Total pages in book: 248
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 236909 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1185(@200wpm)___ 948(@250wpm)___ 790(@300wpm)
“You won’t be able to power electricity. That is something only a Primal can do, but lighting fires and moving fast? Yes. And that is not done with your mind. It is done by your will.” He followed the sharp turns of the stairwell with the ease that said this was a well-traveled space for him.
“Sounds like the same thing to me, but whatever.”
“But it’s not. Your mind takes thought. Time. Your will just is. It’s immediate.”
I made a face at his back. “Either way, I’m going to be so lazy.”
Nyktos chuckled. “Careful,” he warned as he turned, taking one of my hands from the wall. “The last step here is rather steep. About a foot.”
The embers gave a happy little wiggle in response to his grasp. Or maybe it was my heart. I wasn’t sure anymore. Holding his hand, I went down the last step and into the mouth of a wide, torch-lit hall.
My chest tightened as I took in the damp, shadowstone walls and the bars. The rows of bars the color of bleached bones on either side of the hall. Cells. “Should I be worried?”
It was Nyktos’s turn to send me a bland look. “I really hope that’s not a serious question.”
I said nothing as I eyed the bars lining the cells. They weren’t entirely smooth or straight. Some were twisted, and inside the cells, I saw chains that resembled the bars. I started toward them, noticing there were things etched into them. Symbols.
“Putting you in a cell now after everything,” he said, stopping me with the hold he still had on my hand, “and especially after striking what is likely an ill-advised but very enjoyable deal with you wouldn’t make very much sense, would it?”
I slowly looked over my shoulder at him. “Ill-advised?”
His eyes glimmered in the firelight. “I also said very enjoyable.”
I started to point out that one thing didn’t erase what’d come before it, but I remembered what he’d also said. That his attraction to me, and the subsequent pleasure-for-the-sake-of-pleasure deal we’d made, was something he considered a distraction. But I was beginning to think that distraction was a code word for caring.
And I knew what Nyktos believed would happen to those he allowed himself to care for.
Part of me was also beginning to believe that was why he’d had his kardia removed. Not to protect himself but to protect others.
Turning back to the cells, I stopped the rise of sorrow before he could pick up on it. “The bars? Is it just me, or do they look like actual bones? As do the chains.”
“They are.” Nyktos started walking, taking me with him. “Bones that once belonged to gods or the children of the gods.”
My lip curled. “Like the kind that entombed those in the Red Woods?”
He nodded.
“What’s carved into them?”
“Primal wards that make them very difficult to break,” he said as we continued down the seemingly endless hall of cells. There had to be dozens of them. “The bones will even hold a Primal once weakened. The only thing they have no effect on is a being of two worlds.”
“Dual life. The draken,” I murmured, remembering him saying that before. “You said your father created more like the draken?”
“He did create more of dual life,” Nyktos said as we came to the end of the hall, where it split into two more. He took me to the left, where a door was held open by a shadowstone sword speared through the wood and embedded into the stone behind it. I frowned at the blade, shaking my head. “But the draken are like the Arae. The dragons they came from are of ancient creation. What my father created after the draken are gods, and if there were ever others given dual life, they too would be godlike.”
“What are the ones he gave dual life to?”
“There are only two. Ones that can shift into forms of large felines. They’re called wivern and can usually be found in Sirta. They are fierce fighters in both forms, and most gods know better than to get cornered by a pissed-off wivern.”
It didn’t surprise me that the gods who could take the form of such predators would be found in Hanan’s Court.
“And then there are the ceeren,” he continued, and I couldn’t help but wonder if he was aware that he still held my hand. “They are usually found in the Triton Isles.”
I sucked in a sharp breath. “Do they live in the water?”
“They can.” He arched a brow. “You’ve heard of them?”
“I’ve heard stories of them—old ones. Legends of sailors being lured from their ships by beautiful creatures in the sea that were half mortal, half…fish.” I wrinkled my nose. “Not quite sure how one is half fish.”
He grinned as we passed several rough-hewn chambers that I figured were meant to be more cells. Only a handful had doors, and I tried not to think about how far underground we must be. “Yeah, they are unique to look upon when they take that form. I’m sure you will see them eventually.”