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)
Grayson Sloane. Of course. That’s some firepower I bet my husband can’t counter.
“Gray witnessed Shy’s meeting with Rhys,” I point out.
My Fae husband nods like I made his point. “Yes. He witnessed something important. Something dangerous. I happen to remember several times when Gray has shown up and things went to shit.”
Oh, how he forgets. “He always finds a way to help us. If he was worried about Shy, he would find a way to warn us.”
“He cost us twelve years,” Dev practically roars back and then stops as Daniel steps in front of me. “I’m sorry. I…I am unsettled being here.”
It’s so much worse. He’s on the edge, and our circumstances are pushing him. Perhaps too fast. I need to show my husband some grace. I brush past Danny—who should know Dev would never hurt me—and wrap my arms around Devinshea. “Of course you are. I am, too. This whole situation is too close to what we just went through.”
“We have no idea how time passes here,” Dev whispers. “None. We could be losing years.”
“I don’t think so,” Danny says, moving around to Dev’s other side. He wraps Dev up, his hands going around Dev to sit on my waist. “I know this sounds odd, but there’s a feeling I get when I’m in Faery. It’s like a hum. I get used to it after a day or two. I feel it whenever I leave the Earth plane. Some planes it’s barely there. Some feel slow. Some fast. I’ve talked to the academics and they think vampires can sense the differences in time movement from their home plane. The hum here is identical to your mother’s sithein. I can’t be sure, but I think it’s the same. I think everything here is the same except the people. I suspect some of them are even the same, though you are not.”
Dev breathes a sigh of relief, and I know Danny’s gotten through to him. “Well, as I apparently murdered my way to a throne, I would tend to agree.” He rubs his head against mine. “We should be careful.”
“No one’s here,” I promise him. “Sasha checked for spells and bugs. Danny will tell us if he senses anyone sneaking around. We’re okay in this room, but we have to make sure we don’t tip the court off that Devinshea isn’t their Dev. And you have to stop being hard on Shy.”
“We don’t know her,” Dev argues, but there’s no fire behind the words.
“But Sasha does. Gray does. Trent does and our children do. She’s one of them. Or at least she was until Rhys decided to be a butthead.” I’m going to have such a talk with my son. “We need to figure out where this court keeps its amulet while we wait for Arawn to show up. I’m worried about his interest in Shy.”
Dev takes a step back. “Yes, I am, too. I am also worried that apparently I have a fiancée roaming the halls.”
Danny looks like he wants to haul Dev back to us, but he gives his partner some space. It’s odd because Dev looks perfectly at home in these posh rooms. Danny wears the same types of clothes—leather pants, tunic—and he still looks so very out of place. Like his body was simply built for the modern Earth plane. “Ostara. Why do I know that name?”
“Well, the name is from a Germanic goddess of spring. You might know her by one of her other names. Ēostre. Early pagans celebrated the spring equinox in her name,” Dev explains. “Over the years the celebration evolved into what Christians call Easter. But much like Bris, she was an actual goddess of hearth and home. So this woman I’m supposed to marry is named after her. She’ll be a high-ranking Fae. I suspect this is not a love match.”
“We need information.” Danny moves to the windows, touching the glass. “This is different.”
Miria’s chambers were open to the air. Oh, there was magic that kept the rain out and wards that kept out everything else, but the Faery queen wouldn’t have something like glass in her private rooms.
Danny taps on the pane. “This is thick.”
Dev nods, his eyes rolling. “I am probably trying to avoid being assassinated. Eoin mentioned something about rebels. So not only am I worried about being murdered for not being Evil Dev, I have to worry about being murdered because the rebels think I am Evil Dev.”
“You should grow a goatee. It’s how you know you’re evil,” Danny says with a perfectly straight face. Nerd.
Dev frowns. “Why would facial hair be evil? I think I look quite charming with one.”
A groan goes through me because even here in the midst of another crisis, Danny’s teasing him. “It’s a Star Trek thing. The ‘Dark Mirror’ episode. They go through a worm hole and meet their bad selves. It doesn’t matter. We need to figure out how much Danny and I can move around. I need to know more. Would this you allow his lovers free rein? Or does he have an iron fist? Who is this Eoin guy? I don’t remember him, but you seem to.”