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)
Neil’s soul jerks another foot toward him.
His power is greater than mine for the moment. I cannot do it alone.
But just because a soul is dead does not mean his will gone. I can give him a choice.
“Do you see a light?” I ask. “Nothing can stop you if you choose the light. If you choose to move on. He’s trying to take you to a place where the light cannot touch.”
Neil frowns even as he is moving inexorably toward Myrddin. “I don’t see it.”
Damn it. For some, it takes a while. His death was so sudden.
“There is nowhere for him to go,” Myrddin says with a smile.
But there is.
There’s me.
“I offer you my soul space,” I say, opening myself to him. I offer that space where Harry Wharton lived for many years.
And Neil takes it. He reaches out, and I realize my power is a golden thread. He holds it and pulls mightily, dragging himself away.
I feel him slam into me and then it’s like the world starts again.
Rhys curses and hauls me up and over his shoulder, and then we’re running. I barely catch sight of Lee and Sasha covering us as Rhys leaps on the window’s edge and over.
We’re falling, and I think we’re at least three stories up. I brace myself for impact, but vines wrap around us, silky and strong, wresting us from our fall and delivering us gently to the ground.
When I look up, they are doing the same for Sasha and Lee, depositing them on the soft grass next to us.
“Get them!” Myrddin yells.
“The temple is this way.” Lee’s face is grave in the moonlight. “We have to move quickly. He’s almost got the wards down.”
We race off into the night.
Chapter Sixteen
Zoey
I have to stay calm. Calm. Don’t let him see you panic.
It’s what I tell myself over and over again as Devilshea hauls me across the palace. That’s what I’m calling him now because he’s acting like the devil, and I’m going to have to take him down.
What is my Dev going through? Are they already torturing him?
Where is my son? Where is Shy? Are they even alive?
I can’t. I can’t lose my son. I lost Lee that day in the Council House, felt him die, and even though I knew he would turn, I felt the loss. The loss of his youth and what he could have had as a human. The loss of those years between us, years I should have spent protecting my vulnerable son.
So much fucking loss.
Danny. Where is he? What is Myrddin going to do to my son? To Shy?
I’m a rolling ball of emotion, but I remember this game well. Showing him the truth buys me nothing, and I need something from him. I need him to believe I can be with him. Not today. Not tomorrow, but someday. When the king sets me on my feet, I don’t do what I want to do. I don’t attack him. I simply stand and let the tears roll down my cheeks.
“Zan…goddess, I never could stand to see you cry. It always killed me. I remember the look on your face when my mother and brother refused to allow us to marry. You looked like this.” He appears so much like my husband, the candlelight caressing his golden features, dark hair swaying against his shoulders. In true Fae fashion, the king’s hair is long and neatly kept. His hand reaches out and wipes away a tear. “Are you afraid of me?”
I’m fucking terrified of him. “I want to know if my son is alive or if your guards killed him.”
His expression softens. “You always were a good mother. I’ll give you another child.”
He is utterly mad, and I have to find a way around it. “Please, Devinshea. He is my son.”
“Lee has proven unworthy to be our heir,” he pronounces.
“I am talking about Rhys. My son. The one I gave birth to on the Earth plane.” I reach for his hand. “He is here with his goddess, Shahidi. They won’t cause any harm. Please. Let them return to the mountain and attempt to go home. He will do it. He will leave me to save Shy, and I want him to.”
Anywhere is better than here. Any time is better than this. I know I want them alive far more than I want them with me.
“You would have him leave?” A brow cocks over emerald eyes.
Honesty is the only way to go here. “I would please you and still have my son and daughter-in-law alive. Yes, I would have him leave.”
“You do not wish for him to save you?”
Oh, how I hate this role I have to play, but I did it once before. I took Louis Marini down from the inside and I did it by using his ego and his desires against him. I wipe the tears from my eyes. “Do not think because I plead for my children that I will do the same for my husband. The truth is Devinshea is weak and Daniel lost my crown. I told him Myrddin would betray us and he refused to listen to me. Because of my loving husbands I lost twelve years with my children, and I lost my place in the world. So if you intend to give it back to me, I will certainly consider it. But don’t mistake my love of power as more than my love as a mother. I do not know how I would survive losing my son. I do not think I can survive it.”