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)
“My hags are going to make sure you never come back. They’re working on it now. The blood of traitors will banish you to the underworld, and then I won’t have to see you or listen to you prattle on ever again.”
Seamus laughs. “I’ll believe it when I see it. Even if you found a way to get rid of me, you can’t get rid of the me who lives inside you, Torin. That piece of me will never fade until you join me in death.”
I fear Seamus is right. Guilt weighs heavily on me, but I can’t go back. I’m too close to finishing off those annoying boys. The Vampire Government declared them criminals. The word is that Beck and Cian fled the Vampire plane and are seeking asylum elsewhere. Once they’re caught and their bodies and that of the bitch they bonded to are hanged in the city square, the rebels will know all hope is gone.
Then I will take out all non-sidhe one by one if I have to. Including those disgusting, blood-drinking vampires.
All I have to do is kill two men.
“As long as they’re out there, you aren’t safe.” Seamus seems to be able to read my mind. My brother leans against the marbled wall of the palace balcony, his ghostly eyes going out over the city. Beyond, Seamus can surely see the fires set in the country in an attempt to quell the current insurrection. “These are small uprisings run by peasants. What would you do if one of the nobles gave the rebels someone real to rally behind? You didn’t kill all of those with royal blood. The rebellions will almost surely continue since you don’t know the first thing about running a country. Peasants don’t like it when you steal all the food and leave them with nothing.”
My fists clench. “Traitors. They’re lucky I leave them alive.”
Seamus’s head shakes. “Oh, brother, you’ve put them in the position where they have to choose between the king and their own lives—and the lives of their children. A king’s worth is in protection and shelter, and you offer neither. You’re a tyrant. It’s why Father chose me over you.”
Our father chose Seamus over the eldest, rightful heir. I was forced to bite my tongue and plot revenge for twenty fucking years. “Our father was an idiot who would have had us make friends with the monsters. As you would. You were seriously thinking about a marriage between the Unseelie and your daughter. It’s a good thing I did what I did or she would have been tortured beyond anything a girl should have to survive.”
Seamus snorts. “You call all non-sidhe creatures Unseelie. It’s ridiculous. There are plenty of sidhe who are considered Unseelie. And many helpful races who are as Seelie as me.”
“The Unseelie are all half-breeds. Impure. Unworthy. I have plans for them.” As soon as I deal with the royal vampires, I will handle the Unseelie. Within mere months, I will rule three planes. Ambition burns bright inside me. I won’t stop until every sidhe bows to me and my name is glorified for ridding the world of monsters.
A low wail pierces the night. Will the hags never be done?
“You allow a single incident to color your life, Torin. It was one group of goblins and trolls who nearly killed you,” Seamus points out.
I turn away. I never think about the day. I don’t think about how the small band of monsters delighted in beating me and making me bleed. “Well, I think they would all pause before attempting to harm me again.”
“You’re a big man, oh yes. King Torin kills brownies and gnomes.” Disdain drips from my brother’s voice.
“Yes, and you embraced them all.” I turn back to the ghost of my brother. “You were so fucking kind. You beat your own child.”
If a sluagh can pale, Seamus does it. His form fades a bit. “I thought I was helping him. I thought I was correcting his bad behavior as our father corrected mine. I see things differently now. This side allows for a full accounting of all that is true if one is open to it. I hate you for killing my wife, but one good thing came from it. Beck was freed from my rigid morality. He can become the man he always should have been, and Cian can get over my ignorance. And they’re both definitely better off without your bride.”
Maris. Lovely, blonde, frigid as an iceberg. And seemingly as fertile. She was promised to the symbiotic twins, the bondmate who would have bridged them, but she loathed the idea. She was more than willing to help me in an effort to get out of a hated marriage.
At the time, she seemed a perfect bride. Thirteen years in, I gave up going to her bed, but she still has her value. She’s a bondmate but suspicious of psychic powers. She managed to make the other bondmates somewhat comfortable, until they figured out I want to use their powers to enhance my own. “You didn’t vet your pick properly, brother, or you would have known she hates non-sidhe as much as I do.”