Total pages in book: 247
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 235897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1179(@200wpm)___ 944(@250wpm)___ 786(@300wpm)
Power snaps within me and flares outward. Lightning slams into the tree behind Ridoc, and thunder booms instantly, shaking my bones.
“Fuck!” Ridoc shouts, covering his ears and whirling to face the tree.
My heart stutters as the trunk splits down the middle, and the halves waver…then fall. I lift my fingers, summoning lesser magic to soften the crash, but the heavy pieces are no match for my skills in this area. The halves smack into the ground in a line before us, then erupt into flame.
“Damn it.” Ridoc flings his hands outward, and a thin sheet of ice races along the halves in both directions. The flames sizzle and die. “Now Riorson is really going to kill me,” Ridoc mutters, but the joke falls flat. He turns my way.
“Thank you.” I gesture to the embers, then sigh. “And I’m sorry.”
“For which part?”
“All of it.” The admission is a little stronger than a whisper.
He nods.
“I will save him.” My throat tightens. “And not just because I can’t fathom living without him. I’m selfish when it comes to loving him, and maybe a little self-destructive lately—”
“You think?” He gestures to the tree.
“—but if I don’t save him…” My voice drops. “If I don’t cure him, and he…” I can’t say it. “I keep serum in case of emergency, but Ridoc, we have to keep him on our side, or this war is already lost. There isn’t a rider alive capable of stopping him at full power now, let alone what he could become if he truly turns. And don’t say that I can, because the truth is that I won’t. Even if I hone my signet to his level, which would take the years he’s had, I could no more hurt him than he could hurt me. He is…everything to me.”
Ridoc’s shoulders dip. “So where’s the line? At what point is he too far gone for you to defend him?”
My mouth opens then shuts. “There isn’t one. Not one he’d actually cross.”
“Really?” He lifts his brows. “What if he hurts someone you love? Will that change your mind?”
“He wouldn’t.” I shake my head. “He hasn’t in all these months. He won’t.”
He clasps my shoulders. “Not good enough. Give me a real, logical line he has to cross for you to walk away, and I’ll keep the secret. I’ll help you scour every fucking book you can find. I’m here for the I’m-going-to-save-my-man-at-all-costs mantra and will be on your side in this horrifically dangerous situation if you can just acknowledge there’s a breaking point. You can put all your faith in him as long as you leave a little logic for yourself.”
“I…I can’t imagine not loving him.” I bring my hands up to rest on his forearms.
“Never said you couldn’t love him.” He squeezes my shoulders gently. “You can still love someone after you let them go. But you have to tell me there’s a line where you will let him go. Because if there isn’t one, it’s not just him we’re going to lose, Vi.”
My chest tightens. “I would never—”
“Would you channel to save him? Or is that the line?”
I swallow hard, remembering that breath of a second in the wardstone chamber where my power hadn’t been enough to imbue the stone.
“If it makes it easier, then pick a line where I can turn him in,” Ridoc whispers. “Tell me now, when you think there’s no chance it will ever happen, so if he ever gets there, the decision isn’t on your shoulders.”
Every muscle in my body tenses.
“How about if he hurts Tairn or Andarna?” Ridoc suggests. “You have to help me here, Vi, or I’m walking straight to the only person I know will put your life above everyone else’s on that beach.”
Mira.
I try to look at the situation from Ridoc’s perspective, and it’s anything but pretty. “Fine. Hypothetically, he’d have to kill another rider without cause or hurt civilians. Hurt my friends, my dragons. Hurt…me,” I end in a whisper. “If he hurts me, then he’s not him anymore.”
Ridoc nods, then touches his forehead to mine. “All right. Then there it is.”
“There it is,” I repeat.
His hands fall away, and we start back toward camp. “Stop keeping shit to yourself,” he demands. “I don’t want to have this fight again. The four of us are stronger together than we are apart. Don’t fuck with that, even for Riorson. If you’re too afraid to tell Rhi, Sawyer, or me about something you’re doing because you know we’re going to lose our shit, then either you shouldn’t be doing it or you deserve to have shit lost on you.”
“Noted.” I sigh. “I miss them.”
“Me too.” He slings his arm around my shoulders. “Rhi gives better lectures.”
“You did pretty well.” A smile tugs at my mouth as we veer left around a giant tree the diameter of Tairn’s leg.