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)
His hands slowed. He looked at her and knew pain flashed in his eyes. In his body. “I would never ask you to endure something like that for me, dove. Not for anyone. You choose the path you need to choose, and I will be ready.” He sat on the edge of the bed again and took her hand. “Stay alive and keep yourself from breaking however you need to. Do you understand?”
“Burn it down,” she whispered.
“To the ground.”
26
Daisy
The next morning, after a night spent in Tarian’s arms, each of them resting and healing, Daisy exited Tarian’s empty chambers to see Lennox and Niall sitting on the couch with a blanket spread out under them. They each had a book in hand.
“Honestly.” She clucked her tongue. “You have clothes on, and he doesn’t ejaculate. What are you even worried about? You don’t need the blanket.”
“It’s gross,” Niall said, not looking up. “It’s the principle of the thing.”
She rolled her eyes. “Where’s everyone else?” She sat on the couch opposite them.
“Information gathering, errands, coming up with a plan to kill the princess’s favorite toys. She covets them, and she expects Tarian to go after them. It won’t be easy to get to them, but if anyone can make it happen, Tarian is that male.”
“Right. And…after all she’s done to him, why wait until now?”
They both looked up over the edges of their books.
Lennox answered, “Because it would’ve incited a retaliation, and he had a duty to find those chalices. Also because…” He stalled.
Niall looked back down at his book. “Because of you.” He turned a page. “He dealt with that decay for years and shouldered the stink. He didn’t want to put us or our plans in jeopardy. But he will not suffer anyone touching you. He’s finally pushing back. Hard.”
“Fucking finally,” Lennox said under his breath. “It killed me to watch all that and see him pretend to shrug it off and get back to work. I felt responsible.”
“Me too. We all did. It was fucking unbearable. The good news is that the king wants a turn with you.” Niall looked at Daisy.
“Ah.” She leaned back. “If it wasn’t me, that would indeed be good news, yes.”
Lennox went back to his book. “Told you,” he muttered.
Niall used his finger to hold his place and lowered his entertainment. “How in the fuck are you blasé about that? Tarian said you were, but we didn’t believe him.”
“I did,” Lennox cut in.
“Fine. I didn’t believe him. Most of us didn’t.”
“The ones that are around her the most did,” Lennox said lightly. “Except…for you.”
Niall rolled his eyes before his accusatory gaze came back to her. “Are you pulling a Tarian? Are you dying inside and won’t tell us because you’re noble and doing a duty and whatever bullshit excuse you have? I don’t know your family, but they raised you, and you’re a good sort of female, so I can’t imagine they’d be okay with that.”
She grinned and looked at the object resting on the table. It was propped there with little stoppers to keep it from rolling off the flat surface. The smooth onyx exterior showed large cracks that a hand couldn’t feel, their color a dull orange. Until it was activated, that was. Then an orange-red glow peeked out through the cracks, pulsing higher until a yellow-white point denoted that the chalice was at its maximum power.
Daisy’s presence in this court had activated them all. For the first time since Tarian had brought them here, they were working. They were boosting power. Tarian had sent for Eldric late last night to discuss it.
The royal family attributed this to—what they thought was—the crystal chalice (which was actually the diamond chalice). Tarian had known they would. It was why he’d waited to bring Daisy here until he had that chalice. Well, one of the reasons.
Come to find out, several of the chalices had been taken from the library, all by the royal family. The female fae that had attacked them with shadow creatures had been holding one last night, an onyx chalice. She’d used it to garner more power and send those creatures after Daisy and her crew. The king had held the diamond chalice on the throne. Everyone now believed the princess hadn’t acted with someone else, but that she’d had a chalice of her own. They were learning how to use them, and sooner rather than later, they would think they didn’t need Tarian anymore.
“It’s not rocket science,” she told Niall.
“Rock—what?” he replied quizzically.
“It’s not complicated,” she tried again.
“Apparently, it is for Niall,” Lennox murmured.
“Tarian should be half ignoring me so the court doesn’t think I’m all that valuable to him,” Daisy said. “Instead, he’s doing the opposite. It’s fine that he doesn’t like to share, sure, but he’s putting too much emotion into it. They might not fuck me, but they’ll target me. They’ll want to hurt me or kill me to mess with him or bring him down a peg. To hurt him. It happened in the past. It worked in the past. But this time, the king wants a turn. He wants me alive long enough so he can mess with me. He’s made that clear. I’m now mostly off-limits until the king has had his fill. If the princess can manage to kill me accidentally before that, she will. Otherwise, the king has dibs. After that, no more rules. Everyone Tarian has wronged in the court will come for me. That seems like a lot of fae.”