Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“You can’t change everything at once.”
He breathed out. “I know. I just get so angry sometimes.”
“I would have thought last night would have relaxed you.”
He smirked at her. “Well, yes. New morning means new anxieties.”
The joke had landed, but there was something dark in his eyes. Something else.
Kerrigan took his hand. “Is this about Iris?”
He flinched at the sound of her name. Iris had enslaved him and used him as a weapon. His power had not been his own, and he had murdered more people than Kerrigan was sure even she knew about.
“You don’t have to do this,” she reminded him. “This is your choice.”
“And if I do not, then I give up my throne.”
She sighed, jumping onto the stone next to him. She ran her fingers over the first Fae sarcophagus. “Would that be so bad?”
He gasped out a laugh. “Considering we need a standing army.”
“We have the dragons. That might be sufficient.”
“We’re not taking any chances.”
Kerrigan nodded as she traced the lines of the first Fae’s sword. “Have you killed anyone since the tournament?”
“No,” he said stiffly.
“Will it destroy you to do it?”
Fordham was silent a beat too long. “I don’t know,” he admitted. “I’ve killed. I’ve killed so many people. Even before we ever met, Kerrigan. It was never pleasant, but it was war. This is war.”
“But…”
“But what Iris did broke something inside me that I am still navigating.”
“So if you don’t want to fight today, then you don’t have to.”
“And what about the next battle?” he asked, clenching his hands. “And the one after that? I cannot run away from a fight or my duty.”
“I don’t want you to run away from what happened either though,” she said softly. It hadn’t been that long ago that he wouldn’t even tell her what had happened with Iris, that he wasn’t sure if he could even have the mating bond. She didn’t want that Fordham to return. “I want you to be safe in here.” She touched his chest.
He slid his hand over hers. “I have you now. We can weather this together.”
She kissed him and he sighed against her mouth, the bond a fire that burned between them. Neither of them was okay. Maybe they never would be again after what they’d endured at the hands of their enslavers. But they could keep going forward together.
Fordham jumped off the stone casket and held his arms out to her. She let him lift her off the stone. “I think I’ll go claim my throne now.”
“If you’re sure.”
Fordham kissed her again. “I’m ready for you to be my wife. The rest”—he waved his hand—“can keep.”
He drew her back out of the crypt, locking the door behind him. The peace he’d achieved in there carried up the halls until they were once more in the waiting room. Delle and Adelaide looked relieved to see him.
“Two minutes,” Delle promised and then shut them in the room alone.
They watched the ever-growing crowd overlooking the valley.
A knock sounded at the door, and Kerrigan expected to see Delle walk in again, but it was Prescott.
“Cousin,” Fordham said, clapping him by the forearm. “I thought I wouldn’t hear from you.”
“My apologies. I didn’t want to give myself away.” Prescott had color back in his cheeks, but sadness exuded from his person. He looked flustered and uncomfortable. What had Barron done to him? “I just came to tell you that Barron said he isn’t going to challenge you.”
“What?” Kerrigan asked.
“Why would he say that?” Fordham asked.
Prescott sighed. “It’s the dragons. He wants to bond with a dragon. That hadn’t been a possibility before. He thinks it’s better to get a dragon and go to war than to fight this civil war.” He paused a moment before adding, “And I agree with him.”
“We would never trust him with a dragon,” Kerrigan snapped.
“He thinks he can force a wartime bond. He read about it happening during the Great War. We have more to fear from him in that regard than with this denouncement.” Prescott backed up. “That’s all. I need to get going.”
“Cousin, I assure you no matter what happens, this is your last day undercover. I will remove you to safety after this.”
Prescott nodded and then he left.
Giving Barron a dragon would be as lethal as Bastian having one. It would be unconscionable to allow that to happen, a death sentence in its own way. No one would allow that. She’d have to tell Tieran.
“It’s time, Your Majesty,” Delle said.
They headed out of their waiting room to a round of applause from the assembled Fae from the House of Shadows. Fordham kept his head held high, shadows at the ready, as he walked to the valley floor.
On either side of him was a contingent of Fae from the Laurent and Blanchard families. Viviana Blanchard was in a regal ornamental dress, her ears adorned with silver coverings studded with rubies and diamonds. Jewelry dotted her wrists and fingers, and a heavily gem-encrusted necklace dangled low between her breasts. She looked more like she was fit for a ball than what had once been a grassy battlefield.