Total pages in book: 162
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 165618 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 828(@200wpm)___ 662(@250wpm)___ 552(@300wpm)
Yowza.
But, good call, as some of them could be in Tatra’s camp.
Tanyn kept going.
“It’s proving a good decision that we’ve not. They’ve no idea we know what Tatra did. We’re beginning to get an understanding of the extent of her resources. If we did not know this, not only would the Space Junkies get the blame for their actions, our investigations would be deflected down a road that would perhaps force us to target innocents but not take us where we need to go. Now, for the first time, I feel some relief because I think we’re making the right moves that will take us down a road to understanding what the fuck is going on, and who’s behind it.”
“How long is it going to take to get this warrant?”
“We’ll have it by morning. They’ll take the bloods and process them immediately. In other words, we’ll know more, also by morning.”
“Well, that’s good.”
“Now, you said you had news too?”
I turned into him and lifted both legs (my skirt was so tight it wouldn’t allow me to do just one) so I could rest them bent at the knees against his thigh, and I asked, “Have you ever seen a pic of Selediel?”
His brows inched together. “The celebrated fae beauty?”
I nodded.
“No.”
“There’s one under a cover in the citadel.”
“Okay,” he said slowly.
“I asked Zyra to send me some snaps of the items in the rooms not in use, just in case there might be something salvageable, including the paintings on the walls.”
With that, I took my knees from his thigh, got up, went to my dressing table and nabbed my Palm.
I brought it back and resumed my position while pulling up the pic Zyra sent to me.
Once it was on display, I showed it to him.
Like me, it took him a moment to see what there was to see.
I knew he saw it when he said, “Bloody hell.”
“Yes,” I agreed, dropping my hand with the Palm to my lap and regaining his attention. “Now, I haven’t shared this with Gayliliel because…” I shook my head. “I don’t know why. Maybe because she’s so upset about Cormac that she paid five thousand marks for a potion to smother her mately urges.”
“Godsdammit,” Tanyn bit, the red seeping into his eyes. “He’s driven her to that?”
“Yes,” I confirmed. “She’s desperate. She’s worried her job will eventually be in jeopardy, and she’s right to worry, since she’s here, so she’ll again be out of the office tomorrow with no warning. She can work remote, but even so. She has a life, honey. It’s that she needs to make money to live it but more, she should be free to just live it. Not be randomly snatched from work or on the street and whisked to another realm.”
“And you’re worried how she’ll react if she sees that portrait,” he deduced.
“Gayle isn’t exactly a fragile female, but she’s coming to her wit’s end. It’s understandable.”
“We have to find some kind of compromise to this tonight, because Mac’s behavior is understandable too.”
I reared away, saying, “I beg your pardon.”
Tanyn wrapped an arm around me not only to pull me back, but also to tuck me to his side. “I don’t know what’s going on with him emotionally, in the sense he doesn’t just claim the female who was made for him, as he was for her. What I do know is that he cannot escape the protective urges he has for her. It’s physically impossible. I watched all day as he got more and more tense, only for this to release if Aleksei got a text comm from Laura, or I got one from you, which I’m thinking in some manner proved to him Gayle was okay. I think—”
He abruptly stopped talking.
“You think what?” I prompted.
“Baby, until this threat is over, he’s going to have to move in with her.”
I jumped off the bench and cried, “He what?”
“He won’t stop unless he’s close to her and knows she’s all right.”
“Then maybe he needs to take a potion,” I snapped.
“You have to admit”—he dipped his head to my Palm—“there are clearly other factors at play. Ones we don’t understand. Ones that may just be coincidental. Or they may be ones we may not ever understand.”
“Yes, I do,” I freely admitted it. “That said, what you’re suggesting makes things better for Cormac, not Gayle.”
“Perhaps this potion isn’t a bad idea for her,” he suggested.
“She’s going to spell herself, Tanyn,” I retorted.
“Is it from an accredited witch?” he asked.
I threw out both my arms. “Who cares? That potion cost her five thousand marks and only lasts a month.”
“I’m sure Cormac will reimburse her.”
That wasn’t the point!
“So she has to dose herself with magic so he feels better?”
Slowly, Tanyn stood, and equally slowly (in other words, carefully), he spoke, “I’m not sure it’s good in these times for Cormac’s protective instinct for her to be dulled.”