Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 151630 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 758(@200wpm)___ 607(@250wpm)___ 505(@300wpm)
“You didn’t.” She stepped back, and he felt the distance as she seemed to go deep inside herself. “You were taken. You didn’t mean to go. Goddess, this magic… I can see more clearly.”
“You can still feel it?”
Her eyes flashed, and he knew she was talking to the goddess inside. “He can’t keep this magic from us. This is a gift. This magic is our magic, too. They can keep the lust away but not the energy of spring, not the awakening. There are no wards strong enough to keep it out. It will be the same for your Devinshea. This magic will fuel him for days. For us, it is allowing me to see where I could not. Oleg. Sasha. You have had many names, and I loved them all. You did not mean to leave me. You never mean to leave me. Every life we cling and try to remember, promising ourselves we will not forget.”
Something settled deep inside Sasha’s soul. She knew him. He was not alone. Even if she never wished to touch him, he was not alone. “I will never forget you again.”
She moved in front of him, her head tilting up, eyes shining with tears. “You will never be lost again…Sasha. I like this name. I like this man you have become.”
“Not a man at all,” he replied. Her light was brighter now, like she’d instinctively dimmed it knowing how attracted he would be to it. “I am a vampire.”
Her lips curled up. “And I am host to a goddess.”
“You are a goddess. You are my goddess,” he whispered reverently. “I have always worshipped you.”
“Then show me. Show me how you worship me.” She let her head tilt back, giving him her throat.
It was an offer he would never refuse.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Zoey
I stare at myself in the mirror and realize I’m this man’s Barbie doll.
I mean there have been times in our lives where that was certainly true of my Fae husband. For Danny, clothes are just an obstacle to his final destination, which is me naked, but Dev likes to dress me up and show me off.
It rankles with this man.
The sidhe maid finishes tying the bow around the waist of my dress and steps back. She’s been silent most of the time, only answering my questions, and it takes me a moment to remember that she’s under a powerful spell. She cannot talk unless I speak to her directly.
She’s thin, far more than is natural, and she doesn’t glow the way I’ve found most Fae do. Not like Twilight or anything, but most sidhe I’ve met have this brightness to their features no matter their skin tone.
A bit like Shy. Huh. I never considered it before but my son’s goddess—and after the magic I felt last night she’s absolutely his goddess—has that bit of glow around her. Though she was born on the Earth plane, I now think she has Fae in her background.
“Are you all right?” I ask quietly.
The woman’s eyes widen as if shocked I would ask. “I am fine, my lady. Thank you. Is there anything else you require?”
“Some information, if you can,” I say, glancing at the door. Daniel promised there’s nothing there that would give anyone special access to my conversations. That was oddly all in the bathing room. I’d been careful when I used it earlier. Careful in the way I let him get brief glimpses, little looks, and then I would hurry away because I’m such a delicate princess and no one ever saw me naked before. Only him.
He doesn’t need to know how many people have seen my hoohaw in the name of fertility rituals.
When I awakened, Danny was gone. He held me until I managed to fall asleep, but it took a while since we both sat up, feeling those waves of magic pulse against us. Familiar and yet uniquely theirs.
There were definitely wards to keep out magic, but Rhys’s had slipped under them, weaker than they would be without the wards since they didn’t send the palace into a frenzied orgy, for which I will forever be grateful, but they were there. I heard the king screaming at his guard to do something about it, but he didn’t come into my room.
Danny and I had been on the outside again. Our son bound himself the night before—a ceremony that should have been joyous for us all. And Dev was held in shackles as his son took his rightful place.
Another sin I place at Myrddin Emrys’s feet.
“Of course,” the woman says, her head bowing.
How much has this woman gone through? “What’s your name? I’m Zoey.”
Her head comes up. “My name is of no consequence.”
“It is to me. It’s so much nicer than hey, you.” I give her a smile and step back from the mirror. “You did a wonderful job, by the way.”