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)
“What the bloody hell is that?” Duffy asks, staring at the dog.
“A straggler.” I’m not sure what Duffy is so squeamish about. It isn’t the first time some dead thing followed me around. “Try to wake Shim up. We have trouble coming.” I walk to the edge of the water. The icy tide laps at my feet as I face the creatures who will one day be my subjects. If they don’t manage to eat my other half… “I don’t need this shit!”
A shimmering presence rises from the foam. Gorgeous and deadly, the mermaid smiles, shrugs, and then dives back down to the depths.
Everything, it seems, is coming after us. There isn’t a creature on the plane who can’t sense our weakness, and every single one of them is ready and waiting to pounce.
I turn back to my main problem. We’re weak because Shim stopped fighting.
“Where is he?” I ask, staring at my brother, the other half of my soul.
“He was mumbling something about fields and wheat.” Duffy comes to my side, his mouth turned down in a flat line. “I think he feels her more clearly here.”
Shim chuckles, but I know damn well he isn’t laughing at anything he heard on this plane. I get to my knees and put both hands on my brother’s shirt, hauling him up.
“Wake the fuck up, Shim.”
Dark hair covers half of Shim’s face as he shakes his head. “No. Don’t want to.”
I groan. It’s so much worse in the last year. Shim started to sink into a world where he can see her, feel her emotions. I can only do that in my dreams, when an invisible thread tethers me to my bondmate. Sometimes I envy my brother the deeper connection, but this isn’t one of those times. Shim has begun to seek the connection to her instead of living his damn life. Our life. My brother is slipping away, and I can’t allow it.
I’m not ready to give up yet. I want a real life with her, not some half life where I only hold her in dreams. She’s mine, damn it. I’ll prove it to her when I find her. Ruined face or no.
“Do I have to punch you again?” I ask.
Shim’s eyes focus. “Bloody hell, no. Why would you do such a thing?”
Finally, a wee bit of sense. “Because you’re acting like a drunk. I can’t wake you anymore. It’s harder and harder when you give in during the day. Hell, it can be hard enough to wake you at night. You can’t go looking for her in the day.”
A smile crosses Shim’s face. I’ve seen that smile on the face of many a man who had too much whiskey. “She’s here, Lach.”
“No, she’s not.” That’s the problem. She isn’t here, and we haven’t been able to find her. “But her brothers are.”
Shim sits up on his own. “What are you talking about?”
Duffy leans in. “Is it true, Lach? Are the Seelies coming?”
I nod. “Julian’s bringing them in. The Vampire plane has declared for Torin. Beckett and Cian Finn are on the run.”
“A sad day when the Seelie kings come looking for a place to hide here,” Duffy says with a frown.
I lightly smack the side of his head. “Don’t be talking like that. It’s talk like that got us in trouble in the first place.”
Duffy rubs his head. “Well, it’s not normal. They hate us.”
“Not more than we hate them,” I shoot back.
“I don’t hate them.” Shim seems to be coming out of his fog. “I don’t hate anyone.”
Duffy leans in. “Gods, Shim. Don’t let your da hear you saying crazy shit like that. He’ll beat you for sure.”
I roll my eyes. Despite my father’s rather intimidating presence, he never once beat us. Not that we don’t know how to take or give a sound thrashing, but it was part of our training, not at our da’s hand. King Fergus of the Unseelie is a ruthless bastard. He wouldn’t be king if he wasn’t, but he cares for his sons.
“Da was the one who sent Gilly in there in the first place, Duff. He wanted a treaty with the Seelie. And given what we’ve seen is going on there in the Seelie plane, it’s no surprise he’ll support Beck and Cian Finn in taking back the throne.” It goes unsaid that, after all, we’re family. Beck and Ci Finn don’t know it, but the future queen of the Unseelie is still on the Seelie plane, trapped and in constant danger. Only her death saved her from, well, death.
“Do you think they know, Lach?” Shim asks, struggling to his feet.
“No.” I straighten my tunic. I should change, but there isn’t time. “Julian would have warned us if they had any suspicions.” I put a hand out to steady my brother. “Even if someone told them and they brought the rumor forward, our father would let it be known that we’re crazy. They won’t believe us. They won’t believe until the full and true bond is in place, and we can’t do that until we’re in her presence.”