Total pages in book: 192
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 192810 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 964(@200wpm)___ 771(@250wpm)___ 643(@300wpm)
Mom closed her mouth.
“I’ll do this tomorrow, and this will be a topic of discussion during Aleksei and my interview.”
I felt him close in on my back, murmuring, “Darling.”
I kept my attention locked on my mother.
“I thought it would be embarrassing, everyone in every realm knowing how you raised me, what you did to me, how you treated me, but I’m coming to understand the fullness of my destiny,” I shared. “And there are without a doubt far too many beings who will understand my experience intimately, and who will feel no small assurance we share that in common, no matter how unfortunate it is we do. But more, I survived and thrived, which might, if they’re struggling, encourage them that they can too.”
“I don’t believe that’s necessary,” Dad said swiftly.
“You would be wrong,” I replied. “My decision is made. I’ll also be discussing this with the Truelocks and the Vinestrongs. I’ve been a member of Cat’s family since I was eight, Gayle’s, since I was nine. They’ve seen things, they know things, and they can corroborate any assertions I make along with Dr. Fearsome explaining about my remodeled bones. I doubt my friends will mind sitting in front of a cam and sharing their memories. The visit from the RVPB is on record. Your tax penalty is on record. And if Aleksei releases what he has, you’ll both have to move to the Three Realms to escape the ire of those of the Fall.”
It was all coming to me now, everything, the entirety of it.
And I shared that.
“I have a ninety-four percent approval rating. Go ahead, try to fuck with me. We’ll see how that goes. But my advice, once you deal with whatever the HMRD turns up, find somewhere far away, go there and forget you have a daughter. Once I walk out of this room, I can promise, I’ll do everything I can to forget about you.”
With that, I ignored the enraged expression on my mother’s face, the sick one on my father’s, and I took Aleksei’s hand.
I walked him to the king, where I got up on my toes to kiss his cheek (and he blushed too, like father like son cuteness). I smiled at the queen, Aleece, then Aleksei and I stepped off the dais and exited the room.
I caught Allain’s grin of sheer glee and not-minor approval.
Once we left the room, however, it wasn’t me guiding Aleksei.
It was Aleksei guiding me.
Up two flights of stairs and to the left, around a corner and into a room that was more like a vestibule.
He turned me into his arms.
I put my hands on his shoulders and looked up at him.
“That was bloody brilliant,” he growled, his eyes shining again with amethyst light, but this wasn’t anger, it was pride.
I smiled, but my legs were shaking.
He cupped my jaw in his hands. “Are you okay?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You don’t have to follow through with your threats, darling,” he assured.
“I think I need to. I think those of the Fall need to know what they’re getting with me.”
“If you’re absolutely sure, I need to get Allain and Nata on discussions with the being who’ll be interviewing us so we can agree a new set of questions.”
I nodded.
Aleksei didn’t immediately get out his Palm.
He said, “Bissi, this is your story to tell, and you can choose not to tell it. I can handle your parents.”
“I don’t think you understand, Aleksei. I need to be the one who handles them. Anyway, stuff like this finds its way out of the darkness. If we get in front of it, we can put it to good use.”
He bent as he pulled me up and touched his lips to mine.
“I’m seriously fucking proud of you,” he whispered.
My smile was firmer after he said that.
He touched his mouth to mine again.
He let me go, pulled out his Palm and walked us into what had to be his suite of rooms.
It started with a sitting room that was a masculine display of dark, heavily carved wood, a color story of aubergine and myrtle green, the fixtures and furnishings the same as everything else I’d encountered in the Palace, except more welcoming and lived in.
As he spoke to Allain, I noted again how entirely comfortable he was here.
This was his space. His place in the world. His home.
And now, for the first time, I realized it also was mine. It always had been.
Since the day I was born.
I went to the window and peered out to the view of the outer gardens (no less formal, or spectacular, than the courtyard) and the sparkling Dolphin Sea beyond.
I was home here.
I was home at the penthouse.
I was just home.
Because I was Aleksei’s.
And Aleksei was mine.
Chapter 31
Clouds
The next afternoon, I found myself a thirty-year-old female in the middle of a hand slapping fight.