Total pages in book: 85
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 79938 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 400(@200wpm)___ 320(@250wpm)___ 266(@300wpm)
Oh god, what am I doing to do?
Theo didn’t draw a full breath until the plane touched down in Germany. It seemed counterintuitive to fly closer to Thalania and his uncle’s reach, but the next step in their investigation lay in the area. They couldn’t afford to put it off, especially now that Meg’s safety hung in the balance.
The woman in question hadn’t said two words to either of them the entire twelve-hour flight. She curled up in her first-class seat, wrapped the provided blanket around herself, and from all appearances, she passed out cold.
Now, she stepped into the cloudy German morning and blinked. “Frankfurt,” Meg said as if tasting the idea.
Galen rented them a car and then they were off, driving out of the city and into the country. Meg sat in the passenger seat, eyes straight ahead as if she didn’t trust herself not to stare at everything like a tourist. So prideful, his princess. She would start a fight before she’d admit that she’d never been out of the country, or that she’d desperately wanted to travel growing up. He’d bet good money on both being true.
Theo leaned up between the front seats and pointed at rows of vines growing up an absurdly steep incline just off the Autobahn. “Grapes for wine. I would think white, since that’s what this region is known for.”
Tension kept Meg’s shoulders so tight, it was a wonder she didn’t shatter. “I didn’t ask.”
“Come now, princess. I know you’re furious at me, and rightly so. I fucked up. But what’s to say you can’t enjoy this opportunity?”
“I can think of a few things,” she muttered.
She wasn’t ready. He couldn’t push this, no matter how viciously the guilt ate away at him. Theo made people happy. It was what he was good at, and it had the added bonus of bringing them around to his way of thinking and accomplishing his goals. He charmed and joked and occasionally threatened, and the path paved itself before his feet.
Until last year, when everything he thought he knew turned out to be false. Until he was stripped of his rank, his very identity, the only home he’d ever known.
It was a lie. It had to be.
But he’d seen the paperwork, all presented with a little smirk from his uncle Phillip while Dorian lurked in the background. The dates didn’t line up. Theo knew his mother was married to someone else before she married his father. Everyone knew it, and half the country had been scandalized by the whole thing, but eventually the love match won over even the most traditional citizens. How could it not when Theo’s parents looked at each other like the sun rose and set in their spouse’s eyes?
Ten years together was nowhere long enough.
“Theo.” Galen spoke softly, as if he knew the direction Theo’s thoughts had taken. “We’re here.”
They’d left the Autobahn while Theo was thinking dark thoughts, and now they wound through narrow roads encroached by a forest that felt the same way the ones in Thalania did. Old, full of magic and other fanciful things he’d long since outgrown. They weren’t that far from the Black Forest, and it was all too easy to imagine the thick tangle of trees held all sorts of monsters just out of sight.
They were more likely to be monsters of a human variety than witches and curses.
Galen took a turn onto a road so narrow, if another car appeared they’d have to careen off the road to avoid a head-on collision. Deeper and deeper into the trees they went, until yet another turn brought them to a giant iron gate. It was old and rusted in some places, a plant that looked like ivy climbing over part of it, giving the impression of a location forgotten by time. Theo took it in and then looked at his friend. “Atmospheric.”
Meg leaned forward and peered out the windshield at it. “Are you about to tell me that this is owned by a reclusive billionaire who happens to suck people’s blood and has an aversion to the sun?”
“Everyone knows vampires populate Wall Street, not mansions hidden away in the foothills of Germany.”
Theo swallowed a laugh, but his chuckle escaped at the flabbergasted look on Meg’s face. She pointed at Galen. “You made a joke.”
“It’s been known to happen.”
She twisted to meet Theo’s gaze for the first time since they left New York. “He makes jokes?”
“Sometimes.” He leaned forward and lowered his voice to a mock whisper. “Don’t let Galen fool you. He’s an asshole and a badass, but he gets off on surprising people.”
She gave a half smile. “And here I thought he got off on watching.”
Heat shot through him, but Theo had enough control not to let it show on his face. The fact Meg was making even the smallest joke was progress that he refused to endanger. He hadn’t bargained on Galen’s father finding out about her existence so quickly, but ultimately it changed nothing.