Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 52553 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 263(@200wpm)___ 210(@250wpm)___ 175(@300wpm)
My bracelet catches my eye. It allows me to breathe underwater. Before I can talk myself out of it, I slip into the water. I take a breath and then submerge myself. It takes fifteen seconds for my instincts to start screaming that I need to get to the surface. Even braced on one of the underwater shelves, I’m achingly aware of that dark hole and what might come out of it.
If it connects to the greater sea . . . There are predators in the sea. There must be. It’s a different realm from mine, but I bet they have some equivalent to sharks or something like that. What’s to stop one of those predators from coming through the tunnels and trying to make a snack of me?
It’s not worth exploring.
After one last suspicious look at the tunnel, I pull myself out of the pool. The last couple days start catching up with me. Or maybe it’s the life-changing orgasm I just had. I’m not prepared to think too closely about that. Not yet.
Thane doesn’t like me. He may want me, but it’s blatantly reluctant on his part. Really, it doesn’t make any kind of sense why he even agreed to take me from Azazel in the first place. He doesn’t want a kid any more than I do, apparently, and he obviously has no intention of spending time with me. I heard the emotion in his voice when he talked about his late husband. That is caring. What he feels for me is responsibility.
I really am doomed to repeat history over and over, aren’t I?
My life falls into a strange new pattern over the next few days. I’m not a captive, locked away in my room, but I am tucked away in a mostly deserted part of the keep. Embry comes by in a hurried kind of way to drop off clothing and let me know that food will be provided to my room, but if I need anything else, I have only to ask. Ze is really nice in that genuine way that is rarer than diamonds, but ze is just as obviously far too busy for me.
That doesn’t stop me from trying to keep zir with me a little longer on the second day. “Embry.”
Ze pauses. Embry is Thane’s sibling, and they share a lot of the same facial features, but ze is built a tiny bit leaner and zir’s skin leans green, rather than blue. I think ze might be taller, but it’s hard to gauge because the tentacles mean height is a relative thing. “Yes?”
“I’m bored.” It comes out whiny, but it’s been days, and the closest I’ve come to a proper conversation was some kraken-person telling me to get the fuck out of their way when I ventured down toward the kitchen. I’m trying not to take it personally, but I might as well tattoo Not Wanted on my forehead at this point.
Embry hesitates like ze wants to be anywhere but here, but zir good nature overrides zir desire to get out of this conversation. “Thane will come around.”
I snort. “I think you don’t know your brother that well if you think that. He doesn’t want this and he doesn’t want me.”
“Maybe not.” Embry shrugs. “But he’s not a bad guy. He’s given this territory everything, and that takes something from a person.”
“Like their husband.” A husband he obviously cared very deeply about if seeing Ramanu with a bracelet he made was enough to make Thane forget himself.
Embry gives me a disappointed look. “My brother lost the person he cared most about in the world that day. It’s not a joking matter.”
Ze is right, but that doesn’t change the fact that I’m in this mess because he refused to let Azazel give him another human. Even if I were alone in the castle, the castle may or may not be sentient. I could be having adventures right now and annoying Azazel and getting to know Ramanu. Instead, I’m stuck in this keep where every kraken I come across looks at me like I’m fish food. “Is he going to avoid me for the full seven years?”
“No.” Embry puts a tentative hand on my shoulder and squeezes. “Thane has never shirked a responsibility once in his life, and he won’t start now. He just needs some time to adjust to the whole thing.”
It’s obvious that Embry thinks the world of zir brother, so I’m not going to stand here and keep poking at him. That’s a surefire way to get zir to leave and probably never come back, which would be even worse than the fact I perk up every time I hear tentacles against the ground, as if Thane has finally come back to finish what he started that first day.
It’s never him.
Which means he thinks it was a mistake. That I’m a mistake.