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)
I’m sure I turn a bit green. When the Vampire plane acknowledges Torin, the others will follow.
If Micha notices my dismay, he doesn’t show it, merely continues talking in his most pretentious tone. “King Torin was interested in our province, I tell you. Once he sees how well I enact his new laws, he’s going to understand that I should be given a much bigger place in the ruling class. But before I can request a new assignment, I truly must have a wife and family in place.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea, Mayor.” I stammer out the words, not sure how to extricate myself.
His face turns cold, his thin lips nearly disappearing. “Well, you’re not supposed to think, are you, dear? Do you know what I think? I think it’s odd that a girl your age hasn’t married and had children. You’re what? Five and twenty?”
I nod, not wanting to explain that I’m actually twenty-seven.
“And your sister is at least ten years older. Odd, then, that she’s avoided marriage.” He leans in, his words a cold chill running down my spine. “Some people around here whisper that your sister hasn’t married because she’s too busy practicing magic. I don’t like that rumor, do you?”
Tears threaten, angry, frightened, utterly impotent tears. “No. I don’t like it.”
That rumor will get Gillian strung up, and no amount of magic will stop it. Gillian can try, and she might take out a few, but Gillian’s magic tends to be more about helping than defending. And no matter how often I trained with sword and knife and bow, I can’t stop the troops by myself.
“Can you think of any way to quell such a rumor?”
Bastard. “I think no one would believe it if her sister married someone as important as the mayor.”
He has me in a corner, and he knows it. We’ll be forced to flee, but not before the harvest. Everything we have is invested in that wheat, and until we have the coins in our pockets, there’s nothing to do but agree and pray that planning a wedding takes lots of time.
“Excellent.” He sits back, completely satisfied. “Pass me one of those lovely sandwiches, dear. And pour me some tea.”
Feeling like one of the clockwork dolls my cousin, Dante, loved to bring me from the Vampire plane, I move as though wound up and set to a task. Pass sandwich. Pour tea. Don’t thrust the knife in his neck.
“See, you do that with such grace. An excellent wife, indeed. And I was describing you to the queen. What a beauty. She’s eager to meet you, dear. I believe she’s planning a visit in the next few months.”
I pass him the tea and pray Gillian found something stronger. She’s going to need it. And we’re definitely going to need to run. The last thing I can do is meet the queen. I already met her—on the day she pledged herself to be Beck and Cian’s bondmate. Queen Maris eagerly entered our uncle’s bed.
The mayor chats on, but I pray for darkness. Sleep is the only place where I feel safe.
Chapter Four
Lachlan
I take my seat at the far end of the table, bitterness spreading through my veins.
“Don’t.” Shim sits down beside me, smoothing over the clean tunic he donned for this meeting. “You know why he does it.”
King Fergus sits on an ornate throne placed at the middle of the long table. It’s the position of honor. This is the room he uses to receive his guests. It’s a large hall that can hold a banquet or play host to a series of negotiations. Long ago, the twin smaller thrones that should be set for the princes of the realm were moved out, leaving room only for my father, the king.
The seats closest to him are reserved for people in the highest positions. Naturally Shim and I are at the end of the table.
“Father is an idiot. He makes us look weak.”
“Because he thinks we are weak.” Shim sighs and looks up the table at the host of Fae our father considers more important. Including the Seelie twins. “He thinks we’re dying.”
For a long time, I thought Shim would die, too. It’s unspoken between us, but Shim never fully regained his previous strength after that fateful night and the long period of a fugue-like sleep that followed.
Maon, the king’s seneschal, walks up behind us. He looks down his patrician nose, his voice the tiniest bit shrill. “Because you two are bloody dying and you know it. This is a power play. If you give in and take a bondmate, your father will restore your rightful place.” He softens a bit. “No one wants to see you here. You should be at his side. Your cousin Julian can bring you a mate within days. Say the word and it will be done.”