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)
I don’t like to remind my sunshine god of an almost lover that I live in the shadows.
“You were off plane when I met the witch. I think you were meeting with someone on one of the alternative planes. You got back and then you saw that little pig and started planning your own mission to retrieve your parents. You know the one you didn’t tell me about. You avoided me for weeks, so I didn’t mention my new dead friend.”
“I wasn’t avoiding you. I was avoiding my grandfather. I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t decide it was too dangerous and get Trent and Sasha involved. We didn’t tell anyone,” he says softly. “Not even Uncle Neil.”
“Well, Uncle Neil can’t keep a secret to save his life, but we both know I can.” I keep so many of them. I understand why they didn’t let me in on the plan to rescue their parents. They fell through a trapped painting and ended up on another plane. Even when they found their way back, they were stuck in stasis for twelve years. What seemed like a few days for the royals and Kelsey Owens was in reality years. From the moment I was allowed inside this rebel encampment, the witches of the group were trying to find a way to contact their lost leaders. After a lot of chanting and manifesting and taking some really good-looking drugs/religious herbs, they came to the conclusion that the royals would return to the place from whence they left on one of four dates. While Sasha and Trent decided to focus all their energy on one date, Rhys had an encounter with Arkan Sonney and decided to change plans.
There are still omens and prophecies and wee creatures that bring both. You simply have to have your eyes focused in the right way to see them.
Rhys’s fingertips brush along my jaw. “Are you still angry about it? You should know I won’t ever keep anything from you again. Now that you’re…”
“Alone.” I step back because I feel it again. Harry chose to leave after seeing his daughter safely returned. He said it’s time for me to be on my own, that I’m strong enough now. That’s what I told everyone.
What he actually said to me in the quiet of our shared soul was something more.
You were always strong enough, Shy. You never really needed me, but oh how I needed you. You are more than you think you are, but I can’t tell you. You have to discover it for yourself. Remember this. Death is a doorway not an end. It’s one more step on the path we all take, and you help them along. One day you’ll understand the gift you are to this world and the next.
The words are imprinted on me, though I think he was being optimistic.
I only know I miss him. I mourn him.
Rhys goes still. “I’m sorry. You know I miss my grandfather, too. But there is a part of me that is relieved to finally have you to myself.” He takes a long breath and steps back as well, the space between us plain. “However, maybe we should rethink the trip to Faery. My parents can handle the situation.”
“Oh, he’s getting antsy,” Josie says, crossing one leg over the other as though settling in for the show. “His magic pours off him when he’s anxious. It’s green and blue and yellow. So pretty.”
I know I should think about her words, but I’m caught on his. It’s my turn to stare at him. “I’m not going to Faery? You want to go without me?”
We’ve been preparing for the trip for days. Ever since the queen realized it might be her only chance to find her friend Sarah Day, and Sarah’s husband and daughter. Sarah is a powerful witch, so powerful she managed to evade Myrddin’s slaughter and take her family off plane. She also apparently left a way for the queen to find her. Except the queen blew up the Council House and that doorway with it. So Faery it is.
I’m supposed to go, but it seems Rhys changed his mind. Likely because I didn’t sleep with him yet and he knows the pleasures that await him in Faery.
The idea makes me ache despite the nagging voice in my head that says he’s right and I should think about taking a break from him. Time moves differently on the Faery planes, and he’ll be gone far longer in Earth plane time than he’ll experience. If it takes them three weeks to complete the mission, at least three months will have passed here. By the time he returns we’ll have moved from Frelsi to our summertime home in New Zealand. We call it chasing the night. During the winter we’re here in Iceland, and then when the days grow longer, we move so the vampires among us have more time awake.