Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
“What are you doing?” he demanded.
“I’m going to let you go,” the Father said.
The half-Fae man looked dubious. Kerrigan could hardly blame him. He hadn’t been kidnapped and dragged before an audience to be released.
“Go ahead,” the Father said. “You can walk out that door.”
“What’s the catch?”
“No catch. You are free to go. No one will bar your way.”
“I don’t believe you.”
“Then, use your magic to strike me down,” the Father said. He held his arms wide. “Kill me if you are able.”
The man looked between the door and the Father. Terror was blatant on his face. He knew this was a trap, but he didn’t know how to get out of it. It took everything in Kerrigan not to dash on the stage and save him. She doubted that she would make it out of here alive if she revealed herself, and she couldn’t risk it. As much as it irked her.
The half-Fae man must have seen his opening. He threw a blast of air magic at the Father and dashed for the exit. The air did nothing to the Father. He didn’t even move a step. The man’s magic must have been little enough that it couldn’t be used in combat. Despite what the Red Masks were peddling, very few humans or half-Fae had enough magic to do much of anything. Kerrigan was, by and large, an exception.
But it mattered not for his demonstration. The half-Fae made it two steps before he was rooted in place by the force of the Father’s magic. Kerrigan gaped at the sheer control in that grasp. She could practically feel the intensity of it, and it wasn’t even directed at her.
“Please, I didn’t do anything,” the half-Fae wailed. “I have a wife and kids.”
Kerrigan’s heart broke at those words.
“And we will release you to them,” the Father said, taking a dangerous step forward until he was within arm’s reach of the man. Then, he set a hand on the man’s shoulder, and he began screaming.
In a matter of seconds, before Kerrigan could even move to protest, the man was crumpled on the floor, holding his stomach and sobbing. “What did you do?” he screamed. “It’s gone. It’s gone. It’s gone. Oh gods, it’s gone!”
The Father didn’t even look at him again. He turned back to the crowd triumphantly. “There. I have cleansed him.” The man continued to cry out in anguish. “His magic is gone.”
Kerrigan gaped in horror. He was yelling over and over that it was gone, but Kerrigan hadn’t realized what it was. His magic. The Father had removed his magic.
The rest of what the Father said was lost on Kerrigan. She couldn’t hear his words over the writhing man on the floor of the stage. The agony on his face. The tears in his dark eyes. The pain that racked his body.
Kerrigan’s magic had been suppressed twice in her life. Both times, it was through a potion. She’d taken one voluntarily and one against her will. It had been terrifying and disorienting, but she always knew the magic would come back once it wore off.
This was something altogether different. The magic was gone. It had been ripped out of him, like removing his organs. Kerrigan had never heard of this happening, except when a person burned out their own magic. When magic was used too fast and too much, all at once, a person could run dry, and if they kept trying to use their powers beyond their limits, then the magic would literally burn itself out of their veins. Few survived that.
One look at the half-Fae writhing on the ground, Kerrigan wasn’t sure that he would survive it either. And there was nothing Kerrigan could do about it.
Not here.
Not now.
The only way to stop this was to get on the council and put an end to the Red Masks forever.
The Father waved his hand once and left the stage. The half-Fae’s cries had turned to whimpers. Kerrigan turned her face away. She couldn’t watch this any longer. The crowd began to disperse, and Kerrigan was caught in the maelstrom. She fought to reach the side door. Someone jostled her, and for a split second, her hood slipped backward.
She gasped as her bright red curls were visible. Then, she yanked it back into place. But already, a shout was raised.
“She’s here!”
“The half-Fae bitch!”
“Leatha!”
Kerrigan cursed, elbowing one man in the ribs as he came for her and unfurling a plume of flames toward another. She would not be caught here. She would not be another casualty on that stage for a pretend father. She would escape this.
Boots landed heavily behind her, and she whirled in time to see Isa’s fierce, grinning face.
“Hello, Kerrigan. Thanks for joining us.”
7
THE CHASE
Kerrigan didn’t think.
She whirled away from Isa and blasted her air magic forward, shoving everyone between her and the side exit out of her path. It rattled the door on its hinges before exploding outward. Then, she dashed through the opening and out into the night beyond.