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)
And that starts by having a chat with Niall.
He begins to walk toward the road. I take a step out, showing myself. At the very least I have the wolf by my side. It might make him think twice. I’m going to have to come up with a suitable name for my pet since it seems like the wolf is the only creature on the plane I can trust.
Niall starts and then stops, staring at me. “Princess Bronwyn.”
“Incredible jackass Niall.”
The wolf seems to snort.
Niall’s face flushes. “Your Highness, there was nothing I could do. I was surrounded by Micha’s men. They would have killed me. I didn’t have an army.”
I think about what happened in the square. It seemed to be a nightmare at the time, but now I start to process what I saw and heard. “Neither did the man who saved me. He didn’t have an army. He only had his brother.”
Niall looks around as if expecting someone to show up. “Where is he? Who is he? It doesn’t matter, Princess. We need to leave here. It was smart of you to get away and come looking for me. Your father is going to be very proud of you.”
He had an incredible story concerning my father. “Why should I believe you about my father?”
“Because it’s true.” He gives me a warm smile and walks far too close to me. “Princess Bronwyn, everything I have told you is true. Your father trained me to find you. He gave me explicit instructions. I’ve been searching since I became old enough to be a guard.”
“If my father is truly a sluagh, then why didn’t he search for me himself?” It’s impossible to think of my rigidly polite father as an eater of the dead. The sluagh are unshriven dead, dead who refuse to move on to the after.
“I believe his essence is tied to his brother’s, and he cannot be free until his brother is dead.” Niall sighs. “I do not expect that you will understand any of this, Princess. Simply know that your father trusts me. Ask me something only he would know. He spoke of you so often. He made me memorize everything about you.”
“What did he call me as a child?” It was a secret between the two of us. Or at least my father had told me so.
“He called you his little pixie because your hair was so big he thought it looked like pixie wings when your nanny didn’t braid it. He thought your hair was half your body weight when you were a child.”
Tears prick my eyes. Little pixie. It’s a sweet memory. “All right, let’s say I believe you. What does he want me to do?”
He smiles, a self-satisfied look. “He wants you to follow me. He wants you to trust me. I’m going to take care of you. We’ll go to Sir Giles’s manse. He’s been looking for a person to rally behind. He’s tried several times to get ambassadors off the plane to talk to friendly vampire families. He will give us a safe place, and he has a long history with the military.” Niall is silent for a moment and then seems to come to a decision. “And he will see us properly wed.”
The wolf puts her head down and I groan. “I am not marrying you.”
“’Tis the only way, Princess. We shall marry and I will take care of the political part of this. You will need only to be your sweet self and let the people see you. It is all that is required of you.”
My wolf growls and I understand the sentiment. “I want my knife back.”
Niall stares. “There is no need, Princess. I will handle everything.”
“I don’t want you to handle everything. I want you to give me my knife back. And I don’t need another husband.”
“What is that supposed to mean?” His face flushes, his shoulders squaring.
I would swear that wolf rolls her eyes. “It means that I find myself wed to the princes of the Unseelie. I doubt they would be happy to share their wife, though I find myself in a small disagreement with them.”
“You can’t be married.”
“Oh, yes, I can. I’m bonded to them. Trust me. I feel the connection. I think they both want to murder me right about now.” I felt their panic, and now even though I put my shields up, I can still feel the fine edge of fear and irritation. I wondered if they can feel my willpower.
Niall huffs. “No one on this plane will recognize the marriage. They are Unseelie and obviously up to no good. We will wed, and our people will accept it.”
“I am not marrying you. And I might not know my husbands very well in this reality, but I know they will take you apart limb from limb, or rather Shim will burn you to a crisp and then Lachlan will play with your corpse.”