Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
But we’d just survived an attack.
Therefore, he had to be something else he’d been born to be.
He had to be king.
Tanyn pulled the Palm out, and I was still held close, so I saw the screen.
The comm was from Aleksei.
Tanyn took it.
Nayden and I (and Hurley) waited.
Both Nayden and I (also Hurley, because he whined) knew it was not good news when Tanyn swept his expression clean.
“Right,” Tanyn said curtly. “We were attacked too.”
I stiffened.
Too?
“Two deaths, more casualties. Catla was targeted, and I have a fuck ton more to brief you on, Lex,” he said. He paused. And then, “That’d be good. We’ll do that. I’m on Mac. You’re on Bain.” Another pause and, “Right. Until then.”
He ended the comm.
I fisted his sweater in my hand.
“Are they okay?” I asked urgently.
“They’re fine.”
I relaxed, slightly, because Tanyn had not.
“What is it?” I pushed.
“The jail where Arnaud was being held was attacked tonight.”
“Fuck!” Nayden exploded.
Tanyn held my gaze.
“He escaped.”
My vision flashed red.
Oh yes.
Very much yes.
Fuck!
Chapter 29
Lore
They were first called the Daughters of the Gods.
In what would become the Four Realms, well before history was documented with any amount of accuracy, the shifters hugged the coast at the west, the demons, the north, the sorcerers, the east, the fae, the south, and the humans huddled in the mountains of the center.
But the Daughters of the Gods inhabited an island of mist off the coast from the boundary of what is now Land’s End and Dawn’s Break.
It is unknown how they procreated, as they were all female.
It is unknown how they became known to the beings on the mainland.
What is known is that, back then, the species formed clans within their species, and war was commonplace—between clans, between species.
And somehow, a fae chieftain learned the talents and magics of the Daughters of the Gods.
He also learned their location.
He desired their skills, because he knew, with them, he would go undefeated.
He set about building a warship to take his warriors to their island to capture them and bring them to his clan, to force them to serve his bloodlust, his ambitions and his greed.
However, weeks after the journey began, the wreckage of the warship and some of the bodies of his warriors washed up on the shores.
There was one survivor.
He shared tales of the ship entering a thick mist. Of winds and swells the ship couldn’t navigate. Of huge rocks spiking from the waters, breaking up the bow and pitching the warriors into the sea.
This did not deter the chieftain.
He built another warship and sent it to claim the Daughters of the Gods.
This mission did not succeed.
All males aboard perished.
He built another ship.
Its mission did not succeed.
Only death was its reward.
At this point, the chieftain realized that the island of females, clearly enchanted by all the gods, was just that.
An island of females.
Therefore, in his next ship, he populated it only with females.
It set sail.
It disappeared and did not return for the turn of three seasons.
Only then was it seen on the horizon, gliding over the surface of a calm sea toward the shore.
When it arrived, in it was only one female.
She was taken to the chieftain.
She was given food and mead and guided to sit at his feet in their lodge, where he sat his throne.
And she told him they arrived at the Isle of the Sacred. They were welcomed. They were given food that was the most delicious ambrosia that had ever touched her tongue. Wine that tasted of nectar. They were given homes. And clothes. And jewels.
She shared the food was plenty, and once the mist was navigated, the skies over the isle were sunny, the air warm.
She shared those who lived there were not born, they were made.
She shared they were not one species, they were the species.
She shared they were not a clan, they were a tribe.
She shared all who had peace in their hearts, hearts they kept open, were welcome in the tribe.
She shared they were The Watch.
And last, she shared the gods were enraged.
They did not create the dirt for beings to spill blood on.
They created the forests to provide shelter from storms, to build dwellings, not to craft weapons.
They gave us fire to provide warmth, not to be used to cause terror.
They created beings of might for them to lead, not to subjugate, amass power and usurp land.
And beings would not enjoy the magics of the Sisters of the Tribe unless they learned to exalt righteously in the gifts the gods had bestowed on them.
She shared that this was the first test, and the chieftain’s decision would guide the way for centuries to come.
The chieftain asked about their powers.
She told him they were not of one species, but all of them, for all the species were of the Tribe. They held magic. They could conjure. They could glamor. They had great speed and strength. And they could shift, but not to one beast, to any beast they chose.