Total pages in book: 67
Estimated words: 67437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 67437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 337(@200wpm)___ 270(@250wpm)___ 225(@300wpm)
I drowned in a jealous rage and tried to roll out of my bed, yet something blocked me. I looked down and made out nothing—no blood. No life force. I touched the thing in my way, and felt a cold woman’s naked body next to me.
Oh. The servant. She must be dead.
While I remembered piercing her body with my fangs and cock before falling asleep, I could not remember at what point that she died.
Was it before or after I came?
Soon, blood-bodies rushed to my bed and took the corpse away.
It does not matter.
One of the blood-bodies’ thoughts came to me. We are moving her, Master.
Hurry! I roared in all of their heads. And prepare me for the War Council!
Their thoughts rang back to me. Yes, Master!
Chapter 1
The Need to Escape
Seraphine
Get out of my head!!
I sat in the corner of the room with my back pressed against the wall.
My hands shook.
In my mind, a raging fire engulfed the village that I had been born and raised in. Crackling flames devoured huts, the church, school house, and vegetable market. Friends and family let out anguished cries as they blistered and burned. Smoke billowed up to the sky. My parents’ screams echoed in my ears as I ran away and hid behind a turned over wagon.
Next, the laughter from the fire mages came—cruel, arrogant, and devoid of any compassion or empathy.
Get out of my head! Get out of my head!
I couldn’t stop the memories no matter how hard I tried.
My head pounded.
It had been like this since the moment I stepped into this mage territory. All the old trauma rushed back to me, and with that came the panic and grief.
Seeing so many of my family’s murderers walking amongst me made my world spin.
More and more old memories haunted me.
I have to escape. I can’t be here.
The more I remained in this mage territory, the more I struggled to regain control of myself.
I closed my eyes and more frightening thoughts played in my head.
No. No. No.
That day returned to me again.
Ground Mover dragged me away from my hiding place. I kicked and screamed, but my tiny body was nothing for him. He held my wrists together with just one hand and yanked me up to a standing position. “Wind Whisperer, there is another child!”
“These children are so good at hiding.” A woman walked to his side and gazed down at me. “Should we give her to the Quiet King or kill her?”
Ground Mover frowned. “Either fate may be. . .equally spine-chilling.”
“You are not well-suited for these missions. Why do you always volunteer for them?”
Ground Mover turned to all the laughing fire mages as they shot flames at an old screaming woman. “I fear that if I am not on the missions, then they will get even more out of hand.”
Wind Whisperer shook her head at the fire mages. “I apologize. I will talk to Flame Wielder again about his people.”
“Please do. The blood mages are still our brothers and sisters. One must not find pleasure in their deaths.” Ground Mover tightened his grip on my wrists and guided me away.
And I shouldn’t have looked over my shoulder, but I didn’t know any better.
I was so young when it happened.
Still to this day I couldn’t get the acrid smell of smoke out of my nose.
After the fire mages’ brutal attack, nothing was left standing—not even the tall oak tree that had shaded our hut for so many years. Everywhere I looked, there were piles of ash, charred wood, and blackened dead bodies.
With a heavy heart, I realized in that moment that I would never see my parents, baby brothers, or anyone else I loved again.
It was long ago. Leave it alone. Stop this.
I opened my eyes and the hut’s small room returned to me.
My heart pounded.
Sweat dripped down my face.
Why does Camile have me in this room? Will I die in this blasted village?
My breathing turned shallow.
It felt like I couldn’t get enough air into my lungs.
Instantly, Reye’s image came to my head—brown face, soothing grey eyes, gray-reddish braids. There, I saw her talking to me.
“When the visions come, you must breath, Seraphine.”
Trembling, I closed my eyes again, inhaled for four seconds, held the oxygen in my lungs for seven seconds, and then exhaled for eight seconds.
Okay. . .
I took another deep breath in, counting to four in my head, holding it for seven seconds, and then slowly let it out, counting to eight.
Reye’s smiling face filled my mind. Soon, I felt her arms around my body, holding me close to her.
In the dungeon, I always lay my head against her soft pillowy breasts and listened to her heart beat.
It was the only way I could go to sleep in that place of small dark rooms—no windows, barely any light. Dirt floors. Metal bars. Stone walls. And other blood mages crying and screaming in the middle of the night, praying to Ressi for death.