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)
The sidhe walks off after nodding to his brother and wife.
Rye grips his wife’s hand. “But you’re going to help, right? I thought Roan said the Unseelie are going to back the true kings.”
“My father is sending a force in. I am merely here to get my bondmate and get out. She is too important to risk.” He looks pointedly at Rachel Harper. “I would certainly assume that you’re not going to risk your bondmate.”
Rye’s face gets red, his jaw tense, but the words that come out of his mouth are controlled. “My bondmate, my brother, my children, my town have all been at risk for thirteen years. I’ve been forced to raise my children under the tyrant’s reign, wondering every bloody day if Torin isn’t going to come for one of them. My oldest daughter, Paige, has great skill with magic, and I can’t risk anyone outside of this community knowing it because Torin would take her and, if he couldn’t warp her, he would hang her from the palace walls. So don’t pretend that you know what it has been like for me. I’m sorry, Rachel. I thought I could do this. I’ll be back.”
Rye stalks off after his brother.
“Please forgive him. The last several years have been hard,” Rachel says, smoothing back her strawberry-blonde hair. “At first, when King Seamus fell, we all held out hope that the Unseelie would come and save us. Many of us believed this would be the act that reunited our kingdoms.”
I assumed the very idea would horrify the Seelie. “I don’t think even King Seamus wanted that.”
Rachel shrugs. “Seamus was a good king, but he was a royal. I have yet to meet a true royal who understands the plight of even the middle class. The best we can hope for is a king who has just laws and the means in place to oust sheriffs and mayors who take advantage. Torin simply takes without caring how it affects us. And he’s systematically killing every creature who isn’t sidhe.”
“Then you’re safe.” I mean it to be somewhat comforting, but the minute the words come out of my mouth, a vision of Duffy being slaughtered because he isn’t sidhe assaults my brain. I open my mouth to call the words back, but Rachel Harper rounds on me, her pretty face red with anger.
“Safe? So I should allow the tyrant king to slaughter my neighbors, my sweet kin, because he’s not coming for me? Let me tell you something, Your Highness. If you believe that he will be satisfied with killing only those who don’t look like he does, you’re a naïve idiot. When the brownies and goblins and trolls and pixies are gone, he will come for the rest of us. I will not sit idly by and pray to Danu that he not darken my door. I will not allow him to kill and rape and do as he pleases because he was strong enough to wrest the crown from his brother’s head. I will fight. I will fight for my children. So you take your perfect bondmate and run back to the Unseelie plane. We do not need you here.”
She begins to walk away, and I realize how terribly I’m handling my allies. “Mrs. Harper.”
She doesn’t turn. “Yes, Your Highness.”
“I apologize if I offended. I am not the diplomatic half.” I’m not sure what else to say. “I don’t even know much about the situation here. It didn’t seem to be an Unseelie problem.”
She finally turns to me, tears in her eyes. “We’re living, breathing beings, Your Highness. Call us what you will—Seelie, Unseelie, vampire. It matters not. We want the same things you do. We want our mates and our children to be happy. We want our dreams to come true. We’re dying. How is that not everyone’s problem?”
She sighs and walks away.
I watch her, wishing I knew what to say, what to do. It was supposed to be simple. Come to the Seelie plane. Get my mate. Get out. Let the war happen or not.
Two hours here and I know I’ll have to make decisions I’m not ready to make.
I feel my fists clench. My father did me a grave disservice. Since that horrible day when Bron died and Shim’s power surged, burning away half of my face, our father treated us both like we’re fragile beings, not to be tormented with minor things like learning how to run the kingdom we’ll one day inherit. My father lost Gillian, saw one of his heirs marred for life, and the other go into a fugue state. It’s reasonable that he is protective, but I now lack the tools I need. I know nothing because my father doesn’t want to tax my frail system.
Dante steps out, stretching his long limbs. He nods my way. “Almost time to go.”