Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
She opened her mouth to explain—
Shh, little dove. The fae’s voice was strangely familiar in her mind. Deliciously familiar. It must remain our secret, or it will be your group that I must silence. See you soon…
Daisy gasped and jerked awake. The dream—a memory from four years ago but still so vivid—drifted away. The feeling of that fae’s presence remained, though, left behind like a landmine. The image of his face, those eyes, the feeling that’d erupted in her…
She shook herself and wiped the sweat from her forehead. She hadn’t told a soul about him…and he’d still done her dirty. Two days after she saw his face on that beach, he’d shown up amongst her crew—her family—and set loose an unspeakable magic that had nearly wiped them all out.
Served her right, she supposed. Only a fucking moron messed with fae. She should’ve known he’d fuck her over. It had been stupid to even be curious. Dumb to constantly think of those eyes and their devilish sparkle. His presence—
She flung her covers away and sat up, scrubbing the images from her mind. Four years later and she still had dreams. Still had moments when his memory—the unspeakable feelings of his memory—drifted into her mind and took root. It wasn’t daydreaming when the subject was a human’s nightmare. It was just so damn pleasurable, though. She couldn’t seem to forget it.
After dressing, she headed downstairs. Mordecai sat on a stool at the island, hunched over his phone.
“You’re here again, I see,” she said, opening the fridge and peering in. If she waited long enough, maybe breakfast would make itself and fall into her hands. “Didn’t want to stay at the new lady-love’s house last night?”
He didn’t answer. He’d never been very open about his love life, but he’d been gone for a few nights about a week ago, with only a few grunts for an explanation. Clearly he was getting some action with his new lady of choice.
A pair of green eyes flashed through her mind, accompanied by a flare of heat.
She shook herself out of it. Those dreams were incredibly disruptive. She wished she’d stop having them. Hell, after four years, she should’ve stopped having them. She needed to find a lobotomist.
“What time is training later, do you know?” she asked, pulling out some grapes.
His silence drew her focus. When it came to training, which directly related to her safety, he wasn’t the silent-treatment type. Even if he was mad at her, he usually answered.
Currently, he had no reason to be mad at her. Not yet. Not until later, when he got a taste of her newest booby trap. It was a fun little game she liked to play, and he hated to be part of. He’d then try to pound her during training. Sibling rivalry. They might not be blood, but they’d been raised in really hard times and for long enough to act like it.
Mordecai didn’t look up, bowed over his phone. His black, tightly curled hair was mussed in spots and his dark skin was dry and flaky. He wasn’t taking care of himself like he usually did. At twenty, he was something of a (very sweet and respectful) lady-killer. The girls thought him handsome and a gentleman, not to mention rich and very well connected. He could essentially get anyone he wanted, even with this sad-sack disposition. He went to great lengths to live up to the family name, elevated to the world of Demigods even though their roots were as humble as a gutter rat’s. This situation with him was…unusual. Worrying, even.
Frowning, she closed the fridge door and wandered closer, stopping beside his stool. She popped a grape into her mouth as she kicked the stool leg.
“What’s your problem?” she asked. Soft light filtered through the kitchen windows in the residence they mostly called home. They could multiply their old house four times and it still wouldn’t be as big as this one. Neither of them had ever taken their turn in fortune for granted.
He didn’t react, continuing to doomscroll on his phone.
“Hey.” She kicked the chair harder this time.
“Would you stop?” He cast her an irritated glance. Dark circles lined his red-rimmed hazel eyes.
Not taking care of himself and not sleeping very well. Only danger to their family or girl trouble usually created this. Given she would’ve been apprised of any danger, it was clearly the latter.
“What’d she do?” Daisy demanded, yanking at his shoulder to get him to turn and face her. “Tell me.”
“Nothing. It’s fine.”
“What’s fine?” Jack asked as he sauntered into the kitchen holding a brown grocery bag with something green sticking out the top. He was one of about a dozen people she thought of as uncles, brothers, nieces, a mother figure, or a stepdad type. None of them were blood. She’d been abandoned by blood when she was small and then shuffled around the Chester “care” system, the social services for magic-less orphans. Lexi had found her in the dual-society zone, the crack between the magical and non-magical societies where people struggled to coexist in order to escape their respective governments or law enforcement agencies. She’d been starving and half dead, ready to do unspeakable things for a meal, just to stay away from those horrible and abusive care homes.