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)
We were not savages any longer.
We were living in a civilized world that had long since learned that the punishment of death did not deter crime.
“Tanyn—”
“I don’t think this will stop Tatra. But it’d stop Arnaud.”
With their shenanigans, one out of two was one too few.
“She murdered my parents, baby,” he said quietly.
Well.
Crap.
It was easy for me to have my opinion when no one I’d loved had been murdered.
As such, I had to give him that.
“And she tried to murder you,” he kept at me.
I had to give him that too.
“You as well,” I said.
“Those she sent were easily dispatched. It was a distraction. It was designed to pull me from you so you’d be vulnerable. You were meant to perish. You were meant to perish to cause me pain. As Laura was, so Aleksei’s mate would go unfulfilled. Her MO is pain. Pain, loss and control.”
“And power,” I added.
“And that.”
Fuck this.
Fuck her.
We were on Sigil.
We’d had three weeks of peace, togetherness and settling in with each other.
Now, Laura’s beast was cavorting in the snow, for hells’ sake.
“We have flowers to lay, baby,” I whispered through my scarf, lifting the bouquet.
“You’re right,” he murmured. “Enough of that.”
He touched his nose to mine again (so adorable!), let me go and bent to put Hurley in the basket at the back of his Sprint.
He bent again to give Avie a full-spine stroke before he swung onto the Sprint, I got on after him, he fired it up, and we took off.
For a while, Avie raced beside us.
Then he veered off in another direction.
Not long later, we stopped at Darynda’s resting place.
It was the same as before, except I noticed a couple of lynx slinking into the forest beyond the marble monument as we got close.
Like they knew she lay there.
Like that was a bond that wouldn’t break, even in death.
Maybe they did, and it was.
In the end, it was simply sweet…and deserved.
We alighted the Sprint, and after I gave Tanyn the bouquet, I hung back again as he approached.
I gave him time.
He took it.
And then he turned to me and stretched an arm my way.
I was his.
And he was mine.
She was his.
And he was hers.
It was time to meet my mother-in-law.
I walked to his side, slid an arm around his waist, he returned the gesture, but only I dropped my head to his shoulder.
We both looked down at the snow with Hurley sitting in it at Tanyn’s side.
Long moments ticked by before I realized what I wanted to say.
Thank you for him. He’s absolutely perfect. And he makes me really happy.
Then…
Was it me?
Or, right after I thought those words, did a soft breeze skid over the snow, blowing a gentle rush of powder over our feet, the marble, her resting place?
That snow did rush.
But it had to be a coincidence.
“I’m moving Dad here,” Tanyn murmured.
That was the first time he’d referred to his father as “Dad.”
I tightened my arm and pressed closer to his side.
“I think that’s a lovely idea,” I whispered.
We stood there moments more, in silence, before he kissed the top of my head and led me back to the Sprint.
We loaded up.
We left Darynda to her rest, which rightly, would soon no longer be lonely (I knew it would be soon because when Tanyn made a decision, he didn’t mess around).
And we went home.
“All right, is it me, or were all the females acting weird all night?” I remarked as Tanyn and I walked up the steps to our new bedchamber.
“Something did seem up,” Tanyn replied.
“Do you know what it is?” I asked.
“No clue,” he answered.
I believed him.
I did because he hadn’t been acting weird during dinner, or during the hot, spiked cocoa we sipped as we chatted, sitting around the fire after it.
But Laura, Gayle, Aleece and Zyra were sharing looks, and Gayle even emitted intermittent giggles at, apparently, nothing.
We’d been through a lot.
Sure, the last three weeks had been relatively normal, notwithstanding all of us suddenly living together in Berg Castle.
But now we were removed from all that.
Even with the attack here, the consistent buzz of the Red Wing Stealth-Arrows patrolling the skies, the increased defense bots stationed everywhere, this felt somehow removed from all that drama.
Maybe, being away from it, our crew was unwinding and their behavior was suppressed hysteria being released.
We had a solid four days here before we had to get back.
Plenty of time to unwind, recharge and be ready for whatever was next.
That must be what it was.
Letting it all go, which was why we were on Sigil in the first place.
We were closing in on the solar when Hurley barked and raced forward.
He disappeared into the solar.
“What’s he doing?” I asked.
“Again, no clue,” Tanyn answered, casually guiding us forward.
I heard it when we hit the solar.
No.
Not “it.”
Them.
I stopped dead and whipped my head around to look at my fated mate.