Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87781 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 439(@200wpm)___ 351(@250wpm)___ 293(@300wpm)
None of this makes any sense. When Sarvi mentioned that Hanna had a twin of sorts, they noted that she might have some sort of powers or dealings with dark magic, but no dark magic should ever be able to take down my father.
Unless my father isn’t as strong as he has led us to believe.
Unless none of us are, including me.
And now, I’m feeling very, very afraid. A useless fucking feeling, but it’s still there, still sinking into my bones, and I don’t know how to deal with it.
My mother wouldn’t actually hurt me, would she?
Would she hurt Lovia?
Maybe I should go visit the giant Vipunen. I know Lovia is the one who has had more training with him, but he’s been an overseer of my father since the very beginning. From the way my father tells it, Vipunen was there to help him become the God of Death after his own parents cast him away.
I decide it’s time to take action in whatever way I can. I don’t know what chance I have against my mother or Hanna’s twin, but I can be a good son and a good brother. I can get Lovia out of danger, I can save my father. Might be the only chance I’ll ever have to prove myself.
I slip on proper clothes: boots, trousers, knits, and furs. My hair looks like it hasn’t been brushed in a long time, and when I style it into place, my fingers graze the sharp points of my horns just poking up beneath the hairline. My horns and my tail are constant reminders that I am the son of a demon woman, but thankfully, my horns only protrude when I’m experiencing some sort of excitement or emotional turmoil, which is rare for me, and my tail stays hidden in my pants.
But I don’t want my mother to suspect anything is wrong at all. If my horns grow anymore and become visible, she’ll become suspicious.
I decide to slip on a black knit cap over my head, just in case.
Then, I head out into the halls.
Normally, there would be voices floating about, perhaps my father talking to the servants or to Sarvi and Kalma, or the Deadmaidens in the kitchen, making lunch, but everything is so eerily quiet. You could hear a pin drop.
I climb up the stairs to Sarvi’s room, but there’s no one there. The doors to the landing are open, a cool breeze blowing back the curtains, but Sarvi is still gone on their journey.
When I come back down, I nearly run into Kalma at the foot of the stairs, the torches on the wall casting his decaying face into sickly shadows.
“Tuonen,” Kalma says in his craggy voice. “You’re finally out and about.”
“I was just checking on Sarvi. Have you seen them?”
“The unicorn left a few hours ago. I saw them in the sky when I was in the garden.” He pauses. “Your father wasn’t very pleased to hear that the unicorn left without telling him.”
I swallow hard, trying to ignore the tightness in my chest.
“You alright?” he asks, squinting at me.
I nod slowly. Kalma has always been a kind man and a great advisor to my father, but I can’t tell if he’s in on this or not. Surely if he knew my mother was operating my father’s Shadow Self, he would do all he could to get my father back. He must not know the truth.
I open my mouth to try and tell him, but my instincts prevent me from making a sound. There’s something about Kalma’s gaze, a blankness and sheen to his eyes, that makes me think he might be under some kind of spell.
“I’m fine,” I say carefully. “I’ll go check on Sarvi when they get back.”
I brush past him as I walk the rest of the stairs.
“But Sarvi did get back already,” Kalma says. “Your father went and got them back…somehow.”
Somehow. My father can’t fly.
But my mother can.
I frown, that uneasy feeling back in my veins, sticky and cold. “So where is Sarvi?”
“In the Sect of the Undead,” Kalma says with a grave nod. “Your father is about to raise the Old Gods with Hanna by his side.”
My eyes go wide. “He’s about to do what?”
Kalma smiles, his face increasingly vacant. “Such a glorious day, isn’t it? A glorious day for the Old Gods to return.”
He shuffles up the stairs to Sarvi’s room, his robes dragging behind him.
I waste no time.
I look around for a weapon that could possibly do any harm to a demon, but anything remotely useful would either be in the crypt itself or in the Library of the Veils, and even I don’t have access to that room.
But if Sarvi is back and being held in the crypt, that means I have to act fast, never mind the part about the Old Gods. I just hope that’s something Kalma was exaggerating.