Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 111353 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 557(@200wpm)___ 445(@250wpm)___ 371(@300wpm)
But what if he’s truly sincere? another voice asked. If all he wants now is my happiness, then I’ll tell him to prove it by breaking the sub bond, letting me talk to Nik, and helping me with an offering for the dryads. If he refuses, that’ll make my decision to leave really simple.
“Okay,” I heard myself say. “Tonight. Let’s talk.”
“Good.” Dipping down, Ronin kissed me soft, slow, and mind-scrambling.
I was still dizzy when he turned us around to leave.
“Lunch?” he asked.
Sense suddenly returned. “Oh, wait, I have to change my dress, remember?” I slipped my hand out of his. “We’ll meet up with you in the mess hall.”
“Sure,” he said, accepting that easily.
I didn’t move until he disappeared around the corner with the gawkers trailing after him.
“Let’s go, D.”
I headed in the direction of the dorms, urging Dora on.
“Is everything okay, Nadia?” Dora asked. It was a valid question. I was pulling her along pretty fast.
“Everything’s fine. What do you want for lunch? I heard the Sins have demanded the kitchen staff start taking orders. They say that empresses don’t eat off the buffet line.”
“Will I be an empress too?”
“Do you want to be one?” I peered left to right, looking and listening for a single sign that anyone else was about. There was no reason for anyone to follow me, but Lucifer had made it clear that he was tracking my every move. A part of me was afraid that if he found out we were planning to crash his party in Pomaris, he’d try to stop us.
The night they rescued me from Lucifer and Mother, Ronin asked why Lord Satan was letting me run around free—spilling his plans to whoever I liked—instead of keeping me on a short leash.
I gave Ronin the first answer I could think of then, but the truth was, I didn’t understand it either. Why wasn’t Lucifer keeping me by his side so he could hold the whip while he spurred me on in the hallow hunt? Was there a reason he was keeping me in Abaddon? Was there a reason he sent Dora to me instead of bringing me to him?
I didn’t know what those reasons were, but all the same, I had a feeling the answer was yes. Lucifer didn’t gamble—because it’s not a gamble when you know you’re going to win. He had a plan that involved me staying in neutral territory, and I was about to blow that plan up whether he liked it or not.
Dora and I couldn’t stay here anymore, and that was that.
“I don’t,” Dora responded to my question. “I don’t need to be an empress, but Daddy would be a great emperor! He should marry Ro-Ro too.”
I snorted—a little giggle breaking free.
“Should he?” I teased. “You know, you’re right. Lucifer would look great in a big, floofy, white dress.”
That kicked Dora off giggling too, and just like that, we were laughing as we descended the stairs to the underlevel—planning Lucifer and Ronin’s wedding all the way down.
“They say the color of pride is purple, and the color of sloth is blue,” I told her while we clung to the walls, feeling our way to the library in the gloom. Would it kill them to hang more skeleton chandeliers down here? “Purple and blue would make great wedding colors.”
“But then Daddy would have to wear a purple dress,” Dora mused.
I pictured Lucifer in a big, purple taffeta gown with outrageously big bows and sequins on the bodice, and then laughed so hard it echoed through the cavernous corridor. “Why is it supposed to be the happiest day of his life, but when I picture him in that getup, he’s glaring fit to burn the world down?”
“But would you be okay, Tidrik?” Dora squeezed my shoulder. “Wouldn’t you be sad if Ro-Ro married someone other than you? You looked so happy when he was kissing you just now.”
My laughter cut off like a tap. Everything Ronin said, along with his cutely frustrated expression, played in my mind like a loop. I promised I’d meet with him that night and talk, but my head was too wrecked with all the things he’d said and done to know if that was the right choice.
No one more than me knew how manipulative he could be. The man was an expert liar, and the last time he lured me in promising he’d give me whatever I wanted, I ended up with his name branded on my body.
“I don’t know if I’d be sad,” I finally replied. “It’s hard to say.”
“Oh. But Ronin would be sad. All he wants is you. That’s all he’s ever wanted,” Dora said, the dreamy lilt to her voice faded away. “Is you, Charlotte.”
I didn’t know what to say to that, so I said nothing. I just took her hand as I grabbed the doorknob—pushing into the library.