Total pages in book: 139
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132437 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 662(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 441(@300wpm)
iAm’s eyes went to the parchment, and the remote expression that took over his face was oddly terrifying. “We think it just means your mother is not on the throne.”
“But you’re not sure.”
“This isn’t about us,” he repeated. “This is about you, and your destiny—and your choice.”
“This is a blueprint.” Her mother touched the glass that protected the parchment and its ink and precious-metal details. “I like to think of the charts as the snapshot of the landscape that’s in front of you. What this is telling us is that you have an opportunity to play a significant role in preserving the future of the s’Hisbe if you and t’On choose to be mated.”
From out of nowhere, like a bolt of lightning in her head, the kiss she’d shared with Allhan slammed into her consciousness again.
“And if I don’t?”
Her parents locked eyes with each other. Then her father answered, “Then this chart will have a different outcome in this sector, here.”
He circled over the grid that apparently was tied to the s’Hisbe.
That was when she saw there was a shadow underneath the golden writing, like something had been erased or deliberately obscured.
“What’s this?” she asked. “These smudges here.”
There was a long pause. “That is the alternate future, if you do not choose the path shown.”
“And what does it say?” She looked back and forth between them. “What happens if I don’t mate t’On?”
iAm released his breath with a curse.
Her mother was the one who answered. “It says that unless you do, everyone in the s’Hisbe…”
In the silence that followed, she found herself praying that there was another explanation, another outcome. But when the Queen couldn’t continue, everything became horribly, terribly clear, in a way it hadn’t when only she and t’On had been talking.
“Dies,” Denne finished with horror. “That’s what it means, right?”
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Back at the Wheel, Allhan stepped over the threshold of Vishous and Jane’s residence and shut the door. Then he just stood there, his hands loosely linked, his eyes moving around until they settled on a duffle bag full of guns and ammo. The jumble of grips and muzzles and boxes of bullets was such a commentary on how the Brotherhood handled conflict.
Did one of those lead slugs have his name on it?
“Allhan.” Doc Jane’s voice was smooth, but in a grim way. “V and I want to check in with you about how you’re doing.”
Not at all well, thank you for asking. But hey, at least they weren’t making him back up against the wall and stand on some plastic tarping.
“I-I’m okay.” As they seemed to be waiting for more, he put his hands in his pockets and felt his two phones. Not the kind of reminder he needed. “Is there something y-you wanted—”
“We know what you did.”
As Vishous cut in with the conversational equivalent of a haymaker, Allhan jerked back and felt all of the blood drain out of his head. Holy… shit. So this was a death sentence falling on him—and through the panicked chaos in his mind, there were only two things that survived in the cognitive tornado.
Carmen.
And the beautiful Shadow he had met by accident—
Doc Jane put her palms forward and shot a glare at her mate. “Allhan, you’re not in trouble.”
… Say what? He must have heard that wrong. “I-I’m not?”
As Doc Jane started shaking her head, Vishous spoke up again. “You had to know I’d catch you. You didn’t even try to hide it—”
“Allhan, we can work through anything together. The three of us. You can trust us—”
“All you had to do was ask me—”
The two of them were speaking over each other, the syllables weaving in and out, the male and female voices merging into a single communication that ended with:
“I’m not mad at you.” Vishous’s diamond eyes were as direct as ice picks. “You’re just trying to figure out how to get past what you had to do. What you saw. What lingers.”
Between one blink and the next, he pictured blood on the ivory keys of his sire’s grand piano, blood on the flagstone floor of that conservatory, blood on his face and suit and shirt that his sister had noticed before he did.
Tears speared into his eyes, riding a rush of emotion. He’d had to keep what had happened back with his father to himself for so many obvious reasons, and the necessity of secrecy was a prison he’d always assumed he was going to be in for the rest of his life.
“It’s all right,” Vishous said in a low voice. “We gotchu.”
Was it possible there was a key to let him out?
“But I don’t think looking at all those scene reports is your best call. It’s going to trap you in a loop that’ll start like you’re just doing it to understand shit, but in the end becomes a whirlpool that sucks you down.”