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)
Shy nods, more somber now. “Yes. My family was famous in the supernatural world for their abilities. I took after my mother. I’m a medium.”
“Matilda called her the sacred one,” Danny says.
“Like I said. She’s confused.” Shy puts a hand on Rhys’s, obviously offering him comfort.
Rhys threads their fingers together and brings their hands to his chest, holding them over his heart. “I doubt that. Shy is afraid of her power. I believe she is far more powerful than anyone knows. Even her. If the King of the Dead sent his hounds to find her, then he understands things we do not. Nimue, Lady of the Lake, do you know what Arawn wants with my goddess?”
“Rhys, technically she isn’t your goddess,” Nim says with quiet sympathy. “You are not married. You’re not sleeping together.”
“How would you…” Rhys growls a bit. “My brother, of course. He doesn’t know when to shut up.”
“Rhys, you have to know that in the Fae world there is no marriage without a properly witnessed ceremony. Like your parents,” Nim reminds us. “You can call her your goddess, but you have no technical claim on Shy. Not one any Fae will recognize.”
“My parents’ marriage had to be witnessed because my father was taking on a god. I didn’t need to take on an old one to ascend. I did that all on my own. My goddess is powerful, but she was traumatized at a tender age. Myrddin wiped out her family and forced her to take on her power with no support. My grandfather found her and took care of her, but he shared what she calls a soul space with him up until recently. I will not push her and traumatize her further because the Fae have rules I care nothing about.” In this moment my son reminds me so much of his papa I can barely stand it.
In the beginning Dev couldn’t care less what Fae society thought. He wanted to be with me and damn the consequences. But then we found ourselves in a place where we had to deal with them. I fear Rhys will learn this lesson far too soon.
“Rhys, you are Fae,” Dev begins carefully. “You are considered divine. No one in the sitheins has seen an elemental in millennia. From a religious standpoint, you’re important.”
“I don’t care,” Rhys replies with a shrug. “I need you to understand this, Papa. I know you think I’m going to get to Faery and become like this super sidhe, but you’re wrong. You can be the high priest for all of time on the Fae planes. I will remain here with my goddess. I will serve the Fae on this plane. For me, this is nothing more than a trip to facilitate Mom’s mission. Finding the Days. However, if Arawn has some sense of my goddess’s power and thinks he can claim her, he’s in for a surprise.”
Shy’s head comes up. “I’m sorry, what? Claim me?”
“I don’t think Arawn is trying to claim her as his bride,” Nim replies.
“Whoa.” Shy moves closer to Rhys. “I am not Persephone. I am also not playing out Twilight fantasies because I’m assuming the god of the dead is super old.”
“As old as time.” Nim manages an amused smile. “I think you’re safe. Young women were never Arawn’s thing. I was his woman for a couple of hundred years. I would be surprised if he’s trying to move on. No. I assume he’s intrigued with Shy’s power.”
“Does the god of the dead need a medium to speak to his subjects?” Rhys asks.
I know the answer to that one. I watched him not merely speak to the dead, but reanimate them and have their corpses fight for him. “He doesn’t need her medium powers. Which makes me wonder what power he thinks Shy has. The crone called her the sacred one. That sounds pretty specific.”
If Nim had arms, she would have waved that one off. I can tell from her expression. “You would be surprised. The old ones use the term sacred a lot. Like when Arawn was forced to give up his corporeal body, he had to divest himself of his sacred objects. Every Fae deity had objects of magical power and when they began to pass through into immortal life, leaving behind those objects was considered dangerous, though some of course remain. Then he would call his hounds sacred. His torc. You would call it a crown. They can’t be destroyed, so they were changed into things humans or Fae wouldn’t recognize as magical to hide them. He’s been obsessed for the last hundred years with finding them. It might be that he thinks Shy can help him.”
“But Shy is a human,” Devinshea points out. “She has no real connection with Fae planes. She’s lived her whole life here.”