Total pages in book: 130
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121008 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 605(@200wpm)___ 484(@250wpm)___ 403(@300wpm)
This is not my problem.
I didn’t ask to be brought here. Just because my life is dull doesn’t mean it’s inconsequential. I have friends. Well, I had Michael’s friends, and they had all taken his side in the divorce, but I’m going to make friends one day. I can’t do that if I don’t get home. Cara’s small hand patting me in a comforting way doesn’t count as friendship. The little gnome is my jailer.
No. No matter what that vampire says, I’m leaving as soon as I can.
A loud horn sounds, and the crowd leans forward expectantly. The battle is beginning. My breath catches as I watch Beck scan the crowd. Somehow I know who he’s looking for. Our eyes meet, and he bows formally my way.
I can feel his pull as though we’re already connected on some intimate level I can’t deny.
Yes, I’ll leave. Even though he makes my heart pound, I can’t stay.
Can I?
Chapter Five
Beck
I have to force myself to look away from her. It’s as if I’m already caught by the thread of psychological bonding that will tether us to our own sweet Meg forever.
That bond is the thing that will save me and my brother, but right now it’s a distraction. The fact that she’s out there makes me…antsy. I can’t protect her yet, and that anxiety sits in my gut.
I have to tamp it down. I can’t afford to get emotional now. Cian isn’t the only one feeling our lack of a bondmate. He’s simply far more dramatic about it. He always has been. My hold on my temper has been slowly dissolving over the last few years. My rage seems to build after a fight rather than dissipate as it should.
I’ve become brutal when I don’t need to be.
Just weeks ago, I was hired to clean out a group of bandits plaguing the road to the marketplace. When I was surrounded by them, I went a little crazy. I killed all thirty, and only barely managed to hold off killing the females traveling with them. My rages are getting worse.
Cian might fade from existence like a candle being slowly snuffed out, but I fear I’ll go out in a blaze of blood and death. Dante is under strict instructions to use vampire technology to kill me if necessary, but I doubt my cousin will be able to do it.
Meg is the answer to all my problems. I bow formally to the woman I intend to wed. At least she isn’t trying to run. Yet. I’m sure I’ll have to deal with that eventually. I felt a small piece of her soul when I touched her. She’s a stubborn young woman. She’s also a lonely woman. I don’t need to see into her soul to know how alone she is. Lonely and scared.
What did she leave behind on the Earth plane? Has she left behind a husband, or worse, children? She’s of an age to have children. My conscience hurts at the thought of leaving a baby without a mother, but there’s nothing I can do about it. She will learn there is no way back to her plane. Only a Planeswalker can take her, and she won’t like the cost of the trip.
I shake off thoughts of her and try to concentrate on the battle ahead. I take a deep breath and feel the sand beneath my feet. I let the warmth of the sun stroke my skin, centering myself. I trained in an arena like this one back when I had loyalists who thought they could get me back on the throne. Fighting in a place like this is second nature. The vampires will struggle in the beginning because they train in far more modern settings. It won’t take them long to adjust. I never underestimate the vampires. They may seem soft because their true passion is business, but they are fierce predators. When the fight begins, they will be in touch with their primal natures.
“Your Highness,” a young Fae says, not quite meeting my eyes as he walks toward the exit.
He’s the first of ten men who walk past me. Their disappointment hangs around me like an albatross. They paid their money and laid their hopes on the line, too. I can’t afford the guilt I feel. I have to do whatever it takes to save my brother.
“Bastard,” one of the vampires spits as he walks up. His fangs are out, a sure sign of his rage. “Don’t even try to pull that shit on me, Finn. You aren’t a late entrant. Those fucking gnomes kept you out of sight until it was too late. None of us would even have tried, knowing you were going to be here.”
I go still, though I watch every move the vampire makes. He looks vaguely familiar, but I can’t place the name. “I paid my money like the rest of you. I’m not responsible for the list of competitors.”