Total pages in book: 58
Estimated words: 54811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 54811 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 274(@200wpm)___ 219(@250wpm)___ 183(@300wpm)
His head swings toward me, and his glare becomes downright hostile.
“You. Are. Mine.” I gain my feet and take a symbolic step in his direction, so he knows that I intend to see this through. “You may kill me in this field, but it will not change that fact.”
“I was drawn to the strength of your bloodline once before and found myself sorely disappointed,” he says, his voice low and coarse.
Alic. It has to be. My ribs tighten.
“I am not my brother.” I inch forward.
“That is why I still allow you to breathe, Camlaen Aaric Baran.” He darts his head forward and bathes me in steam.
“It’s Aaric,” I correct him. “Did you kill him?” Another step puts us barely ten feet apart.
“No.” He growls again but keeps his teeth closed.
My fingers start to curl, but I hold back from asking if he knows who did, if he saw my brother in the final hours before his demise. We will have a lifetime for those conversations, if I can just live through the next few minutes.
“I am not Alic. I am not Halden. I am not my father.” My voice rises with conviction.
“I know who you are. Do you think you’re so different just because your mother saw to your tutelage?” he snarls.
“Yes.” I move forward. “I was neither heir nor spare, and therefore overlooked by my father for what turned out to be my own benefit. My mother taught me that power, when given without restriction, leads to a corrosion of morals from which there is no recovery. That will not be my fate. I intend to earn my power. I will earn you.”
His head rises a few feet, but not enough to bare his throat.
“Do you know war rages beyond the wards?”
Another growl rumbles in his throat. “I do.”
I nod. “You’ve seen every memory I have, so you know how I feel about it. You know my thoughts even now.” I hold out my arms, palms skyward. “I am the one you have waited for, searched for all these years. I am the reason you have wandered the Threshing Valley unbonded. My brother may have left you disillusioned with my bloodline, but I will not.”
He bares his teeth. “And you think you know the future?”
“I know mine.” I nod with certainty. “I will fight in that war, perhaps even die. But I will not stand idly by as my family watches the destruction from a gilded tower, false stewards to a population they’ve intentionally kept ignorant.”
“And where will that leave your monarchy?” He prowls forward and tilts his head down, holding my gaze. I focus on one of his eyes, noting my reflection in the golden orb. Gone are the royal robes, the fine silks and tunics. I stand before Molvic in rider black with no title or rank besides the year mark on my collar.
“I don’t give a fuck.” My heart starts to pound. No matter my thoughts, I’ve never spoken them aloud, never given them a voice. I straighten my back. “My mother and all her good intentions are dead. If you bond me, I will fly for the name on my uniform, not the one I was given at birth. I will fly for your kind, but not the Empyrean that has enabled this travesty. Kill me now for sedition or bond me. Your choice. Mine is already made.”
He growls again, and I wonder if I’ve gone too far, but there can be only honesty between us. He must know I will follow my thoughts, my plans, through to execution.
Even if it leads to my own.
“And I will promise you, I will die before I stand on the side of complicity.” I take a steadying breath. “You must know: I intend to tear this kingdom apart.”
His eye flares. “I accept your terms, Aaric Graycastle.”
No one in my family even knows I’m missing yet.
But I’m coming for them all.