Total pages in book: 79
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77730 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 389(@200wpm)___ 311(@250wpm)___ 259(@300wpm)
“I believe you. So does my mother.” The current Seelie queen.
“How is she doing?”
“She’s good. Happy not to be under a spell. But she’s restless to go live her life. She’s thinking of passing the crown to me early.”
“Yeah?” I asked, smirking. “Both of us… ruling The Green. Who’d have thought it?”
“I think we’d make a good team. And you have a handy little reminder on your neck not to cross me and mine.”
“Got a little of that Dark in you,” I agreed, rubbing my hand over the burn scars.
Cece leaned forward, her voice only for the two of us. “I’d never ruin your rep by saying this to anyone, but I think you have a little Light in you too.”
Maybe she was right.
Some remnants of the good that belonged to my mother, possibly.
Or, maybe more likely, the light and good that Serin had so easily brought out of me.
My sister and I said our goodbyes, and it was a bittersweet moment—knowing our lives would have very few chances to overlap moving forward.
But I would feel comforted, knowing she was on the Light throne. After everything we’d both been through, there were no two better people to rule.
Serin - 2 years
“We’re going to run out of books at this rate,” Jet said when I clamped my book shut with a dreamy sigh.
“Then you will just have to be a very bad king and slip into the human realm to buy some for me.”
“Eh, I can send Nira. She’s always looking for an excuse to see what new absurd food concoction the mortals have come up with.”
“I still can’t believe she and Vishen decided to go there for their honeymoon.”
“In her defense, I happened to tell her about whole stores devoted to selling every kind of bead available. We could take a trip to Tenray Square,” he said, coming to sit beside me on the bank of my mini lake.
Once upon a time, Tenray Square had been a pop-up market known for selling less-than-legal wares. But it had become a hub of sales and bartering for both the Dark and Light courts.
“We could do that,” I agreed, pulling off my dress and slipping into the water. It sang in my bones, cradled me like a child. For one very good reason. I waited for Jet to strip and join me, as he always did in the late afternoon, before we went to the palace for dinner. I swam to him, my hands reaching for his. “But we might need to pick up different books. Shorter books. With bright, bold images. And simple words.”
I pressed his hands to my belly.
It was still flat, still showed no signs of the life growing within. I likely wouldn’t have known for several more weeks. But the lake told me. It sang lullabies in my soul. And, somehow without knowing, I knew.
Jet’s eyes followed the movement, then slid up to my face.
“A baby?”
“An heir.”
“No,” Jet said, shaking his head. “A baby. Our baby. I was raised as an heir. It’s no way to grow up.”
“Our baby,” I agreed, my heart warmed by his reaction. He would be an amazing father.
“Does this mean I will need to build another lake?”
“Well, only if it’s a girl. There are no Sons of the Lake,” I said, shrugging.
“I know it was terrible to have been kidnapped and forced to marry me,” Jet said. His palm slid across my belly, his expression soft in a way that still amazed me for such a strong, intimidating man. “I wish things had happened differently,” he whispered. “But I’m grateful it happened at all. Because it brought me you.”
I covered his hand with mine.
Our child beneath our palms.
My king beside me.
And somehow, impossibly, the life I’d once been forced into had become the life I would never choose to leave.
XX