Total pages in book: 76
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 71045 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 355(@200wpm)___ 284(@250wpm)___ 237(@300wpm)
He glances over at the portrait of my mother that hangs above the fireplace. There is another in his bedroom, and one in the dining room. At least one in each hall, and in most rooms. My mother’s visage looks down at us reproachfully day after day. Her face is burned into my memory, not as a living thing, but as an image that I have surely disappointed. I let her die. I could have saved her if I had broken the curse earlier, but I didn’t. We didn’t.
Our mother died after my youngest sister was born, after the wise woman told us the baby would take everything from us. She was right. My father didn’t believe in curses, but I do.
“How much do you love her?” My father sees me looking at the portrait of my mother, but he is asking the question about Tabby
“With all my heart, Father.”
“Then you will never be the same,” he declares. “You will forever regret this.”
“I thought you would be pleased,” I say, confused.
“Pleased for my pack perhaps, but not for you. This is a reckless plan. There is nothing we can do about the curse. It is better to accept it. Sali has years ahead of her before it comes for her.”
“I lost my mother. I will not lose my baby sister as well. I won’t let a curse destroy our family.”
He takes a long draught of his vessel and gives me a look of pure derision. “You’re willing to sacrifice your mate?”
“If she’s my mate, then she’s part of the curse anyway,” I say. “Sooner or later she bears a female that is subject to the curse, right? It’s time this ended, Father. It’s time. She can do it. She’s the only one who can.”
“So my son left my home to find someone to save his sister, and he came back with a girl barely old enough to be mated, and that is who he pins his hopes on?”
He has no faith in me. He has never had any faith in me. I intend to prove him wrong, because I have to. I knew the moment I met Tabby that we would one day be here. I knew she was the one I needed. He can look down his nose at me all he wants, but if the males of our family were able to end this curse on our own, we would have done it a hundred times over.
“I didn’t start this curse, Father. But I will end it.”
“You mean she will.” He shakes his head. “I will be left with no sons when this foolishness is over, and life will take me and my daughter too. This is how the curse will end. With the end of our bloodline.”
“And on that cheerful note, Father, I have a curse to break.”
CHAPTER 11
Thorn
We watch the car drive away, and for a long moment, neither one of us can fucking believe it.
“Did she…”
“He was driving,” Krall says.
We’ve been betrayed over a plate of bacon and eggs. I take another bite, then I wonder if I should have done that. She has, of course, already been stolen.
“We need to get after her. Now.”
“What are we going to do? Are we going to steal a car and chase after them?”
Krall’s fist hits the table, making the dishes jiggle, and other people in the diner look at us with complete confusion. We have got to stop freaking out the locals. We’ve been freaking people out everywhere we’ve been.
“Sorry,” I say to everybody and nobody in particular as Krall storms out. “Lover’s tiff.”
People understand that, even though I’ve explained nothing. I make sure the meal is paid for and follow him out to the parking lot, where he is in tense negotiations with a family of four.
“I’ll buy your car,” he’s saying. “But I need it now. This instant.”
While Krall negotiates with the man of the family, two small boys are staring at the pair of us with absolute fascination. I’m pretty sure kids know that we’re shifters. Adults aren’t as perceptive.
“Mummy, why does that man have such long hair?” The kid is probably around eight, and has his hat on backward. He has a smaller brother who is holding a plastic sword.
“Because he grew it long, darling,” his mother says patiently.
“Can I grow my hair long too?”
“No, you have to cut yours for school.”
“How long would it take me to grow my hair that long?”
“Oh, years,” his mother says. “Hair grows an inch every few months.”
“I might not even want long hair then.”
“No, darling, probably not.”
“Fine,” the father says. “But we’ll need a minute to get all our things…”
Krall has already snatched the keys from the man and is hurling toys out of the back of a suburban vehicle. Kids rush to catch them, the woman looks thoroughly annoyed about this turn of events, and the man is busy biting a gold nugget over and over while saying, “We’ll go on a longer holiday next year.”