*Ongoing - slow updates*
THIS IS BOOK 3 IN THE CLAN OF THE RIM CHRONICLES. IF YOU HAVEN'T READ THE FIRST ONE, IRON FROST, OR THE SECOND ONE, IRON KNIGHT, PLEASE REFER TO IT BEFORE READING THIS ONE.
The outcome of Eerika's choices has finally caught...
Disclaimer: Because of my eye condition, my updates will be much slower and not as consistent as they were before, but I am determined to complete this 3rd book as well as book 4. I apologize for such a long 3 year wait. I ask for your patience and kindness, and that you refrain from posting comments asking me to update. There may only be one chapter per month, or one every few weeks, or possibly even every 1 and 1/2 to 2 months, I have to take my health day by day and some weeks are better than others. I appreciate your understanding. Thank you, and thank you for reading. Xo -Katelyn
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I COULD FEEL THE vibration of my heartbeat against the wooden floor. How long had I laid here? My entire body felt numb and limp, with every muscle shocking an ache in me every time I took the shallowest of breaths.
Everything is gone. It's all gone.
My home. My crown. My people. My Calder. Everything had crumbled to ash between my fingers and sprinkled onto the earth like blackened snowfall.
It was my fault. Every bit of it was mine. How did I not know? How did I not see that this would be what was coming all along? I was the fool disguised as the queen. Everyone in the castle was possibly dead now, all because of me...Maybe even Calder too.
I let out a muffled, agonized sob and rocked myself back and forth against the floor. What was I supposed to do now? How was I to know if anyone in Vinter was left alive? I couldn't go back and fight Sylvi on my own, with no army, without Calder by my side. And I didn't know how to make a portal that would take me back, Calder had never shown me how.
I was defenseless to Sylvi without the one weapon that could have a single chance of destroying her--Sverdet. And I had no other information to track her down now. I was completely out of options, plans, and power. A queen no longer...and maybe never again.
Could Calder still be alive somehow? Could he have by some miracle escaped the castle after getting me out and was on his way to find me? I didn't know. As hard as I could've tried to convince myself in my head that he was on his way to me, I knew Calder.
He wouldn't have left surviving subjects to die by his mother's hand if at all possible. I remembered his words, saying that he had to fix his mother's wrongs. That meant he had left that room somehow avoiding the fire and tried to help more subjects, and maybe even confronted Sylvi himself. But in doing so, he could've gotten harmed or worse...captured once again by Sylvi, or finally killed by her as she's wanted all along.
No. No, no, no. He can't be dead. He's not dead.
I would feel it. Wouldn't I? We were bonded now from our first time making love and from him finally verbally declaring he loved me. Our souls were officially connected, I would know if Calder was gone, or injured, surely that was what it meant. Calder said our heartbeats would be one, I would know if his had stopped. Wouldn't I?
I slowly pushed myself up off the floor and began feeling of my chest where my heart resided. I checked my pulse, tried to focus on how I felt within myself. Would it feel like half of me died if Calder had? I never got any chance to ask him in more detail how bonding each other's souls would feel after it happened. I never expected it to happen to us so soon, like that.
