Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121339 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
He looked back with a confused expression as faces went slack around him. As eyes widened. The design on his chest caught and threw the light, pulling his focus. That design had changed from black to diamond dust, too, so breathtakingly beautiful. Like him.
His gaze snapped to her, staring hard. His eyes…didn’t have gold anymore. The black was long gone. Now they had a ring of diamond dust. Not silver, as they’d talked about, but what actually looked like granules of diamond in a circle around his pupil.
“Oh my…” She shouldn’t have been this angry. She really shouldn’t have been. “What in the fuck, though! I did all this, and you get all the diamond shit? Fuck you! Take me home. I quit.”
Tarian laughed despite the situation. An image solidified in her mind.
Her—disheveled and looking helpless but alive—and with a circle around her pupil…in the same diamond dust as him.
“Mine should be gold,” he said softly. “I have no idea why it changed. I can only guess it has something to do with you. You’ve used your chalice magic for the good of the kingdom, and it has marked you as something special within this realm. And maybe you’ve…marked me. The ink matches the royal color ring in a fae’s eye. You only have a small bit of ink right now, but it does match. I just have a whole lot more.”
She released a breath. A smile spread as her heart bloomed. Daisy had no idea why it was happening and did not really care. She just wanted him. She loved that she matched him. That they shared this remarkable transition.
“Forgiven,” was all she thought to say, her feelings too big for words. But not needing words with him.
Something moved behind his eyes that she couldn’t read, and his entire bearing shut down unexpectedly. His expression went neutral.
She sighed. “Now what? Let me guess. I need to find the princess and the other royals and try to kill them too. Or some other horrible thing? I wouldn’t be surprised.”
A blast of magic so potent it made Daisy’s eyes water pulsed through the room. A delicious, earthy scent tickled her senses.
Tarian shook his head. “You’ve done the heavy lifting. You’ve killed the guardian of my cage. You’ve freed me.”
She’d been right. That made it all worth it.
Well…killing the king was its own reward, but enduring the steel-tipped whip was now justified.
Tarian’s power manifested as a physical entity, a sexual pulse that ached gloriously through every inch of her body. Invisible hands burned across her sensitive skin. “Rest now, my little dove. I’ll take it from here.”
His heat saturated the space around her. His magic ballooned, so immense that it filled the room, a pressure unlike anything she’d ever felt. A power that seemed endless. It shook the very foundation of the castle.
The Celestial in the human world hadn’t felt like this. Neither had the Celestials guarding the fringe. This was a level unto itself. Royalty, probably, but also…
“The Ancestral Magic of Sevens,” he murmured. He pulled her into his arms. “A gift from my mother. The curse of the kingdom. My bane to bear.”
“Your weapon to wield.” She pulled his neck down so she could capture his lips. “The wicked never rest, Tarian. Don’t you know that? Let’s go kill those fucking royals.”
He laughed and squeezed her tightly. “Yes, dewdrop. Let’s. But first…”
Wings flowed out from the back of his shoulders, delicate like a dragonfly’s. They were colored like the sky at dusk, with peach and pink tones leading down to indigo and navy, covered in a glittering sheen of gold. Not dawn after the night, but dusk leading into the darkness. Just like him. They were stunning. Her breath caught to behold them.
They flared to the sides, snapping taut. Light flowed through the webbing, showing the glimmer, like the failing light dancing across the surface of a lake. She reached out and slid her fingers along the velvety, soft edge. He shivered, goosebumps rolling across his flesh.
Later, dove. I want to feel you stroke my wings—and other things—later. Right now, we have some wrongs to right.
She expected him to lead her out of the chamber, but instead, he took her hand and walked beside her. His wings fluttered, and his tattoos glittered, a fucking specimen to witness. She didn’t much care about the enormity of his magic, but he was so fucking hot, so ethereal—godlike—that she was surely going to get a complex. She wasn’t nearly attractive enough for someone like him. Not nearly close enough in pedigree. Maybe it was a good thing she had a noble death awaiting her. She wouldn’t have to suffer the heartbreak of watching him lose interest before finding an incredible beauty with titles and gold and all the things handsome princes were sure to want.