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)
It doesn’t help that I can hear her behind me. I hear the water rushing, a river of misery I can’t run from.
How did she find me here? I’ve never known a spirit to be able to move the way she does. She follows me from place to place when every other damn spirit I’ve seen is tied to where they died.
I have to accept the fact that this spirit isn’t haunting a place or a time. She is haunting me.
“You okay, baby?” Rhys is right behind me, his hand on the small of my back most of the time, reminding me I’m not alone. Reminding me that by all Fae rights, I have a husband.
I turn slightly so he can see my face in the torchlight and give him a tight nod. At the end of our line, behind Cassie I can see the Drowning Woman. She stays back but she is here, still following me everywhere I go. “I’m fine.”
His brow rises and his arm curls around my waist as he pulls me back against him and whispers in my ear. “Liar. But understand, I will take care of you. I will find a way to break this curse.”
I’m not sure I would call it a curse. The Drowning Woman is attracted to my power. I need to stop thinking of her as a burden and start thinking of her as a…client. I need to start viewing her through an adult lens and put aside the fear from my childhood. Everyone in my life right now has told me I need to view myself and my power differently, and I saw it last night. My power doesn’t hold Rhys back. My power attracts him as his does mine. Life and death. Spring and autumn. We need each other, and it’s a beautiful thing. “I need to find a way to help her move on.”
“There’s my wife,” he says, and I hear the pride in his voice. “She cannot hurt you. I would never allow it. I know I don’t have your power, but I would find a way.”
I believe him. I tilt my head up and he kisses me. My body immediately responds, the bonds of the night before hugging me close.
“Do you have to be so, like, emotional and stuff?” Lee says with a shudder. “It’s bringing the mood down, brother.”
“See, I know he means that brother as a friendly term, but I know what my brother would say,” Rhys grouses.
It makes me smile. He and Fae Lee have bickered like he and Vampire Lee do all the time. Since they were children. “The very same thing. Lee struggles to understand complex emotions.”
“I do not,” Lee argues. “I understand all the emotions. I just think they’re unseemly. Anger and humor are really all I need to get by. And horniness.”
“You definitely understand that,” Cassie replies. She moves behind Rhys, with Brendan prowling after them. He’s back in wolf form. “I would bet you’ve never had a serious girlfriend. Or boyfriend.”
Lee shrugs negligently as we reach one of what he calls the resting points. They’re slightly larger spaces in the tunnels where the rebels store food and water and weapons. “I try to keep things light.”
“I saw you hitting on the priestesses last night,” Cassie accused. “Like five of them.”
Lee’s lips kick up in a salacious grin. “I didn’t merely hit on them, sweetheart. I had some fun with three of them after the kiddos were all put to bed. That lust magic might not make the priestesses insane, but it does something for them.”
“Eww,” Cassie replies with a shake of her head.
Rhys reaches for his canteen and refills it. He huddles to one side, keeping me close. “Do you need anything, my goddess?”
“Just to be out of here. How much longer?” I ask. When we’re out in the sunshine, I’ll be able to breathe again.
“About an hour more. Sorry. We’re taking the longest route because that’s the one that dumps out close to our village,” Lee explains, tearing off a piece of what looks like jerky and tossing it Brendan’s way.
The werewolf bounces up and catches it, swallowing it in one big gulp, and then he stops and turns, beginning to growl.
Rhys immediately steps in front of me, a long blade in his hand.
I have to admit, my husband looks superhot when he’s defending me.
But then I hear a familiar bark and the Cŵn Annwn are running in. I note they avoid the Drowning Woman as though they know she’s there. They seemed to have been running toward us at breakneck pace, but they slow and carefully avoid her.
They don’t bark or growl. They don’t seem to see her as a threat.
Brendan growls again as the biggest hound tries to sniff his butt. He definitely sees that as an affront to his dignity.