Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132138 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 661(@200wpm)___ 529(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Stop scaring her, Maris,” a deep voice says.
The queen rolls her eyes. “It’s the only fun I have anymore.”
Niall steps out, dressed in the livery of the Queen’s Guard. “Your Highness, I see you finally made it. Though I might point out that if we’d done this my way, you wouldn’t have been horribly tortured last night, and most likely for a few nights to come.”
“A little torture never hurt a girl,” Maris says. “And she looks strong. If she’s anything like her brutish brother, then she should know a thing or two about torture.”
Niall frowns her way. “You know he doesn’t like it when you talk about Beck. He explained that.”
Maris nods and a bit of her bile seems to flee. “I know. I hold on to it though because my fear of Beck’s proclivities is what got us here in the first place. Where is he?”
“Making certain the hags aren’t around,” Niall explains. “And why are you here? If your husband catches you, he’ll find us all out.”
A slender shoulder shrugs. “Torin is scared of the girl. He’s angry the hags brought her to the palace in the first place. I had to think fast on my feet or he would have had her throat slit. Torin’s guard would have done it in a heartbeat. We don’t own them, Niall. I saved her. I should think he would be pleased with me.”
“Who are you talking about? Goddess, am I in some strange dream?” I ask. I’m so confused.
“Drink this.” Maris holds a cup to my mouth and forces my head back. It slips down my throat before I can cough it back up. “Give it a minute.”
She steps back and I try to gag, but my arms are bound tight to the chair I sit in. The hags—I discovered there are two of them—cackled as they cinched me in tight and began the ritual that will loosen my soul from my body. Now Maris uses the bindings to force some poison on me.
Maris grins at Niall. “She thinks I killed her.”
Niall sighs and gets to one knee. “Bron, Maris is on our side.”
I shake my head. If there is one thing I know, it’s that Maris is an evil bitch. “No. She’s the one who let Torin in.”
Maris shrugs. “Can’t a girl make a few mistakes? Ooops. I made the wrong move and got your parents killed. Your father has forgiven me.”
“My father?” What Niall said before comes back to me. My father became a sluagh and chained himself to this place. At the time I barely believed it. Can it be true? “My father is here?”
A cool wind seems to pass over my skin and a phantom coalesces in front of me. My father floats, an insubstantial but welcome presence. “Hello, my little pixie. It’s been a long while.”
A sob threatens to escape my throat. “Father.”
He smiles down at me. A ghostly hand reaches out to touch my face. “We have so little time. The hags are waking. You’ve figured out what you are? And what you can do?”
I nod. “I’m a conduit. That’s what they called me.”
“Your mind works on a frequency that every bondmate can hear, and you can access your brothers’ powers.” His voice, not quite above a whisper, tightens. “If you’ve tapped into power, I have to assume your brothers are here. Beck and Cian have come into their powers, then? They’ve formed a true triad?”
I stare at my father. “No. I mean yes. They have bonded and have power, but they aren’t here yet.”
The ghostly figure in front of me frowns. “Then whose power have you accessed? It should only work with a true triad.”
“My husbands,” I reply. “Lachlan and Shim McIver, princes of the Unseelie Fae. My Dark Ones.”
My father’s image shimmers for a moment and then becomes a bit more solid. “They were real.”
So real. “Yes. And they’re here. They’re going to Aoibhneas to gather the troops.”
My father is silent for a moment. “So many things to have gotten wrong. It doesn’t matter anymore. All that matters is they will come. If they came for you each night in your dreams, they will come for you now. You have to be brave, my daughter. You have to be the princess I never taught you to be. I am so sorry to require this of you, but you can’t do what you need to do until the battlefield is set.”
Niall steps in when my father becomes quiet. He pulls a knife from his belt. My knife. “I didn’t do what I should have done. I didn’t find another to take your place. I came back here to wait for you. There is only one Princess Bronwyn, and I knew she would come here. This is for you when we win the day. We have to kill Torin and the hags, too. We get one shot at this. They’ve become very powerful.”