Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
So much hypocrisy today. “Uh, I’m not the one carrying… What did Myrddin call her?”
Zoey sighed. “A destroyer of worlds, but it’s Myrddin and he lies. Baby girl is going to be every bit as sweet as my other daughters.”
Sure. One of them currently powered the outer planes with her unique magic and ruled as a goddess, and the other one liked to shoot arrows into her enemies and impale herself on swords, so I didn’t have high hopes that baby Harriet would be some shy, retiring girl.
Donovan landed on the ground in front of the kids, taking the lead position. I noted that unlike what they’d done with Dev, the kids did not argue with Donovan. But then he was the King of all Vampire, whether or not Myrddin had physical possession of his crown.
I moved in next to him because if he was the king, I was the sheriff.
Fenrir and Trent still moved to my side, and Evan to her father’s. Puff was already growling at the door.
Quinn moved in right beside her.
He was a stubborn man.
But I didn’t have time to deal with their damage as the door began to open and adrenaline flooded my system.
If the door was opening, then either one of the kids was coming through or someone had one of the kids because the portal was warded.
“If it was Myrddin, the witches who run the book shop would have alerted us,” Donovan said calmly. “They have a couple of devices in the shop that they can easily get to.”
Then Rhys was pushing through the door, opening it for Lee, who held a young man in his big arms.
Dean.
“What happened?” Donovan moved in.
“He needs to get to a healer. Dad, I can’t fly yet. I don’t know how much time he has.” Lee had lost his normal swagger. He looked scared, and that scared me.
“Your dad will take him to Lily, but what happened?” I asked, wanting Donovan to know what to say because it didn’t look like Dean would be saying anything.
“We were outside town visiting the Hidden Ones.” Rhys looked exactly like Lee, but normally it was easy to tell them apart. Rhys was the serious one, the Green Man who had been born with the knowledge that he was important to the Fae world. It had been Rhys’s power that brought the legendary Hidden Ones to our side. “A group of witches were waiting for us when we left the pocket world. It’s my fault.”
He was also the one with the most defined sense of guilt. I didn’t have time for that now. “What did they hit him with?”
Donovan took Dean into his arms, the young wizard looking so pale I worried it was too late.
“I don’t know,” Lee admitted, his face even paler than normal. Lee was a vampire but like Donovan, he was classified as a king. In this case it didn’t mean he had a crown, merely that his physical and mental powers were far above other vampires. He was a super predator. The alpha of alphas. But he was also a twenty-three-year-old who’d seen too much tragedy in his time. “I don’t think they were trying to kill him.”
“No, they weren’t,” Rhys agreed. “They were trying to kill Lee. Dean threw himself in front of him.”
Donovan simply nodded. “Then we’re looking for something that could hurt a vampire. I’ll let Lily know. Try to remember the words they used.”
Donovan took off for the short flight that would take him to the witchville section of Frelsi. Lily Tucker lived in a cottage that also served as the town’s small hospital.
Lee’s eyes watched as his father flew away. “Why the hell would he do that? What was he thinking?”
“That he was trying to save his friend.” I’d met Dean Malone on the outer planes. If I was right, Dean was one of the two creatures in all of the planes who could kill Myrddin Emrys. Lee was the other one. Taking out either of them would mean Myrddin—at least according to prophecy—was safe. But I got the feeling Myrddin would prefer killing Lee to taking out his long-lost son, Dean.
Lee shook his head. “It was stupid. I could have handled it.”
“You don’t know that,” Rhys replied.
“Son, let’s get to Lily’s and see what’s happening.” Quinn put a hand on Lee’s shoulder and then looked to Rhys. “You have no guilt in this. Myrddin would have found us eventually.”
“He didn’t find Frelsi,” Rhys argued. “He found the Hidden Ones. I transformed their homelands with my magic. It breathes with it. That’s how Myrddin found us. The three witches are all higher-ups in his group.”
“The new Profane, I bet,” Evan said as we started across the field that would lead to Lily’s.
The queen was at her son’s side, though it was Shy who took Rhys’s hand.