Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
The door opened and Aelia danced in, followed by Dora, then Cass and Ellie.
“What do you think of my frock?” Aelia demanded of True as greeting.
“You’re never anything but beautiful,” True answered.
“Huzzah!” she cried. Then she asked cheekily, “Will you escort me to the wedding, Uncle True?”
He glanced my way, and when I dipped my chin, he looked to the girl, offering his arm, “It would be my honor.”
“Will you accept me as an escort?” I asked Dora.
She grinned at me and linked arms, saying, “Of course.”
I gave Cass and Ellie a smile, they returned them, and we moved out into the hall. Down it. Out of the building, mounted our horses, and rode down the avenue.
Our horses were taken at the base of the steps. We entered the temple, and with great fanfare, the royals were seated in a front pew.
But we would have been given that regardless.
Or Elena would.
For we were there to watch the first-ever official marriage of a priest of the Go’Doan.
And with it, the end to the position of acolyte.
Witnessing it, it made me happy to see how happy Liam and Saira were.
They were glowing.
Faunus of the Trusted
His New Manor, Fire City
FIRENZE
He had no idea what woke him.
But it did.
Thus, he untangled himself from the bodies sleeping in their bed, drew on some silk ante pants, and moved silently through the house.
When his feet hit the floor at the bottom of the stairs, he saw the mantles on the hooks by the door.
He’d refused his king’s request to become a Trusted.
Saturn had as well.
They explained to their king they did this, for they would not be unfaithful to their lovers.
Mars had then surprised them by stating that, due to their explanation, that requirement would not need to be filled.
They’d performed the other rituals.
And earned their mantles.
He heard a whistling wind, like a whisper, come from the back of the house and his mind was turned.
As was his body.
He moved down the hall and out the back door to the courtyard.
The house was much more grand than he was used to, big rooms, and a lot of them.
They would need them, he hoped.
One day.
But the largest room was the kitchen, for she enjoyed cooking.
The courtyard, however, was small and intimate with a twinkling fountain tiled in green and peach and red and black, the ground covered in a stunning mosaic of cream and peach intermingled with shapes in bold colors. Yellow and red and pink flowers. Green swirls. An undulating black border broken with groupings of colorful pieces.
And here and there, small but not unnoticed…
There was an acorn.
The fountain was faced with one single, but large and deep-seated daybed covered in colorful blankets and pillows.
And this was what Faunus stood behind, halted by an overwhelming scent of honeysuckle.
That happened, even when those vines were nowhere around him.
And it happened a good deal.
His body jumped when the specter formed by the fountain.
Bloody hell.
What was the spirit of Queen Ophelia doing in his fucking courtyard?
“If you look, you can see,” she said.
“See what?” he asked.
She tipped her head well back and repeated, “If you look, you can see.”
He looked up into the starry skies.
“Toward Mar-el,” she directed.
He adjusted his gaze.
And fucking hell.
He saw it.
Gods, it blinked very bright.
And he saw it.
He counted.
Three stars in the stem.
Twelve in the cupule.
Eight in the nut.
An acorn.
“You know him,” Ophelia said, and his eyes cut to her. “He would never leave you and yours, Faunus. Not ever. He shines down on you always, warrior. Always.”
He said no words, not only because he didn’t have any, but because she faded from sight.
He tipped his head back and looked at the constellation.
Then he rounded the daybed, stretched out on it and pulled the blankets over him.
And that night, Faunus slept under the stars.
Nyx Chronis
Manor of the Captain of the Trusted, Fire City
FIRENZE
When she heard naught but men’s murmurs in her entryway, and her husband did not call to share who was at the door he had answered some minutes ago, Nyx rose from the divan in their salon and moved to the hall.
She smiled brightly when she saw Faunus standing with her husband.
“Ciao, Faunus,” she greeted.
His gaze came to her, and what she saw in it made her step falter.
He had found love, since they lost Teddy. He had found contentment, even happiness.
Thus, she did not understand why Faunus looked thrown back to before.
That before being when their loss was fresh.
“Nyx,” he murmured, dipped his chin to her, lifted it to Lorenz, and then murmured, “Until another time.”
And with a sweep of his mantle, he was out the door.
Lorenz closed it after him.
“What was that about?” she asked.
Lorenz turned to her.
She stood still, staring at his hands.
One held what appeared to be a broken off plank of old wood.
In the other, he held a book.