Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
He felt the presence of Faunus’s guard leave him when he smelled the honeysuckle at the side of Nyx and Lorenz’s home.
Faunus was correct. It was not only Nyx who would be most pleased at his decision.
Lorenz would as well.
He did not know if The Rising was soon to be done. It had seemed so much grander, so sweeping, those in it so determined, for it to be so easily defeated.
But Faunus was right. He’d done what he could, but his hand had been played.
And now, Nyx and Lorenz could reconcile, and soon there would be a baby in the house.
He would not be there, however (though he would come often to visit).
Once it was safe, he would find his own abode.
He quite liked the idea, once he found it, of decorating it in a colorful Firenz way.
And with the Go’Doan exiled from Firenz, he would be able to teach the children and maybe even take over the schoolhouse and implement the changes that he thought would benefit his pupils.
It was a curiously strong and pleasant sensation to have things in life to look forward to. Seeing the beauty of a child that Nyx and Lorenz would create. Finding his own dwelling and making it his. Learning more about his warrior and enjoying that endeavor. Spending time with his friends without weighty matters on their minds.
These were his thoughts as he turned toward the back entrance.
He stopped dead at seeing the trail of blood that flowed under the door and down the steps.
Then he burst forward, opened the door, and what filled his vision made him take a quick step back.
“Now, now, now,” Fenn called. “Do not beat a hasty retreat, my lover.”
One of Nyx and Lorenz’s servants, her name was Isabo, a quiet girl with a toothy smile, lay inert on her side on the tiles, her lifeblood having flowed from the gore that was now her neck.
And on her knees some feet away in the back hall, her face a hard mask of wrath, was Nyx.
Fenn was on his feet behind her.
Her eye was swelling and there was blood dribbling from her nose, over her lips and down her chin.
Fenn held her hair in one fist.
And in the other hand, a dagger to her throat.
“You could, of course, flee,” Fenn shared. “Though if you do, I will slice her throat and your beloved captain will find his wife just like that one.”
He jerked his head to Isabo.
Saliva filled Tedrey’s mouth as he stared directly into Fenn’s eyes, waiting to hear his next option.
Fenn did not make him wait long.
“Or you could come with me,” he continued. “For even if your heart is the black of treason, I have an important use for you.”
“Teddy, do not,” Nyx said angrily.
They had found him out, he did not know how.
But it didn’t matter now.
Tedrey did not look at Nyx.
He could not.
His Nyx.
The first person he had met in his life that he had ever loved.
Because she was the first person he had met in his life who had ever loved him.
“If you harm her, Lorenz will fire a swath of vengeance through Triton to find you,” Tedrey warned.
And I, he thought. I will burn down all of Triton until I find a way to make you pay.
“These Firenz warriors are not as frightening as everyone thinks,” Fenn retorted.
“Tell that to the dead men who stormed the palace,” Tedrey returned.
Fenn had no reply to that.
“Let her go unharmed, and I will go with you,” Tedrey said.
“Teddy! No!” Nyx shouted, but then cried out in pain as Fenn yanked at her hair.
Tedrey took a step forward but halted when Fenn pressed the point of the dagger deeper to her skin and he saw the rivulet of blood trickle down.
“They took our acolytes, because you told them to,” Fenn spat.
This was not true.
He’d done other things.
But not that.
Tedrey did not correct him.
“I go with you and let us go, and swiftly,” Tedrey urged. “They know much, Fenn. You and the others need to flee.”
He heard Nyx hiss as Fenn pulled her hair farther back, arching her neck.
“They know much because of you,” Fenn bit.
Well, that was true.
“And I am yours if you leave her be,” Tedrey replied as calmly as he could.
“And what would you do if I drew this dagger across her throat?” Fenn asked.
“I would stop at nothing until I killed you.”
Fenn laughed before he queried, “Do you think I came here alone?”
“I would die, happily, if she is gone. This life would not matter to me, if she is not in it. But I would meet my death with grace, only once you are dead too.”
Fenn bent and pressed his jaw to Nyx’s hair, a sacrilege of her person that made Tedrey bare his teeth.
“Do you love her so, this wet cunt?” Fenn’s voice was snide.