Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 114617 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 573(@200wpm)___ 458(@250wpm)___ 382(@300wpm)
“What? What does that—?”
I held up a hand, and shockingly Badr went quiet. This would be hard enough to get out without him interrupting me.
Lips parting, I began, “Two years ago, Luame sent me a vision. She’d never done that before. She hadn’t done it in centuries, but what’s coming was so bad, she needed me to see.”
“See what?” he rasped when I lapsed into silence.
I smiled mirthlessly. “She needed me to see the Golden Age of Wolves. Because it happens, Badr. Everything that was prophesied and dreamed of when I was born with her mark on my stomach. When I make history and mate with two sun wolves, an earth wolf, a water wolf, a fire wolf, and a wind wolf. The new generations and the powers they’ll have will be... astounding.
“The wolves born from moon and wind—me and Edric—will have the power of invisibility. Not on one night of the month like me, but every day and anytime. The moon and water wolves will have the power of drought. They’ll be able to suck the water out of anything—oceans, plants, people—and leave them nothing but a dried-up, desiccated husk.”
Badr’s eyes widened with every word.
“The moon and fire wolves will move through fire.”
“Move through fire?”
“Like teleporting,” I explained, “but through flames. It’s an amazing power, Badr, because there’s always a flame burning somewhere. With a thought, they’ll travel across an ocean and appear in the glow of an enemy’s candlelight.
“Although, the moon and earth wolves will have amazing power too,” I cried. “Transmutation. The power to turn one element into another. Stone into water. Water into fire. Lead into gold.”
“Gold?” He shook his head roughly. “No. No! What you’re saying is impossible—”
“And I’m not even finished,” I broke in. “Because I haven’t gotten to the moon and sun wolves. The one who’ll have the power of solar energy absorption. As long as the sun shines on them, they’re unstoppable. Stronger, faster—fucking hell, probably taller too. The sun is their fuel.”
“Okay,” he drew out. “But even if all of that is true, how does that lead to my brother murdered?”
“Because the vision wasn’t done yet. Want to know what’s even better than wolves having those powers?”
He frowned. “What? I don’t know. Nothing.”
“Something,” I whispered. “What’s better than having one of those powers... is having all of them.”
“All right, sure, that would be better but that’s impossible—”
“Impossible,” I said at the same time as him. “Badr, it’s really going to help you out if for the rest of this conversation, you let go of your idea of what’s possible and what’s impossible.”
His frown deepened, but slowly, he nodded. “So you’re saying we create a clan that has the power of all six of us.”
“Sure we create them. We give birth to them.”
Badr’s mouth opened, but nothing came out.
“It won’t matter who the biological father is. The bonds between us will be so strong, so powerful, that in every way that matters, our children will be born from all of us. And they’ll have all of our power.”
“My gods,” he breathed. If he wasn’t already sitting, he’d have fallen over. “How? There’s a reason we all—wolves and demigods—only have one. So much power in one person, they couldn’t survive.”
“And our children wouldn’t have survived either, except for one more gift given to them by Luame—immortality.”
“Immortality?” he cried.
“Yes.”
“Immortals?!”
“Yes.”
“No!” He shot up. “Now I know you’re lying! Immortality is a curse on those dead leeches,” he said, speaking of the vampires. “It’s not a gift from a god.”
“Badr, we haven’t gotten to the part where you’re going to want to jump around shouting and cursing, so save this reaction for when it counts!”
“What is that supposed to mean?”
“It means that all of these amazing powers will be great for our kids—for every wolf’s future child—but you know who benefits shit-all? All of us who’ve already been born.”
“Yeah?” he cried, throwing up his hands. “So?”
“Think about it, Badr. Think!”
“Think about what? If you’ve got something to say, just say it.”
I blew out a hard breath, clenching my fists. It wasn’t him I was frustrated with. I just didn’t want to speak this vision. I never wanted to talk about it again, because the last time I did, I lost everything.
“But you have to know,” I whispered. “You have to know that in the vision there was a shadow. A person—dark and dangerous—who’ll lurk on the edges of this war, pulling the strings of our destruction. A person that I can’t see. That I don’t think even Luame can see. And that person is the one who’ll do it.
“They’re the ones who’ll steal our babies’ powers and give them to the highest bidders.”
Thud!
See? I knew the words would drop him on his ass.
“What?” he hissed. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“A soul stealer,” I whispered, barely hearing him. “That’s what Luame called them. Born with an awful curse, they’re wrong in every way. But they’re just as powerful.