Total pages in book: 218
Estimated words: 205594 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1028(@200wpm)___ 822(@250wpm)___ 685(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 205594 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1028(@200wpm)___ 822(@250wpm)___ 685(@300wpm)
I wait for him to give me a grumpy sigh or tell me to go to bed. Instead, his weight settles in against mine, his delicious hip heavy against my thigh. His chin presses against my hair. “What do you want to know?”
“Do you have a tail?”
Now I get the heavy sigh. His hand twitches against my belly. “Ask me something else, Candra.”
“I’m going to assume that’s a yes, since if it was a no you wouldn’t be so fussy at me.” I tap a finger on the back of his hand. “But fine. Tell me when your birthday is.”
“My birthday? Do you truly celebrate such childish things?”
“Why not? Birthdays are a celebration of you. What makes that childish?”
“My people do not celebrate birthdays after you come of age.”
I tap his hand again. “Well, I’m human, and I want to celebrate it, so humor me. When is it?”
He’s quiet for a moment. “On the seventeenth of spring, I will be twenty-eight.”
Born a short time after the last people in his family were in the tower, then. “Were either of your parents in the tower?”
“My aunt.” He pauses. “She was never the same afterward.”
Mine neither. My aunt Calliope was older when she went to the tower, and my mother (Calliope’s much younger sister) said that she was never quite right in the head afterward. That she preferred to sit in the darkness and liked a small, quiet room. She moved to a monastery not long after she returned from the tower and died a few years later. My mother rarely spoke of her, and whenever I asked about the tower, I’d been told that it was Meryliese’s duty and not to worry about it.
Now I wish I’d pressed more.
We’re both quiet for a long moment, and then Nemeth’s mouth brushes against my hair. “That was two questions, you cheat.”
Two questions? Oh—the tower and his birthday. “Well, ask me two questions, then.”
“Your birthday?”
“Alas, I am high summer, three days after solstice.” I smile into the darkness, cocooned against him. “Didn’t feel much like celebrating this past year. I just turned twenty-four.” I pat his hand again. “Next question.”
“Did you leave a lover behind?”
Oh. I’m surprised he asked that. Perhaps he’s not as detached as he’s pretending to be at the moment. I stroke my fingers over his hand on my belly and consider my answer. Most men don’t like hearing that a woman has experience in bed. They seem to think that we don’t have needs or desires like they do. That we’re supposed to be pristine, virginal goddesses until they deign to stick their cocks into us and “make us whole” or some such drivel. Erynne waited for her marriage to Lionel, and she told me that her wedding night was so awful that she cried for a week.
I’ve never regretted being free with my favors. But I also don’t want Nemeth to think less of me. “I left a great deal of lovers behind,” I say, deciding to go for a teasing manner. “But if you are asking if I had my heart on someone specific, the answer is no. Court was just…court. Everyone there was bored, including me. You amuse yourself the best you can, and sometimes you end up in someone’s bed. It means far less than you’d think. It was mostly flirting, and sometimes flirting would go a little too far. But no heart attachments, no.”
I hold my breath, waiting for his response. Waiting to see if he’s going to shame me for my immorality.
“So…this Balon…he is not a great love of yours?”
Oh, is he jealous? I’m thrilled to my core at the thought. “Balon? Please. He wants to marry a Vestalin.”
Nemeth chuckles. “So it is not true love?”
I snort. “Very clearly not. He got bored and stopped visiting. If he really loved me, he’d be out there constantly. He’s just fascinated by me because I’m an incorrigible tease and I have an important family name. Even if he was in love with me, his family wouldn’t allow it. Balon will need heirs.”
“Ah. So you don’t wish to give him heirs?”
I pause. “No one will marry me. I have the blood curse, and it makes me barren.”
“This blood curse. You’ve mentioned it before. What is it?”
I turn my head, as if I can look back at him in the darkness. His breath fans over my face, and it’s warm and pleasant and surprisingly cozy. “How many questions are you going to ask? You’re not very good at this game.”
He squeezes his hand over my belly, sending a pulse of heat straight through my body. “Just tell me. I wish to know.”
“Do your people not have the blood curse then? The First House of Darkfell?”
“No curse at all.”
Figures. I consider for a moment, wondering if I should tell him. He’s still the enemy, even if I enjoy cuddling with him. Even if I’m starting to have filthy daydreams about him. Would he use this information against me in the future? But…we made a promise that whatever was shared in the tower would not be used against each other. I decide to trust in that. “The blood curse dates back to Ravendor Vestalin, the first of our line. Have you heard of her?”