied back to some reality. I always discounted his words; I won’t make that mistake again. “I think everything Ianca said until she opened her eyes was about Sofie, Elijah, and Malachi. We know Malachi wants me to open the nymphaeum door so he can rule, so he must want Sofie to be his queen.” I falter. “But how would Sofie get here?”
“Through the Nulling,” Gesine says matter-of-factly. “If Malachi were to banish her there as he has her husband, they could enter this world through a tear. It’s the only way.”
“And it would only tear if I try to open the door.”
“Try, or succeed. The Nulling will tear either way. It is a gift from the fates for anyone who wishes to release the nymphs from their boundaries. A snare to be triggered.”
“We know that for sure?”
“I am quite certain, yes.”
The pieces are slowly clicking together—noisily, disjointedly—but they are finding places that seem to fit. “What about Elijah? He’s in the Nulling too. If Sofie is to become queen, would he become king?” A terrible one, according to Ianca.
“Malachi would not go to this effort for someone else’s benefit.”
“This is all speculation,” Zander says, leveling Gesine with a glare.
My thoughts are moving too fast, though. “What if that’s what Ianca means about not having a choice? I keep saying I’m not going to open it, but what if she’s saying I’ll have to?”
“That is one way to interpret her words,” Gesine says.
“And what’s the other way?” Because I don’t see any but the version I spelled out.
“Everyone has a choice. You have a choice. And right now, that choice must be to focus your efforts on developing your skills, not on a seer’s nonsense.” Zander stands abruptly and heads for the exit. “It is time we move.”
26
Sofie
The ring felt heavier on her finger than usual. It had to be because each day that stretched on with no sign of progress grew longer. Nearly three centuries had come and gone, and now there was a second body lying next to the first, two souls trapped in a scheme of Malachi’s making.
And Sofie was still waiting.
Waiting, and aching, and agonizing, praying that one day she would feel Elijah’s arms again. Not as they were now, idle by his side, frozen in time, but wrapped around her in an affectionate embrace as they had been that last fateful night.
She stole a glance to where the Fate of Fire loomed. He was here almost daily now upon summoning. Sometimes she could forget what a foreboding, cruel power he was. Other times, with his horns twisting toward the crumbling ceiling, and the formidable male body he assumed while he stood within the sanctum, his gaze burning into her, it was all she could do not to tremble.
To think such a force was bound to exist in this world only within the confines of these pillars, this corporeal form evaporating into air the moment he attempted to venture beyond, seemed unfathomable. But she’d seen it happen with her own eyes.
It was a prison.
No wonder Malachi wanted free of it.
And in this other world—where Romeria survived, and these nymphs waited to be unleashed—he would be free.
And then so would Sofie and Elijah.
“Are we any closer?” She faltered over the question, always cautious of probing too much in case his frustration was high that day. If it was, she would usually bear the brunt of his anger.
Today, though, an optimistic aura swirled around him. “She is beginning to see the truth of her situation.” His deep voice rumbled in the cavernous space. “How long before she follows through with the commitment she made to us, I cannot say.”
Sofie scowled at the body beside her husband, though she supposed it wasn’t charitable of her to hold such animosity toward the girl. She wasn’t given a choice in any of this.
Then again, neither was Sofie.