Moon-Kissed (Within the Darkness #1) - Amelia Hutchins Page 0,1
deep into my bones. I wish to know the warmth of my mate and to feel it shining upon my face.”
“Then read from the book and find her. Fuck the consequences,” she laughed coldly. “Read from it, and I will tell you how to find your mate.”
I focused on the text inked across the parchment, whispering the words. I watched as the glowing letters left the pages and danced onto my fingertips that still touched the ancient tomes. More words slipped out, pulled from my throat until it forced me to finish reading all that was on the parchment. The moment the last syllable danced from my tongue, the tome closed, slamming shut.
Spinning toward the seer, I watched her smile go colder, evil. Her eyes turned to white, and her lips moved strangely, as if someone was controlling her. “Where the mountain touches the sunlight, and the night reached between, claim your young mate when the sickness is finally seen. She will enter your life as a warrior, with fire untold and fury in her bones. Your moon-touched mate will be born in two hundred years. When the sickness begins to consume her clan, and the warriors pass through the mountain in search of a cure, retrace their footsteps, for she will follow them in search of her destiny.”
The seer grinned at me, and a familiar expression took hold of her face, twisting her features into an evil I have searched to destroy. “One kingdom has become two. The Kingdom of Light ruled by the moon, and the Kingdom of Night ruled by you. Reading from the Book of Death has broken free a plague of darkness that will spread through both kingdoms, killing and consuming all that it touches.”
“Did you honestly think I wouldn’t figure out who you worked for before considering your lies, Seer?” I exhaled, watching her features shift and eyes return to violet once more. “Tell your mistress I am still hunting her. Once I find her and the Book of Life, I will end her once and for all. She can bathe the world in darkness, but her time is near for what she did to my father in her rage. Tell my mother that I am coming for her head and that nothing will stop me from taking it this time.”
“She hears all we speak and isn’t afraid of a child cursed by his own hand. You have brought this upon yourself. I suggest you find the one you thought worthy of cursing this land, bathing it in eternal night just for a taste. You have your mother’s hair and her face, but your soul is as dark as the one we took from your father before sending him to his grave.”
“How do I reverse the curse?” I asked carefully, tone filled with ridicule.
“To end this eternal night, and the plague of darkness, you must claim your mate and give birth to a new life. If you cannot produce a child, everything will have been for nothing, and darkness will consume both kingdoms. As there was a cost to read from the Book of Death, the same is true for the Book of Life. To counteract the curse, your mate must read from the Book of Life, the price for which will be life. Once the life price is paid, the world will be freed, and eternal night and the plague of darkness will recede.”
I laughed coldly, shaking my head at the plan my mother had put into place. “In other words, my mate has to give me a child, and then her life will be sacrificed to the book in which she reads?”
“The sacrifice of life is the only way to end the curse that you just placed upon the land. I warned you that there was a cost,” she hissed, and I smiled cruelly.
“Kindest regards, mother,” I said while holding the seer’s stare.
My sword swung before she could respond, sending the seer’s head sailing against the wall before bouncing across the stone floor. The male behind the tapestry in my room’s hidden alcove stepped out, turning to see the moon rise in the middle of the morning.
Moving to where he stood, I pushed my bloodied blade into the sheath on my hip. Outside, the sun had begun to vanish, and in its place, night slowly spread over the land. I swallowed down unease, dropping my stare to the people in the street watching the shroud of midnight settling on the kingdom. I