Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71403 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 357(@200wpm)___ 286(@250wpm)___ 238(@300wpm)
He stuffed his hand into the glove, stiffer than he’d been moments before. “I hadn’t yet reached the age of immortality, so I didn’t regenerate the appendage.”
Poor Sebastian. When immortality locked, it locked you as you were.
“He ate the digit to taunt me. Dessert after enjoying my father. And that’s all I’ll say on the subject,” he said, his lips a grim line.
I swallowed. “Why tell me now?”
“So you won’t be lost when Jon insults me.”
The kraken king had suffered more than I could ever have fathomed. Ja, I’d signed on for this mission mostly for the reward, but now…
Now, my dragon stirred. Jokull must die screaming. How dare he do this? And how dare the shifter think to taunt Sebastian?
Every time he looked upon his hand, he must relive everything that happened, and something in me needed to replace that memory with something else.
Desperate to touch him, I slid into him, almost draping myself over his frame, and plucked the glove free. He didn’t try to stop me, just watched, brow furrowed, as if he couldn’t figure out what I was doing.
I linked our fingers, saying, “We need to get you used to my touch.”
A heartbeat of silence. The tension in his shoulders eased. He gave a gravelly, “Já. Very smart.”
He peered at me. I peered at him. The air thickened.
Tightening his grip, he turned his head to gaze out the window again.
The king allowed me to hold his hand the rest of the drive, not severing contact until the car stopped. And then he only let me go long enough to don the glove before immediately reclaiming my hand. He didn’t release me when the driver came around and opened his door. Not even as he emerged and helped me out. Not even as I wrinkled my nose at the smell. Rust, salt, and old blood.
Nein, he used our handhold to tug me closer and urge me to bury my face in the hollow of his neck. I breathed him in, everything else blocked as he walked us to a different warehouse than before. Once I centered, I forced myself to focus forward. This warehouse squatted at the edge of the district, an enormous structure made of dark steel and reinforced stone, its walls streaked with salt corrosion and scorch marks. Floodlights mounted along the roofline cast harsh white beams across the yard, illuminating armed guards stationed at regular intervals, spears at the ready. No banners. No royal markings. Only function and force.
Those men. Shifters, all. Glowing white ringed their irises, and any visible skin possessed a bioluminescent sheen. But most telling? They were double the size of kraken berserkers, as if their bodies could not contain their beasts, so they stretched to accommodate.
Count the steps. Ja, ja. Focus on the performance. Head up. I was used to being around tall, muscular men but ash and embers. There was big, and then there was BIG. I’d heard of the physical changes a shifter went through but never witnessed it firsthand. My role was to keep the masses calm and entertained during combat.
Speaking of… “No Gunnar?” The mountain of a man would’ve been a nice ace to have right about now.
“He isn’t needed. You have me.” Sebastian got us inside, heat giving way to chill. He paused to release my hand and snake his arm around my waist, pinning me to his side.
He dipped his head to press a slow, searing kiss into my throat, staking his claim. Shivers careened through my body, every nerve pulled tight. I felt his every action like a caress. The lifting of his head. When he paused near my ear. As he whispered, “Whatever you see, whatever you hear, do not fear for even the briefest moment. At no time will you be in danger. That, Brownie Bites, I promise you.”
Took a moment for me to recover from his kiss. Longer to recover from his words and endearment. Those stayed with me. The forbidden nickname, deployed on purpose. And ash help me, it worked.
Courage washed over me, and I straightened my shoulders. My spine turned to steel. I was the woman chosen by King Sebastian of the Kraken to save his kingdom. A dragon princess with the smokewings to prove it.
Satisfaction pulsed from him as he guided me forward once again.
My confidence only amplified as the guards we passed paled and looked anywhere but at us. The giants were that afraid of Sebastian?
Only then did I realize I’d never seen him fight. What in all the worlds did he do on the battlefield to cause such a reaction in those who might be forced to meet him there?
Hanging industrial lamps lit a vast space, twining beams with long, jagged shadows across the concrete floor. The echo of distant voices and shifting metal reverberated through the area. Dripping water. Echoes. Stacked in towering rows waited crates, some sealed with heavy chains. All stamped with the same warning.