Total pages in book: 95
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90897 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 454(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Past landmarks she’d visited as a human in the daylight.
William had allowed her to travel much while she was human, to see Europe, its culture and history, in the light of day before those experiences were stolen from her forever. He’d never used the word stolen, of course.
But Echo did now.
She would never see Buckingham Palace or the Queen’s Guard in their bearskin hats in the daylight ever again. London would only ever be visible in the darkness by artificial light.
Her grief seemed to grow every day.
As did her bitterness and thirst for revenge.
“We’re here,” Elijah said, and the car slowed. “And as per bloody usual, there are hardly any fucking parking spaces. I’ve offered to buy them a new house so many times, but they stubbornly refuse to m—space!” The car braked harshly, and Echo slammed into the back seats. “Sorry about that.”
She couldn’t speak. Fear that she hated crept over her as the car maneuvered into the spot.
“Right, we’re three doors down from my parents’ place. Are you bundled up tightly?”
Echo exhaled slowly. “Doing it now.” She tightened the blanket around her, the fabric suffocating over her face, so much so that she had to remind herself she couldn’t die of suffocation anymore. “You’ll need to make sure it’s tight around my legs.” Her words were muffled by the blanket, but thanks to his supernatural hearing, Elijah answered in the affirmative.
Only a few seconds later, she heard the rear of the car open and then his hands were on her legs. The blanket was pulled so tight, she felt like a mummy.
“Right, I don’t sense any danger around us, love, so I’m going to lift you now.”
Sense danger?
He could sense danger?
Something to ask him later.
Abruptly, she was pressed against the hard heat of him, his heady scent too close. Her incisors ached all of a sudden. If the heat of the sun through the fabric didn’t make her feel so bloody weak, Echo was sure her incisors would have sliced out of her gums of their own accord.
The fae’s blood was too much of a damn temptation.
The trunk clicked shut, followed by the beep of the car locking.
“Walking swiftly as I can without drawing attention,” he murmured. “Though there’s no bugger about at this time.”
Then there was a crack, like the splintering of wood.
“I now owe my parents a new door.” There was a slamming sound, and she was being laid on something soft. “Closing all the curtains before we take off that blanket.”
“Bill, call the police.” Echo heard the faint whisper from upstairs.
She sighed. “Elijah—”
“I heard … MUM, DAD! It’s me!”
From above, Echo could hear Elijah’s parents’ movements. The tug of fabric brought her attention back to her companion, and suddenly she was staring up at him from a sofa in the middle of a living room. The curtains were drawn, though cracks of sunlight still spilled through at the edges. He’d switched on a few lamps.
To her surprise, his brow was creased with concern. “Are you all right?”
She nodded, pushing up off the couch to untangle herself from the rest of the blanket.
“Elijah, what on earth …” A petite woman with short auburn hair rushed into the living room in a bright blue dressing gown embroidered with peacocks. At her back was a man as tall as Elijah with gray hair and striking jade-green eyes. They halted at the sight of Echo.
“Not that we’re not happy to see you, son, but this is a bit untoward,” Bill Webb said.
“Come here, come here first.” Nancy, Elijah’s mother, rushed her son, and Echo watched with more than a twinge of envy as they hugged. Elijah closed his eyes, distress straining his features as he tightened his hold on the human.
Echo sensed his love and fear flowing out of him in waves.
Irritated with her envy, she waited impatiently as father and son shared a quick hug that came with a hard patting of hands on each other’s backs.
“Why is it so gloomy in here?” Nancy said, striding toward the curtains. “Let me—”
“No!” Elijah and Echo yelled in unison.
His mother startled to a stop, her dark eyes huge.
“Sorry, Mum.” Elijah raised his palms toward his parents. “You can’t open the curtains.”
“Are you in trouble?” Bill asked, frowning.
“In a sense, yes … There’s something I need to tell you, and I think you better sit down for it.”
6
The last thing Elijah had expected after he’d told his parents everything about being fae and the prophecy was for his mum to turn to his dad and say, “I told you so.”
His dad nodded grimly. “You did. I didn’t listen.”
What the hell did that mean?
“You told him what?” Echo asked before Elijah could.
“I told Elijah’s father”—his mum looked at him now—“I told your father I thought you were fae.”
Shocked, he slumped on the sofa next to Echo. “How did you know about the fae?”