Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54625 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 273(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 182(@300wpm)
But there she was.
Even more beautiful than any of the writings had claimed.
Long black hair, a sharp, angular, gorgeous face, and dark eyes. Then there were her wings, soft, supple white with black-tinged edges.
Her scales and dagger were on the ground of the cave, already heavily covered in dirt.
None of that, though, had my heart slamming against my ribcage, had my belly twisting and turning.
Because, yes, she was right there.
Five feet in front of us.
But she was encased in some sort of… glass tunnel filled with an aqua-blue liquid.
“No, don’t,” Daemon said, grabbing my wrist as I raised my hand, wanting to touch the glass.
“Let me go,” I grumbled, watching Nemesis’s eyes slip toward me, expression unreadable. “That’s my sister,” I snapped.
“Let me try,” Daemon said, giving my wrist a squeeze before dropping it.
“Fine.”
His arm lifted.
But the second his fingertip touched the glass, his body was flung away with enough force to send him slamming back against the cave wall.
“Daemon!” I cried, turning and running toward where he was crumpled on the ground. “Daemon?” I called, voice thick even as unwanted tears stung my eyes.
I pushed at his shoulders, forcing him onto his back, then pressing my ear to his chest, listening for a heartbeat, feeling for his breath.
Something.
Anything.
“Don’t be crying over me, shadow girl,” he said, voice small and airless as his hand went to my hip. “Told you I can’t die.”
I lifted up, looking down at him, seeing a dark pool forming around his head.
“You’re bleeding.”
“Been doing a lot of that lately,” he agreed, his pretty eyes looking pained. “Hit my head on a sharp rock,” he told me, fingers digging a little harder into my hip. “Wouldn’t mind a little pain relief, though,” he said, eyes dancing, smile wicked.
“Oh, you’re fine,” I said, whacking him in the stomach before getting to my feet and offering him my hand.
He hauled himself up, eyes going unfocused for a second. From the blood loss? Concussion? Could demons get concussions?
“You’re just noticing that now?” Daemon asked, turning his face side to side for inspection, eyes bright.
“Could you be serious?” I asked.
“I can certainly try.”
“Was it an electrical charge?” I asked, looking around the glass enclosure.
“It packed too much punch,” Daemon said, shaking his head.
“A spell, maybe?”
“Maybe. I don’t really know enough about magic to say if that’s possible. All I can say was it would kill anyone who wasn’t immortal.”
“Damnit,” I grumbled, looking up at my half-sister, wondering what she was thinking, if she was as furious as I was on her behalf. “Do you think she can hear me?”
“I have no idea. Wouldn’t hurt to talk to her, though.”
“Can you hear me?” I asked, looking up at her, suddenly wondering how much she looked like our mother, how much I might. “I know they did this to you. I’ve been looking for you for so long,” I added, surprised when my voice got thick, and I needed to blink back tears again. “I’m going to get you out of here,” I told her.
I could have sworn I saw a spark in her eyes at that.
“I just… don’t know how,” I admitted. “But I am going to figure it out,” I assured her, looking over at Daemon. “Do you have any ideas?”
Daemon rocked on his heels for a moment.
“I do. But you’re not going to like it.”
“Why?”
“Because it involves leaving here. Both of us leaving here.”
He was right. I didn’t like that. Without him, the gods would turn back to abusing humans. Killing them because they couldn’t withstand the abuse Daemon could.
That said, if we couldn’t free my sister, how many humans would die as the gods continued to wreak havoc on the mortal world? Wars and pettiness; the books were full of their schemes and selfishness. Left unchecked, without the good or neutral gods to balance the antics of the more wicked of them, the world could descend into a dystopian hellscape.
It was horrific to believe any human lives were expendable, that their sacrifice would be acceptable.
But if this was war, the humans against the gods, then there were bound to be casualties in their quest for freedom.
“We can be quick,” Daemon said, sensing my inner battle.
“Where do we need to go? To see your… demon friends?”
“No. They don’t really know anything more than we do. And while there is a witch there, she’s not this sort of powerful,” he said, waving his hand closer to the glass, and I could hear the sizzle of the charge that kept people away and Nemesis contained.
“Where then?”
“A friend of mine. He’s a warlock. A really powerful warlock. If anyone will know what this magic is, and how to get through it, it’s him.”
“How long would it take?”
“Two days?”
Two days.
That could be two human lives, possibly more.
But if it meant we could free Nemesis so she could balance the wickedness of our siblings, it might be worth it.