Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 99529 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 498(@200wpm)___ 398(@250wpm)___ 332(@300wpm)
My heart beat began to slow. I knew my time would be soon. Tears left my eyes, knowing that Xander and I never had a chance.
Don’t burn away your senses. Leave.
My body spasmed and shook.
Escape.
“Help me hold her!” Queen Regina shouted.
Victoria and Leeta seized me, trying to keep me.
“Hold on, Camille,” Leeta whispered in my ear. “Please, hold on. We need him.”
“But he. . .needs. . .you.” I coughed up more blood and trembled.
My king!
“Yes!” Xander roared from across the room in response to my silent plea.
Stand up.
I tried to focus on him as his image blurred in and out of view.
Show them you won’t fall into their plan. Don’t let my death weaken and change you.
Xander’s voice boomed in the room. “And what if I just want to lay down and die next to your body?”
Queen Regina gasped. Her body stiffened behind me.
Then I would’ve died for nothing, I whispered in my own head.
My vision left. There was only darkness, the scent of my blood, the sharp stinging of the knife in my chest, the pounding of Queen Regina’s heart behind me, and Xander’s anguished cries in front of me.
“He hasn’t finished maturing.” Ty’s voice held worry. “What do we do?”
“Don’t do anything, just wait.” Queen Regina shivered against my back. “Son, listen to me. Your queen is delirious right now.”
No!
I continued to sink within the darkness of my mind.
Kill them all if you must to get out of here. Save the blood mages if you can.
“Camille,” Xander cried my name out as if something were being ripped away from his chest.
Listen, my king. I couldn’t open my eyes, but I smiled with blood-covered lips.
I was so stupid to push you away in the beginning. I was wrong.
“No, you weren’t.” His voice was right in front of me. Strong hands grabbed my arms. I fought to open my eyes, but couldn’t.
Victoria and Leeta released me as if handing me over to Xander was the right thing to do. Queen Regina’s hand remained on the knife. I could feel the blade shaking in me.
I’m holding you.
I’d ask you to kiss me if I wasn’t so bloody.
He pressed his lips to mine.
Don’t go, my queen. I can’t do this without you.
There are dominas chained in a room just because they have blood like mine. . .save them. . .
He kissed my cheeks and chin.
His voice slammed against my head. I don’t care about them!
My daughters need you. The guards may already have them. . .
The darkness descended with a crushing force, sending me spiraling into a void of nothingness as if I were being swallowed alive by the depths of my own being.
I felt my consciousness slipping away, helpless to its power.
Still, I tried one last time to speak to Xander, hoping he could hear my last thoughts.
Love again! My corpse doesn’t need a diamond throne.
I heard him scream in pain as cold shadows consumed me. In time his voice became nothing as everything shifted to silence.
Chapter 8
Then, So Be It
Xander
Camille thought to me as she passed out in my arms. My corpse doesn’t need a diamond throne.
But her heart still beat, and her breathing was shallow.
She had to still be alive, for now.
“Hold her and don’t let go,” I ordered Leeta. “Can I trust you to do this?”
Leeta bobbed her head. Tears fell from her eyes. “Your mother has my niece locked in the dungeon. She’s the only family I have left. All these years, it’s why I did it, when I never wanted to—”
“Then she’ll be free today. If you help me,” I said through clenched teeth.
Carefully, Leeta took Camille.
Now you!
I grabbed my mother’s hair, yanking her head back until the silver crown clattered to the ground. My other hand clamped down on her throat like a vice, cutting off her breath.
“Tell me the truth!” I shouted. “Is there really a potion that can heal this knife wound or was Ty lying to me?”
My mother screamed for her guards as I squeezed my hand around her neck tighter.
“Trust me, mother. You will die before they get to you.”
She widened her eyes in shock.
“Tell me. Is there really a way to heal the wound?”
“Y-yes,” she struggled to speak.
I slung her to the ground.
“Leeta!” She gasped in huge breaths of air and touched her neck. “Leeta has it!”
I stretched out my ears and strained to hear Camille’s heartbeat, but all I heard was the sound of her heart struggling, gasping as it pulsed weakly and slowly. With every thump, it seemed as if time had almost come to a standstill.
But it still beats.
I held on to that thought, putting all of my hope into it.
“Queen Regina believed we should kill your queen.” Still gripping Camille, Leeta pulled out a large vial. It had dirt around the glass tube. Her fingers shook as she handed it to me. “However, I came up with the plan to make sure we had a way to bring Camille back.”