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)
The slayer made sense. He never wanted to return to Lilith with her petty cruelties and constant impossible demands. He began to open his arms wide, embracing death, stepping to meet it, when his brain seized. Shrieks of rage filled his head, and Lilith jabbed at his brain with sharpened objects, demanding he slay the woman on the dragon.
Look at her! Look at her, so that I can see her.
Erlik was confused, the pain so bad he went to one knee, but he didn’t lift his head to look at the slayer. He wouldn’t give Lilith that gift, not when she had sent so many to their doom and had no care for those who served her.
He caught sight of a male Carpathian to his left and one to his right. They were ancients and powerful. Both raised their hands and at once the pain receded. Light entered his brain and Lilith cursed him, threatened him, but the shrill voice was little more than an irritation. He felt nothing but relief as the dragon fire engulfed him. He didn’t even feel the flames that incinerated him. At the last moment, before he succumbed to death, he lifted his gaze to the slayer. Tears for him tracked down her face.
I’m sorry, she whispered. There was no other way to free you.
I’m sorry I took one such as you from this world. That was his last thought. His last vision.
The earth rippled and heaved in a series of terrible quakes. Great cracks opened up and several trees toppled. Thunder boomed, but it wasn’t from the sky. It came from below. The sound of ancient wood cracking, splintering, breaking apart. Uneasily, the Carpathians exchanged looks. Owls rose into the air. Bats filled the sky. The forest shivered.
Silke tumbled off Lily right into Benedek’s arms. Her body felt clumsy. Hot. Not her own. Shards of glass seemed to be cutting her insides to pieces. Benedek eased her onto the forest floor, prepared to shed his body to enter hers.
“The gate,” Tora whispered. “I left the gate unguarded.”
“You don’t know it is the gate.” Silke did her best to soothe her friend. Tora had guarded the gate for centuries, keeping Justice away from the world where he could wreak havoc. Where many hunters would die before they were able to destroy him.
“It is the gate,” Tora moaned and dropped her head into her hands. “He has escaped. While our attention was in the forest, on the demons, he broke free.”
“Or Lilith aided him in his escape,” Silke said, “by distracting us with her demon army.” She began to cough. Tiny bubbles of blood appeared on her lips.
“I will take her to the healing cave,” Benedek said. “She needs immediate care.”
“Take me to my mother,” Silke whispered. She closed her eyes against the night. Against the pain. She knew the dagger carried poison, and it was rushing through her system.
“Fenja is here,” Benedek said. There was urgency in his voice.
Silke lifted lashes that were far too heavy. She needed to see her mother one last time. “No mother could have been better,” she said. Or thought she said. There was a strange buzzing in her ears, and she couldn’t hear her own voice.
Tears tracked down Fenja’s face. “Bring her back to me, Benedek. You are loved, Silke.” Fenja bent her head to whisper kisses over her cheeks, something she had rarely—if ever—done. “Bring her back soon.”
“We will return in several risings,” he assured Fenja. “Nicu and Mataias must accompany me. Tora, we will need you. There is nothing you can do about the gate. If we are to save Silke, we must do so now.”
Benedek took command, not waiting for the others, lifting Silke in his arms and streaking through the mist, deeper into the ancient forest where rock formations jutted out of the side of a hill and water streamed down to the river in silver ribbons. Unerringly, he found the crack in the rocks that allowed him to slip into the cave where the soil had been untouched for centuries. It was rich in minerals and would aid in healing Silke and welcoming her to his world.
He leaned over, found her ear with his lips, whispering to her even as he used their much more intimate private path of telepathy. O jelä sielamak, stay with me. Be brave. I am going to push the poison from your system and heal your wound. I will have only a few moments to ensure the conversion and will need your cooperation. If you never trust me again, trust me in this.
I love you, Benedek. Never forget that.
He took that to mean she trusted him, and without waiting for the others, he shed his body and entered hers. She was a mess. She was bleeding internally, but it wasn’t the wound that worried him. He had no trouble repairing the laceration and damage the dagger had done. He did so almost on autopilot as he examined the poison. It was fast acting and had spread through her body, reproducing, mutating, clinging to cells and organs while attacking her body’s defenses.