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)
“How many?”
“I had to wait to meet Laura, then Gayle, to get siblings, so at least two. Maybe three.” Or four, just to round it out, but I wasn’t going to say that.
“Acceptable,” he muttered before returning his attention to the fire.
A change in subject was heartily in order.
“I looked into Sigil, you know, so I’d know what to pack and what I was in for,” I told him. “There was no mention of that fae female in its history.”
“A king obsessing over a female, not his wife, then essentially murdering her and a number of his own guard very slowly through criminal neglect is not something the Hellsfire Dynasty wanted splashed all over the history books.”
“I can see that,” I mumbled into my glass, watching him over the rim. I took another sip and spoke again. “So, you expect us to spend time here.”
“Yes.”
“Frequently?”
“As frequently as I can manage it.”
“Why?”
He appeared confused before he said, “Because it’s home.” He then set his glass aside, pushed up from his chair and announced, “I’ll go ask Zyra to program the Cook-Companion. It’ll take at least half an hour for it to make the meal that’s been planned.”
With that, he strode out.
Hurley watched him go, looked to me, then scooted after his dad.
I stared into the shadowy area, which was the space beyond the door through which he’d disappeared.
Something wasn’t right.
Contemplating this, I went back to my drink, only on the way to see an oddity in this old-fashioned room sitting on a narrow table against the back wall.
A digi-frame.
I got up, and me and my martini walked to it.
The pics in it were cycling, but the one I saw when I got there was of a much younger Tanyn, standing all bound up warm in the snow, the Borea Sea behind him, huge chunks of ice floating on top of it. He was holding up a stringer of fish, a broad smile on his already handsome little-boy face.
I’d never seen him smile or appear even remotely carefree.
But in that pic, it was clear he was happy.
This cycled to another pic of him, younger, grinning so huge it contorted his face, and he did this in an obvious effort to show off the fact he’d lost his front tooth.
Okay.
I needed to stop looking at these pics.
I needed to.
I did not, or maybe I simply could not, and the next one cycled in.
Adolescent, maybe twelve, thirteen, wearing weird, long net things on his feet, out in the snow on a blinding, bright day. He was facing forward but twisted to smile behind him at whoever snapped the pic. His burgeoning extreme good looks were already coming to the fore.
And that was when the pic cycled to a female on a couch under a throw. She was ducking her head and lifting a hand in an effort to hide from the lens.
But her gloriousness had been captured.
Queen Darynda, Tanyn’s mother.
“By Lilith,” I breathed, reaching out to touch the frame so the pic wouldn’t slide away.
I’d seen photos of her, of course. Official ones or others when she was doing official duties. I knew she was beautiful.
But that casual candid shot, her easy, dazzling smile.
She was, put simply, staggeringly stunning.
Tatra, on the other hand, was not.
How that other female won over Riland had long since been a matter of discussion, because it was a mystery to everyone. Not just because she was nowhere near as gorgeous as Darynda, but because it was known Darynda had a kindly heart and managed the impossible: being both regal and approachable, two things Tatra was not (she wasn’t regal, she was imperious, and that was a very different thing).
It was not the first time I noticed Tanyn took after his mother. They had the same gorgeous dark hair, the same intense blue eyes, the same classic bone structure.
But these pics…
All of them.
They were happy here.
This surprised me.
What surprised me more was that I understood Tanyn’s telling of the story of the beautiful, sequestered fae who died of inattention.
Because another Sky’s Edge king did the same thing, if not for the same purpose.
However, the subtext to Tanyn’s story, I sensed, was the reason they’d been exiled out here was because Riland might no longer have wanted Tanyn’s mother.
But he didn’t want anyone else to have her either.
I felt a deep burn in the back of my throat commencing, and I suspected my eyes were beginning to turn red, a demon trait when we were riled.
These both went away when I heard a throat clearing.
I whirled as if I was caught, guilty of doing something I shouldn’t.
Zyra was standing there.
Her expression was soft and aimed at the digi-frame.
“She’s missed,” she whispered, the tone of her voice making even me feel melancholy.
She pulled herself together and lifted her gaze to mine.
“Tanyn had a comm come through he had to take. He’s on that in the study. I’ve programmed the Cook-Companion to start your dinner. Now, we don’t have automated closets here. Do you want me or a bot to unpack you?”