Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Yes and no,” Duffy explains. “The king was raising them, teaching them, and then one day along about the time they were seventeen, something happened. I wasn’t there, but I know that Shim’s power flared for the first time. Shim was in the stables, getting ready for a riding lesson. I was with Lach. Lach suddenly got pale as a wraith and he fell to his knees, holding his chest. He got up and started running and I ran after him. I could see that the barn was on fire from a long ways away. Flames were shooting out of it like someone was firing a cannon, but it didn’t stop Lach. He ran inside and when he came out, he was on fire, too. It had shot up his face and all around his body. He was engulfed.”
“How did he survive?” The thought makes my heart clench, but I understand why Lach risked everything. It wasn’t simply his brother he saved. It was half of his soul. If Shim died and Lach managed to survive, he wouldn’t have been able to ever access his intellectual and romantic sides. He would be the warrior and nothing more. Lach values what Shim represents.
“No idea, but Shim didn’t have a mark on him. We didn’t know it then, but fire can’t touch him. He can walk through it and it don’t burn him. It sure burned Lach. He was a mess. It took five healers to save him and even then, they weren’t able to fix the scars on his face or hands or chest. Anywhere Shim actually touched him. I remember him saying he’d lost his handsomeness and there was a part of him that was relieved you were gone since you wouldn’t accept him like that.”
“That’s not true.” There’s nothing wrong with Lach’s face. Shim’s is more traditionally beautiful, but Lach’s has character. He’s devastatingly handsome. “But I don’t see what this has to do with making him a king. Did his father value looks so much?”
Duffy laughs. “Nah, in the Dark Palace, those scars were actually a good thing. It made him look tough. Battle is supposed to harden a man. No. The scars didn’t bother his father, but Shim being in a coma did.”
I gasp at the thought. “Goddess, did the healers not do their job?”
“The healers tried everything on both him and Lach. Lach’s body was healed, but he was weak, so weak. He just sat at his brother’s side for almost a year. Eventually he regained his strength. The healers kept Shim fed, but finally he awoke. We thought he would recover like Lach had, but he didn’t. Not until today. Not until first blood.”
“I don’t understand the whole blood thing,” I admit. “By the time someone would have explained it to me, I no longer had any contact with my vampire relatives.”
Duffy’s eyes are flat stones in the moonlight. “Your blood, consort blood, has something inside it that makes a royal stronger and faster and healthier than a normal vampire. They tried to force consort blood on both Lach and Shim but they refused.”
Because they belong to me. “So their father thought they were weak.”
“Didn’t think,” Duffy corrects. “They were weak for a long time. The king wouldn’t let them train or teach them anything. He was simply obsessed with keeping them alive.”
I understand how that kind of attention might affect someone. “Rather like Lach and Shim with me.”
“But Lach and Shim didn’t have the power you have.”
“I don’t have any power at all,” I counter.
“Yes, you do,” Duffy insists. “The bond, the true bond, will show your husbands who you are deep down inside. Lach couldn’t show his father what he wanted, needed. He could only tell him. He couldn’t make him feel it the way you can. I know my brothers. They want to please you. When they realize how important this is, they will back off. They’ll stay with you on this plane, and they will fight for your people.”
It would be a gamble. I could get caught in that web, too, but I don’t like my other options. And it’s such a temptation. To meld with them, mixing our souls, never to be alone again. It’s everything I want.
Can I be brave? Can I afford not to?
Duffy seems to know he swayed me. “Do it, Your Highness. Go back to bed and bond with your husbands. The answers you want are right there. And it could answer a few of their questions, too. If it doesn’t work, you’ll know to run.”
I stand and stare back at the campsite. If it doesn’t work, I will have to, but I fear they’ll be able to find me. Always.
It’s win or lose, but perhaps it’s better to find out one way or the other. I need to think about it.