Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 142916 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 715(@200wpm)___ 572(@250wpm)___ 476(@300wpm)
Castello is weighing the odds of successfully carrying out his original plan. I’ve been working out how to slay him. When they dunked him into the two vats, both times, the mage used the top of his skull to hold on to him. That was the only part that wasn’t coated in both types of armor.
Benedek loved that she’d noticed that little detail. He’d seen it immediately. If the armor coating the body held against her crystal sword or any type of blade that would normally slay a demon, they would need that weak spot on him. The attack would have to be exact, something difficult when a battle began and opponents were moving quickly.
The armor was created in the underworld using the dark arts, Silke continued. They always forget about sacred water.
His woman. Demon Slayer. She had a mind made for battle strategy. He could do no less. Fenja was right, he should have refined his ways centuries earlier.
The other thing the mages forgot, he said, is dragon fire. It’s pure. It cannot be corrupted by the dark arts. The demon seems unaware there are dragons in the vicinity.
She smiled directly at him. No one knew he was there, but she turned her eyes to the seemingly empty space between Castello and her and she smiled. That got him right in the gut. Considering the circumstances and the coming violence, he found his woman to be extraordinary. That she could sit there looking the picture of serenity and give him that intimate smile because he’d contributed to her growing ideas on how to defeat the demon made him realize she was exactly what he needed.
You are teaching me how to live life. I have been existing, not living. I didn’t realize that until you showed me what life is all about.
Her smile widened. Castello made an ugly sound, an impatient rumbling in his throat.
I cheat. I’m in his mind and will know when he is ready to launch his attack, Silke explained. The longer I’m in his mind, the more control I have over him. I can assess his prior killings. He’s very determined to do me in.
I’m very determined that he doesn’t touch you. Benedek would take the ceremonial knife himself before he would allow that blade near Silke.
The blade is tipped with poison and small parasites that will cling, like the demons planted in you and your friends, should either of us get cut, Silke warned. He’s feeling very smug about it.
Benedek’s friends were close. Waiting to see if they were needed. They’d been in the meadow just outside the forest, constructing dragons. Tomas, Lojos and Mataias had made dragons from rocks for children they’d rescued when they’d been in the States. Those dragons came to life and flew when the children whispered a secret phrase to release them from the rock. Otherwise, they stayed in the yard as rock sculptures. The three men flew dragons, or would become phantom dragons, difficult to see against the night sky, although they were vibrant colors of red, green and violet. When in shadows, the dragons, as large as they were, disappeared.
Carpathians could shift easily into a dragon and wreak havoc when they chose, but often they preferred to fly a dragon. Benedek had watched others with dragons and found that several of the Carpathians seemed to communicate easily with them. The more they were in and around a dragon, the better they worked together, adding one more weapon to their arsenal against vampires. Tomas, Lojos and Mataias were very adept with their dragons.
Benedek had been in the forest of myths several times discovering the creatures who would be allies in any battle the slayer and Tora were engaged in. His big discovery had been a dragon he had met before. The dragon was old and wise, not given to allowing others to see or hear him. He lay on the ground looking for all the world like a large downed tree trunk with small plants and mushrooms growing on him. He didn’t move if an adventurer sat or even stood on him, not realizing he was a living entity.
Benedek had an affinity with ancient forests and trees. The woods whispered secrets to him and aided him when he needed it. Over the centuries, he had learned a great deal about dragons. Real dragons, the old ones, were wise and lethal. They had seen countless battles and lost loved ones and most of their kind. Their knowledge of the earth, the creatures and people coming and going, was vast. When Benedek had been accepted by Mother Earth, the mycelium network was at his disposal. At first, he hadn’t realized dragons were a part of that network. It had taken some time before he realized the advice he received was often from one of the old guard cautioning him not to use certain places to sleep or to weave safeguards in a different manner. They spoke to him of battle strategies when he lay under the soil healing. They kept him company on the long road to recovery after Marius, Fawn and Boian betrayed him.