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)
“T à mo chroì istigh ionat,” I whisper. My heart is within you…
I’m about to kiss my sleeping princess on the forehead when I hear a knock at the door. Curious, I gently roll away from my wife. I reach for a shirt and walk to the front of the house.
A small brown female is gingerly opening the door. She’s dressed simply in a dark, threadbare skirt and linen shirt, with a colorful shawl around her thin shoulders. Her big feet are bare. Her head is a mass of scraggly, wiry hair and her own thick skin. Her eyes are huge in her small face and black as a moonless night. She is beautiful. Flanna is a brownie. The brownies were domestic help on my home plane.
Here they are nothing short of family.
“Beckett.” She squints, turning her elderly eyes up at me. I immediately go to one knee so she can inspect me. She was my nanny throughout childhood. It hadn’t taken long to get taller than the brownie who took care of me, but I always show her proper respect. My throat closes up at the thought that I haven’t really seen her for years. She walks up to me with a smile that shows her gaping teeth. “I am glad you changed your mind, son. It’s a mistake to leave your wife alone right now.”
“She isn’t alone, Flanna,” I say, emotion welling in my heart. “She has me.”
Flanna’s jaw drops, and she looks at me with wonder. “Cian?”
“Yes, little mother,” I say. “I assure you, it’s me. How long was I gone?”
Huge tears well in her black eyes. “Years, Cian,” she confirms as she draws me into her motherly embrace. “I thought you would die soon.”
“I did, too.” I hug her gently, taking great care with her fragile body. “I am so sorry, little mother. I got lost.”
Tears course over her cheeks. “Where is she? Where is the queen?”
Cian smiles broadly and wonders if anyone has even mentioned that part to Meg yet. I doubt she knows she is now the true Queen of the Seelie Fae. “She’s asleep. The bonding was hard on her. From what I can tell, everything’s been hard on my Meg, including Beck. You should know I intend to thrash him soundly when he returns.”
Her foot starts tapping. “That will be the day. I think you’ve forgotten which twin you are if you think to fight your brother.”
I send her a slightly shady grin. “Well, I didn’t intend to inform him of my plans to beat him. I assure you, I can have him unconscious and tied up in no time at all. He always underestimates me.”
Flanna gives me “the stare.” It’s the one that lets me know I’m in trouble. “Now is not the time to be feuding with your brother.”
I frown. “You don’t know how he treated her. He’s been selfish and rude. He formed a bond with her, but from what I can tell, he didn’t actually offer himself. He surely didn’t open to her. She was shocked by the full bond. She hadn’t felt it before.”
I get to my feet, a new purpose humming through my brain. I hid something, and now I hope it has survived the years.
Flanna follows me into the kitchen. “Don’t be so quick to judge your brother. He’s only done what he had to do to survive. Your father was very hard on him.”
“And he has a lot of responsibility, blah, blah, blah,” I say with a frown. I study the drawers in the hutch. I built it with my own hands, and I put a hidey-hole in it. “You think I haven’t heard this all my life? Allowances must be made for the warrior king. All I had to do was think and learn, but Beck had to fight. Father was particularly hard on Beck, so we should let him be a cold bastard? I won’t let him ruin my relationship with our wife. She’s everything I could want in a woman. If he’s too stupid to see that, then he’s welcome to keep to the Liadans of this plane.”
There’s something about Liadan. There’s something about the blonde woman my brother took as his mistress that nags at the back of my brain. I can’t quite grasp it. It doesn’t matter. I need to worry about Meg now. I pull the left drawer out and carefully push my hand inside, feeling for the trap door at the back. It springs free, and there is my treasure.
“You can’t kick your brother out of your marital bed,” Flanna is insisting. “You know that the three of you will never form a triad if you don’t open yourselves to each other.”
I pull my hand free and open the small bag I retrieved. “The triad is a myth. I’m not going to develop mystical powers from sleeping with my wife. I feel wonderful, I do, and I’m definitely looking forward to consummating my marriage. I promise I’ll work my hardest to ensure you have some babies to take care of next year, but I won’t become a Green Man, and Beck won’t be a Storm Lord.”