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)
It set the tray down on the table in the cozy seating area by the fireplace and exited.
I was glad Tanyn chose bots that didn’t look humanoid.
And that morning, even if I woke up feeling great (surprisingly), I was glad of nothing else.
An hour later, I arrived in the dining room wearing a cream mohair cowl-neck sweater, camel-colored wool slacks and a pair of tan high-heeled booties.
Tanyn sat at the table in jeans and another sweater (this one a turtleneck, which did yummy things for him) with a spent plate, a cup of coffee, two tablets and a digi-notepad in front of him, a stylus in his fingers.
He turned to me, then his luminous blue eyes roamed over me, from the top of my coppery head to the pointed tips of my expensive booties.
“Worth the wait,” he muttered.
I refused to accept his compliment.
“Well, good morning to you too,” I snapped, marching to the chair opposite where he sat at the head of the table, whereupon Hurley got up from lazing beside his dad and ambled to me.
He nosed my hand.
I gave him pets.
It was nice to see at least one creature in this room had manners.
“Did you order your breakfast before you came down?” Tanyn asked.
“Yes. These aren’t my first bots, Your Majesty,” I replied.
He said nothing while I reached to the coffeepot and poured myself cup number three of the morning.
“Which cup is that?” Tanyn queried.
I added creamer and a half a spoonful of sugar before I lifted the mug to my lips and answered, “Three,” before taking a sip.
“According to you, you should be topped up.”
I put the cup down. “Well, when I shared that detail about myself, I should have shared that was under normal circumstances. When I’ve been dragged to an isolated island in the middle of nowhere and my host acts like he’d rather me not be here, I tend to stay tetchy for longer.”
He set the tablet he was holding aside and put the stylus down.
“Have I been acting like I’d rather you not be here?” he asked in a quiet tone I’d never heard from him before.
And yes, it was beautiful.
I was so dead.
“Frankly, yes,” I answered as a bot arrived carrying my breakfast.
It was a huge bowl of porridge with some sunflower seeds and pine nuts sprinkled on top, and winter berries.
I would never have imagined I’d be hungry again after the massive meal the night before, but it looked delicious.
The bot set my bowl down and exited without a word (clearly it had been programmed not to interact, and I was at one with that).
I grabbed the spoon at my place setting when Tanyn said, “My apologies, Catla. I haven’t been here since Mom died and we put her to rest.”
My spoon arrested over my bowl as my gaze shot to him.
“It feels different, now that she’s not here,” he shared.
Oh Gods.
“I…had no idea,” I whispered.
He shrugged. “We buried her in the snow at a cove she and I used to like to hike to. So you know, I’ll be going there while we’re here. You can accompany me, but I’d understand it if you weren’t comfortable doing that yet.”
“She’s buried here?”
“Yes.”
“You didn’t take her home?”
His brows drew together. “She already was home.”
The digi-frame and the pics in it.
How lovely Zyra and Mangold were.
Hurley, and those other two dogs.
Were they happy here?
If so, how could that be?
He grabbed his coffee mug, took a sip, put it down and queried, “Is there something you’d like to ask?” This query telling me he was learning how to read me.
And that was not good.
You do not want to know a thing about him, I reminded myself.
But that niggly part in the back of my brain whispered, But this is his mom, who’s gone. Think of how you’d feel if your mom died young. He’s here for the first time since he buried her. You should ask.
“Catla?” he prompted.
“Do you mind telling me how she died?” I inquired cautiously.
Emotion moved over his expression, the first I’d ever seen blatant on his face, and I watched it go, mesmerized. Even if it was sorrow, it was still amazing.
“Manny and Zyr were away for holiday. She knew better, but she went out, alone, when no one else was on the island, to check the lynx. She also walked instead of taking a SnowSprint, and she didn’t take her Palm, both of which was something else you should never do here. She slipped, broke her ankle, tried to get back, but died on the way from hypothermia.”
And now the rest of the subtext of his tale of the beautiful fae was revealed.
His mother died of cold too.
“By Lilith, I’m so sorry, Tanyn,” I said.
“The good news, in these temperatures, it probably went fast.”
That was not good news, but I could see it would comfort him.