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’d find a place together. One that was ours.
And if that wasn’t right for the family we’d make, we’d find another place.
I would have to give up this flat. Move.
Life would change.
Like Laura was eventually going to find someone, and she did. And Monique would. Hopefully, Gayle would too, one day.
They might get different jobs and move far from Nocturn. They might prefer to live outside the city to raise their children.
Again, life, as it had a way of doing, would change.
You couldn’t escape it.
And truthfully, I didn’t quibble at how long it took to get to some of the theaters on the north side. They were easily forty-five minutes from where I lived. If the routes were backed up, it could be longer.
An hour-long soni-jet flight to have dinner with my gals or visit my parents was nothing.
None of this occurred to me when the changes in life wouldn’t be my choice.
All of it was occurring to me now.
Along with the fact I loved Abyssinia. I didn’t want to live there, but I loved visiting there. It was a gorgeous, cosmopolitan city with all the things I enjoyed, just like Nocturn.
But I didn’t want to live there only because I’d never considered living there.
Now, I was considering it.
And doing it calmly, in the dark, with time to turn it over in my head, I had to admit, the thought of living there didn’t suck. It would actually be kind of cool, finding new places I loved, exploring.
Was I being difficult in not taking the time to think these things through when it was Dad and Tanyn making the arrangements for me?
No.
Were some very important things occurring to me right now when Tanyn was folding me into his life, I was folding him into mine, and it seemed to be working splendidly.
Yes.
On this thought, my Palm, resting on the bed beside me, lit up.
I looked down at it and smiled.
Like he knew I was thinking about him, it was Tanyn calling.
I was mildly surprised he was, because it was late.
But I didn’t care.
I snatched up my phone just as a light came on downstairs.
It was the light that said the lift was coming to my floor.
I stilled as a wave of panic hit me.
No one could call the lift to my floor, except me, the members of my security team—and when they were coming, they informed me—or beings I authorized to come up.
Because of this, I scrambled off the bed with my Palm, taking the comm in a hushed voice.
“Honey—”
“Nayden is on his way up to you,” Tanyn said tersely, just as I heard the tone that said the lift was arriving. “No arguments. Don’t waste time. Pack a bag and go with him.”
This did nothing to alleviate my panic.
“What? Why? Where?”
“No discussion, my love,” he said quietly. “And don’t waste time. Must go.”
With that, he hung up.
“Catla?” I heard Nayden call.
I also heard his feet on the floor.
He was running.
My limbs petrified, so it was woodenly when I turned toward him as he arrived at the top of the stairs.
“Did Tanyn comm?” he asked, striding purposefully toward my closet.
I nodded.
“Let’s go,” he said, then disappeared in my closet.
I came unstuck, hustled to the closet and saw him studying the manual screen.
“How do you get this to work?” he asked.
“Closet,” I stated. “Pack. Berg Castle.” I looked to Nayden and raised my brows in question.
“Extended stay,” he answered my nonverbalized question.
A chill had started creeping along my skin, his words made it vastly chillier, but I said, “Two weeks. Rush. Travel outfit, now,” to the closet. To Nayden I asked, “What’s going on?”
“Ten minutes ago, the citadel on Sigil was attacked.”
That didn’t make me freeze.
The panic took total hold, fear edging it like the cut of a razor.
And I got my ass moving.
Fast.
I was pacing the jet in high-heeled boots.
“Do you want me to comm him?” Nayden, sitting and watching me pace, as he had done since we attained sound speed half an hour ago, offered.
“No,” I replied curtly. “If he had time to talk to us, he would. Let him do what he has to do. We’ll learn more when we arrive.”
“Do you want a drink?” he asked.
“No,” I repeated, again curtly. “I want a straight head when I get to him.”
Straight head.
That was a joke.
All I could think of was Zyra. Manny. Those lovely, cozy rooms. The lynx.
Zyra.
Manny.
And how Tanyn would feel if anything happened to them.
I shivered and pulled the coat I was still wearing closer around me, even if the cabin was warm.
“They have defense systems set up on Sigil,” Nayden said calmly. “It was one of the first things Tanyn did when he took the throne.”
“I saw them. The bots. I know about the Grenadiers.”
“There’s more. A forcefield over the citadel. Anti-aircraft guns hidden under the snow.”