Total pages in book: 124
Estimated words: 112866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112866 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 564(@200wpm)___ 451(@250wpm)___ 376(@300wpm)
Their whispers were like a swarm of bees buzzing around my head, as if they forgot I could hear them. I mind rolled my eyes as I played with the glass of cognac Dennis had slipped into my hand before disappearing again.
“Get away! I don’t need you to monitor my vitals. She’s my mate, I won’t hurt her.” My uncle jumped at my harsh retort and I began to wonder if they thought I’d already lost my mind. They went back to their whispering, this time trying to judge if I was more terse than usual. No need for any more guessing as to who sent them here.
“Would you lot stop that shit?” I couldn’t order them to leave like I wanted to because I was now aware that it was my grandfather the reigning monarch who’d been the one to send them here. Anyone else I could overrule, including my own parents, but not him; more’s the pity.
The call to dinner was a welcome relief only because it meant that the sun had finally gone down completely and I would soon be able to go out into the night after her without fear of singing my ass in the recalcitrant sunlight.
I didn’t touch the alcohol that was now sitting next to my place at the table and barely picked at my dinner while I waited for darkness to cover the sky. Vespasian was the youngest and the only one who wasn’t afraid to approach me at the table while the others sat way at the other end like they were expecting me to do something; what that something could be I have no clue. Old people!
“Uncle…how long?” He looked around at the others before whispering that question to me. Oh to be young and dumb. He’s about a hundred thousand years old and green as a new mowed lawn. “They can hear you buddy!” I wasn’t about to tell him that I only had forty-eight hours left instead of ninety-six.
At least twelve of those forty-eight hours were already gone and now I’m starting to second-guess myself. Maybe I’d left it too long after all. Maybe instead of appearing to her as the bird I should’ve gone to her as her man from the very beginning. Too late to worry about that now though, the die has already been cast.
I called out to her in my mind and found her sitting alone in the window of her room. She was startled at my invasion but I did my best to calm her. ‘Are you okay?’ Shit, she felt like two separate beings. One was shy and reserved and the other was peeking out at me from around the corner. That would be the nymph.
“Did you really imprint on me?”
“Yes!” Her eyes widened at my straightforward no nonsense answer and she breathed in hard as her panic started to rise. ‘There’s nothing to be afraid of, you know how this works right? If you die I’ll be in pain for the rest of my life. Do you really think that I’ll hurt you?’
I could see her giving thought to my words but the fear was still there. ‘But the last time…’
‘We’re not them; I won’t harm you, but Natalia, I can’t give you much time…I’m going to take you soon…’ She slammed the door shut but I guess she’s not too aware of my powers because she didn’t seem to know that I could still see her. Something I just might keep to myself for now.
I let part of my mind idle there, keeping an eye on her, while with the other part of my consciousness I thought of the best course of action. Every once in a while she would spike and I’d feel that shit. I could see that damn egg just floating around in there, teasing me, egging me on, pun intended.
“I’ll be back!” I threw my white silk napkin down on the table and got up to leave with all eyes on me. They’d been quiet all throughout dinner for obvious reasons but now I could feel their angst on the rise again. Just to fuck with them I turned at the door with a smile. “If I don’t make it, if the fairy does me in, I leave Vespasian as my heir.”
I walked away laughing at the pandemonium that statement left behind as I took to the sky heading to her place. I’d used the time at the table to map out a plan in my head. Thankfully our mating ritual isn’t as long and drawn out as the humans’. Their courting shit can go on for months, sometimes years.
That’s one of the most baffling things about the species to me. The fact that they can leave their mate without claiming her as theirs and even have other males around her sometimes long enough to steal her away from them, and this after they’d completed the mating ritual sometimes.