Total pages in book: 182
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171176 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 856(@200wpm)___ 685(@250wpm)___ 571(@300wpm)
She did a toddler wrestle, wiggling into my arms and sitting down between my crossed legs. Immediately she started babbling as I looked at her nanny in alarm. Leala crossed to the woman immediately, unease in her expression as well.
The nanny waited to approach. Was this why they weren’t worried about Granny? Did they know I’d end up dead at the hands of a big gold dragon?
Chapter 28
Hadriel
Now that the docks were open again and ships were coming and going, there was work to be done. I waved the report I’d just been handed. The royalty had made up some scare about a sinking vessel or some load of bullshit to then search as many people waiting for their ships as they could. They didn’t find anything, though, and they couldn’t detain the vessels any longer.
Fucking Granny! She was as sly as they came. I mean, fuck, there had been a trespasser in the castle, and I still had no fucking clue who it had been! In the last week I’d been busting my balls trying to work the gossip network, sharing everything I could think of, prying in any way I could imagine. I’d come across plenty of people that seemed like they’d had secrets, but when I’d hashed those out, it was stupid shit like cheating on their spouse or stealing from a merchant or raunchy thoughts about Granny’s worker.
I needed to hit the taverns in the towns. Someone had to know something. I wasn’t above bribing people.
In fact—yes. That would be my next tactic. Bribing.
Granny was not smarter than me. Her talents might reside in her cunning, but mine were in my ability to expose that shit. Her people had infiltrated this kingdom and were hiding in the shadows. I’d find them.
And while I was out there, I’d work on the problem of people still hating Aurelia. The queen had come around, thank fuck. After seeing Aurelia nearly work herself to death and hearing some of her awful stories, Finley had finally accepted what we’d all been saying.
But the general public were kept at a distance. Obviously, it was necessary, what with Granny’s people lurking around, but it was still a problem. We needed to figure out a way around it.
“You were the cause of this, I know you were!” Liron cut diagonally across the hall, hitting several people with a large canvas, and stopped right in front of me.
I stuttered to a stop, rolling up the report and lowering it so that he didn’t get the bright idea of trying to stick his dick in it.
“What?” I demanded, annoyed at his interruption. I was already late for the king and queen’s meeting with Weston.
Liron held up the canvas, shoving it toward my face. “You did this! That woman has talent. You are killing her chances of doing anything with it!”
“What woman? What are you talking about? Get—” I pushed the canvas away a little so that I could see what he was talking about. Without a good reason to shoo this guy away, he’d just follow you, chattering the whole time. It was annoying as all fuck.
The canvas was alive with color. An abstract design in angles and lines filled the space.
“It’s good,” I said as each shape and color pulled my gaze around the canvas. “But what does it have to do with me?”
My words trailed away as I saw it, an angular dick jutting into the middle, disguised by the busyness around it until you actually made it out, and then there was no denying it. Near the tip was a collection of different colors in triangles, just as cleverly depicting a vagina.
I laughed so hard I wheezed, now realizing what he was talking about: Aurelia had drawn a dick into her design.
“If she had just taken this seriously, she could’ve gone somewhere.” Liron shook the canvas at me.
I took it from his hands. “She’s the beta’s true mate and connected to two other kingdoms through magic or blood. She makes drugs and cooks like a goddess. I doubt art is the thing that would’ve gotten her ahead, you cumgoblin’s wet dream.”
I huffed in annoyance and continued down the hall with my new favorite painting. As I rounded the corner and nearly arrived at the stairs, a big shape caught my attention. The king was standing idle with the beta, looking at something farther down the hall.
It had better be a grizzly fight, because they should be in a meeting.
“What are you guys—” I caught sight of what they were looking at.
Aurelia sat on the ground with little Tabitha on her lap. Aurelia’s hands were out in front of them, opened like they held a book, her lips moving and focus on her palms, as though reading. Tabitha was utterly engrossed, looking at the hands and then twisting to look up at Aurelia’s face. Whenever she looked up, Aurelia would take a hand away and run it over the air, directing the little girl’s gaze into the sky as though watching a painting unfold in front of them.