Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
“Ah.” Rhys nods as though he’s figured something out. “The crone killed my vines.”
I don’t think so. She told me how to do it, but I rather think it was me. A power I didn’t know I possess. “She wants me to go to the palace. But she also wants me to forgive her since she says this is the only way. She also wants me to meet a goddess and get spring under control. I assume she’s talking about Rhys since he’s lost his damn mind.”
“I certainly have not,” Rhys complains. “I do not need to be brought under control, and I have questions. How is this crone speaking to my goddess if she’s supposed to be in Annwn?”
“So we’re to go to the palace where they’ll kill us all if they figure out we’re not who they think we are,” the queen muses, ignoring her son’s outburst.
“Shy, I would like to talk to you,” Rhys begins, and he sounds slightly less confident.
“And I would like to forget that you don’t give a damn about what I need. I guess neither of us is getting what we want,” I shoot back. “I’ll walk to the palace.”
“Shy, come.” Sasha offers me his arm. “You can ride with me.”
As he was willing to go with me, I trust him. That’s not right. I trust Sasha Federov for a million different reasons. I grip his arm and let him help me up, sliding into place behind him.
Rhys frowns up at me. “We will talk, Shy.”
He mounts, and I see Cassie has joined the king. It’s probably a good thing since I think she might have used that machete on Rhys. Who sends me one of his patented soulful stares before joining his papa. “We should get our stories straight. I am your bastard son and Shy is my wife.”
“I am not your wife,” I protest. “I’m a…ooo, I’m the queen’s like maid or something.”
“She’s not the queen,” Dev corrects. “She’s a piece of heaven I picked up on a party plane. She definitely doesn’t have a maid. Cassie’s her little sis, and Brendan and Neil are supercool werewolves we picked up at a rave. I wonder how hetero I am here. Do you think I’ll be able to tell? I would like to work Dan in.”
He starts talking and assigning people their roles.
I can feel Rhys’s eyes on me and know he isn’t going to make this easy.
Is it wrong I am both angry about that and oddly comforted?
Chapter Twelve
Zoey
The White Palace is stunning, as always, and as I sit on the bed in what should be Miria’s bedroom, I’m still in shock. Shock that we’re in a weird alternative world. Shock that this Devinshea is apparently some kind of a monster.
Shock that my son is acting like an overly possessive caveman moron.
Shock that Shy is far more powerful than we imagined.
There’s a lot of shock running through me right now.
“She killed that vine with a mere thought,” Devinshea says as he paces the marbled floors. “No one told me that was a power of hers. All I’ve heard up until now is that she’s a medium. What she showed me today goes far beyond a medium. Do you know the last time I met someone who could counter my power like that?”
When we entered the palace, Devinshea walked in like he owned the place, throwing his cloak at one of the brownies who greeted us. He didn’t seem to care that his cloak was far heavier than the servant, simply walked right on. Luckily I saw her fellow brownies heft the cloak off her.
We all followed him, hearing him yell out for rooms to be prepared and food and wine to be brought for his friends.
Every single servant was afraid of him.
The rest of our party is sitting in the outer rooms. Dev brought Danny and I back here for a private talk.
“She is not Myrddin,” Daniel replies.
I shake my head because I can’t believe this is what Dev is contemplating. I really hope Shy’s hearing isn’t better than we think. Or Rhys’s. “You think that sweet young woman has anything to do with the wizard who murdered her family?”
Dev’s jaw goes tight. “Well, I certainly never dreamed Olivia Carey would join him and yet she’s tried to murder our children several times.”
Olivia is a problem Kelsey Owens is working on. We split our missions, with Kelsey taking my son and daughter with her to her husband’s home. On the Hell plane. Grayson Sloane is one of the thirteen princes of Hell, and he’s also known as the dark prophet. Olivia was once a dear friend and a teacher at our children’s school. They loved her. Then the fall came and Liv was left behind. As a witch, she was taken in by Myrddin, and she became one of his most trusted warriors. Kelsey thinks she can bring her back. I hope she can.