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)
Emotion thickened in her throat and she knew he could hear her suddenly racing heart, could sense all of her emotions. Her gaze dropped to the leather cuffs he’d worn once as a fashion accessory, and now as a means to hide the scarred bands around his wrists.
“You can shut me out all you want … but I will never stop fighting for you, woman.”
Maybe that’s how he felt now. But eventually, the reality of who and what she was would come crashing down, and one day he might wish they’d never met. “You … deserve better.” Echo gently released her elbow from his hold. “Trust me when I tell you I’m doing you a favor.”
Before he could reply, she hurried up the steps of the plane. Elijah’s feelings threatened to buckle her knees as a wave of desperate powerlessness flooded out of him and into her.
A few minutes later, she was seated at one end of the plane, as far from her fated mate as she could get. Niamh and Kiyo sat across from her. Kiyo had already closed his eyes, resting his head against the back of the white leather seat for a nap.
Niamh studied Echo until it started to irritate her.
As if she knew, the Irish fae’s lips twitched with amusement.
“What?” Echo asked, keeping the bite out of her tone.
“It’s just … well … after the noises coming from your cabin last night, I didn’t expect you and Elijah to be so distant today.”
Kiyo proved he wasn’t asleep by murmuring his mate’s name in warning without even opening his eyes.
“What?” Niamh chuckled. “They were very loud.”
Echo stared stonily at her. “If you think I’m even remotely the kind of female who gets embarrassed about that stuff, you don’t know me.”
“Oh, I’m not trying to embarrass you. Sex between mates is …” Her cheeks flushed. “It’s off-the-charts intense.”
Kiyo grunted in agreement, his hand moving to Niamh’s thigh as if of its own accord. She gave her napping mate a look so full of love, it made Echo’s attention darted past them to the male who consumed her.
Elijah stared back, gaze narrowed and contemplating.
“Let’s change the subject.”
“You can trust him, you know,” Niamh assured her.
“Subject. Change.”
“I just—”
“Komorebi.” Kiyo squeezed her thigh, his eyes opening.
Niamh sighed but thankfully said nothing further.
The jet’s cabin was quiet but tense. Everyone was preparing themselves for the fight ahead. Echo noted Thea and Conall sharing strained looks, their hands clasped, and Echo felt another pang of guilt. They’d had to leave their daughter behind for this.
Determination suddenly filled her.
There was no way she was letting another child grow up without their parents.
If it took everything she had, she’d make sure the MacLennans returned to their little girl.
For the rest of the journey, Echo stared out the small window, watching the world pass below them in the light. It had been seven years since she’d sat on a plane during daylight. She’d flown in William’s private jet but only on short jaunts when they were guaranteed darkness. Otherwise, it had been the bulk hold for her. It was still so surreal. She kept waiting for this miracle to be taken away from her like everything else.
Echo’s eyes stung a little.
Because that’s what Elijah was too.
A miracle.
And he would be taken from her.
Monsters like her didn’t deserve miracles.
As the skyline of London came into view, Fionn got up and stood in the middle of the aisle. “We’re ten minutes from the private airfield.” He glanced from Thea to Conall to all of them. “My contact tells me William arrived in London just before sunrise. That gives us about ten hours to get into position before William is able to leave his hotel. Plan is we stop at my safe house, we fuel up. We arm ourselves. Then we find Margaret and secure her.” His gaze landed on Echo.
Echo bit her lip. She wanted to find Margaret first, but she’d been outvoted. Everyone agreed they should be ready to fight. Giving Fionn a reluctant nod, she turned to stare out the window. Echo wondered if it would be the first and last time in her vampire existence she’d ever see the sunlight spilling across the world.
Fionn’s safe house was an end-of-terrace townhouse in a fancy gated community on the Wharf of the Thames. It had six bedrooms and south-facing views of the river. Echo guessed the place would sell for a cool five million dollars. Seriously, the fae warrior was loaded.
It wasn’t quite enough to distract Echo from the fact that she was about to meet her real mother for the first time. A mother who might not want anything to do with her once she realized Echo was a vampire—the same as the villain who had destroyed her true love.
For the first time in as long as she could remember, her stomach churned with very human butterflies. Fionn had a housekeeper who’d left a ton of food for them, but Echo could only pick at it. Eventually, feeling like she might scream if she didn’t get some alone time, she disappeared from the massive kitchen and hurried upstairs to a guest bedroom. She closed the door behind her, pressing her palms to the wood, trying to get a hold of herself.