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)
“Don’t be smug,” I warned after we broke through the sound barrier and we were cutting through the sky.
“Pardon?” he asked.
I looked at him. “I’m bummed to leave.”
His eyes got lazy (kill me), he took my hand (kill me harder) and lifted it to his mouth so he could kiss my knuckles (kill me dead).
He set my hand on my thigh and said, “We’ll come back.”
My phone in my bag chimed.
I took it out and looked at the display, expecting it to be Mom, or one of the gals, because they knew we were away and probably wanted deets of the weekend.
Though, I was surprised, because they also knew Tanyn would be with me, so it’d be awkward to give deets, even in a text comm.
But when I looked at the display, I felt my brows inch together.
It was only a comm code at the header to the text, not someone programmed into my Palm.
And the text said…
My insides grew cold as I fully opened it.
Tanyn must have felt my reaction, because he asked, “What is it?”
“I…don’t know,” I answered, my voice strained.
He plucked the Palm out of my hand.
“What the fuck?” he growled, and I knew he’d read it.
My Palm chimed again, and leaning into his arm to peek, I saw another text come through.
Then another.
And a fourth.
And a fifth.
Respectively:
Exhume her.
Exhume him.
Autopsy.
They were murdered.
And you’re next.
“Tanyn—” His name on my lips was shaky.
But I got no more out.
He turned to me and his eyes were red.
“You aren’t going home.”
Oh…
Crap!
Chapter 8
Threat
“Catla.”
Mm.
No.
“Cat.”
No way.
“Baby.”
Against my will, I swam out of sleep, opened my eyes, saw ice-blue satin sheets, spiky pearlescent lace, and shifting my eyeballs to the side and up, my betrothed sitting on the side of the bed, looking down at me, and I felt his hand warm on my hip.
“Wha?” I mumbled.
“Your father is here.”
I did a slow blink to chase away sleep, not to mention because I was shocked at this news, then I pushed up to an arm and repeated, fully this time, “What?”
“I’m sorry if you would have made a different decision, but as a male who will be a father, I decided he should know.”
“Know what?”
“Know what?” he parroted.
“Yes. What?”
His brow furrowed. “You do remember your life was threatened last night, don’t you?”
“Yes, but…you told Dad?”
“He and your mom are here.”
“Oh my gods, Tanyn!” I cried, forcing my legs out of the bedclothes he was sitting on, twisting around him and jumping to my feet only to round on him. “Have you lost your mind?”
“No,” he said blandly while standing.
“Dad’s going to lose it.”
“There’s no going to about it. He just shouted at me for fifteen minutes, demanding I inform him what I’m doing about this threat, without giving me an opening to actually tell him.”
I really had to learn to wake up earlier with this male in my life.
Argh!
I stomped across the vast space of the king’s bedroom in Berg Castle (to say this castle and the last were two polar opposites of each other would be an understatement) to the closet where I’d been unpacked by staff last night after I’d been deposited in this room, and after Tanyn left me there to go deal with things.
I found my gray cashmere robe and was shrugging it on when I spied Tanyn leaning in the doorframe.
And I was momentarily stunned out of my morning pique at the sight of how mega he looked wearing jeans—these less worn and faded, but they still fit perfectly—and another sweater—this one less thick and rustic, a lot more stylish, and definitely handsome—leaning against the doorframe.
“I’m glad you overpacked now, but your mom brought more of your clothes,” he remarked.
Hecate, deliver me.
I remembered my morning pique and resumed the fight we’d had last night on the jet, walking off the jet, walking into the castle, being shown to this very room.
“I’m going back to Nocturn.”
His eyes started going red. “The fuck you are.”
I tied the sash on my robe and threw out my arms. “We don’t even know who sent that comm!”
He didn’t come out of his lean, as in, he didn’t get out of the way of the door, he just crossed his arms on his chest before he said, “Allow me to educate you on what’s been happening while you were sleeping.”
I crossed my arms on my chest too and added a hip hitch so he wouldn’t miss my anger and frustration.
“No, we do not know who sent that text,” he stated. “But we do know it came from a comm unit in Nocturn.”
“Nocturn,” I cut in. “Not Abyssinia.”
“Nocturn is where you live, darling,” he drawled.
“So what?”
“Assassins can move between realms, Catla.”
“That wasn’t exactly a threat,” I told him something I’d told him a hundred times on the jet, walking off the jet, on our way to this very room. “It was a warning.”