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)
I was going to ask if I could take the gals to one of our teas, and I loved knowing I had to ask, but the queen was going to say yes.
I stepped down from the dress platform. “I’ll change.”
Lancet bustled after me.
I got changed, hugs, cheek kisses, gratitude that they took their lunch hours to show at Lancet’s studio for the fitting were exchanged, and we all rolled out.
“Are you working the Masque?” I asked Antheme as we left Lancet’s building, me waving at the gals who were walking down the pavement (sadly, not every craft had a ready-made landing spot at the doors of every building, but they’d all taken the Subterra to get there).
Antheme was scanning as we moved toward our craft. “I’m where you are if you’re in public.”
“Right,” I said just as she tensed.
Then I cried out as she shoved me sprawling to the pavement, shouting, “Weapon!”
I heard the zing of a laser stream, the thud of what sounded like a body landing right beside mine, another one not too far behind me, and then I was being dragged.
I kicked and struggled before I heard a terse, “Fannon, mistress.”
I switched to working with him instead of against him.
Beings were screaming. There seemed to be too much movement. I was pushed into the back seat of the craft, the door slammed down, a sharp rap sounded on the top, and we were lifting off.
I righted myself in the seat, looked out the window and saw Fannon crouched over a prone body.
Antheme’s prone body.
My heart rate spiked and my gaze darted to the pilot. It was Diablo.
“Buckle in,” he ordered.
Absently, I did as told.
“Antheme,” I whispered, looking back, trying to find Gayle, Cat, Monique.
I saw nothing but a pavement cleared of panicked people who’d run away, Antheme’s body, Fannon working on her, and another body, a male, just down the pavement.
“Emergency route cleared,” the on-dash computer said. “Proceed to Celestial Palace at crisis velocity.”
The sudden burst of speed plastered me to my seat as we shot through the sky.
I pulled my bag off my arm, fumbled in it and yanked out my Palm.
I didn’t know who to comm first.
I was saved the decision when Gayle’s came into mine.
I took it, seeing her pale face and wild eyes on my display.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“Geleena got us down, then back in the building,” she answered. “Are you?”
“Physically, yes. Can you see Antheme from where you are?”
Her expression shifted and my stomach clenched at what I read in it. “Laura—”
“Can you see Antheme?” I shrieked.
“Honey, she’s not moving. But the ambu-lift is already here.”
Another comm came through.
Aleksei.
“Aleksei’s comming. I have to go. Do what my team tells you to do, nothing else. Promise me.”
“Promise,” she said.
“Love you,” I replied.
“Love you too.”
I took Aleksei’s call.
“Are you safe?” he barked.
“We’re heading to the Palace. Honey, Antheme—”
“I’ll meet you there.”
Then he was gone.
“Landing cleared,” the on-dash computer said.
My heart skipping every other beat, I stared at the Palace looming before us.
And then we landed.
Due to my beast expanding so much, she felt like she would burst out of my chest, I knew he was arriving not only because she and I felt him, but because the room darkened as his flight blocked out the sun.
I jumped off the sofa.
“He’ll be met with clothes, dear, and—” Queen Calisa started.
But I was already racing out.
Down the hall, the stairs.
To the front door.
Out of it.
Allain was there.
As was Aleksei, naked, but tugging on a pair of jeans.
I let him get them up before I hit him like a rocket.
He picked me up and carried me into the Palace.
He dropped me on my feet in the entry and started buttoning his jeans.
“What’s happening?” I asked.
He took a shirt from Allain and shrugged it on, not meeting my gaze.
Oh gods.
No.
“Aleksei!” I shouted.
He turned and moved so fast, I didn’t see him do it, but suddenly my face was in his hands and his face was all I could see.
“We lost Antheme,” he whispered.
The tears sprung to my eyes.
“Lost, as in…dead?” I asked.
“Bissi.” He was still whispering.
Lost, as in…dead.
The tears spilled over.
He pulled me into his arms.
“They were aiming at me?” I asked his chest.
A hesitation and then, “Yes, darling.”
“She died for me.”
He held me tighter.
“She died for me,” I repeated.
“She will be remembered for eternity, an honored hero of Night’s Fall,” he decreed.
I yanked away. “I don’t want her to be an honored hero!” I yelled. “I want her to live a full life and retire to a beach.”
He hauled me back into his arms.
The spurt of anger extinguished as fast as it came, the sound of Antheme’s body hitting the ground so close to me reverberating through my head.
I melted into him and sobbed.
“Son?”
I felt Aleksei shake his head.
I peered out from his chest to see they were all there, Fillion, Calisa, Aleece, and even Timothee and Errol.