The Rising Read online Kristen Ashley (The Rising #4)

Categories Genre: Dragons, Erotic, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Magic, Paranormal, Romance Tags Authors: Series: The Rising Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
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Faunus’s eyes found Teddy’s.

I am here as the one who loves him. I am here as the man who has given him my heart, to share with you the depth of your profound mistake, so you can think on that until you rest on your pyre.

Still held by the Beast, Faunus’s beautiful black eyes looked right into Teddy’s.

This look was not a call for help.

Most handsome. I could keep you full of me for days. You’ll be beautiful shooting before me with me moving deep inside.

Faunus’s look was a call to hold.

I have a vast and beautiful family, Tedrey.

If we live them right, our whole lives are filled with family and that means you will one day be uncle to my children. Does that feel insignificant?

Daemon lifted Faunus up higher and Teddy saw him begin to transform into the Beast.

Those claws, when they came out, would take his warrior’s head.

“NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!” he bellowed, rose up, and tore over the rock.

“TEDDY!” Moira shrieked.

“TEDDY!” he heard Saturn roar.

But Teddy raced.

Daemon’s head turned to him and Teddy saw his surprise.

He then saw his lips begin to curl up.

And when Teddy didn’t stop, he watched the thing’s eyes get wide.

Faunus kicked him in the stomach.

Daemon lost hold.

Faunus’s boots hit the ground.

He was free.

But he was too close.

Teddy would make him safe.

He hit an unsuspecting Daemon in the chest.

And Teddy and the demon toppled over the side.

Into the Mouth of Triton.

“NOOOOOOOO!”

Falling, Teddy heard Faunus’s shout.

Alive.

Teddy closed his eyes.

And smiled.

Right before his head struck rock and his neck broke.

King Mars

At the Edge of the Mouth of Triton

MAR-EL

“NOOOOOOOO!” Faunus boomed.

Mars raced forward and caught his man about the chest and ribs before Faunus threw himself over the side.

They struggled.

But both suddenly stopped when a great shaft of light burst out of the mouth straight into the heavens.

Mars’s gut dropped.

Fuck.

“No,” Faunus whispered, head tipped back, staring into the sky.

Mars kept hold, but now not for fear he’d go after his lover.

They both knew his lover was gone.

Now, as his father would do, as any good king would do, he held his man in order to hold him up.

The light gleaming out of the hole stopped.

And they again stood in a day that was night.

“You would have defeated him,” Faunus said dully.

They would have.

Mars didn’t verbally confirm.

And he did not, for they would have, but it was without a doubt Faunus would have been lost to the fight.

And his Teddy knew this.

So, he took his place.

“Fucking Teddy, he always has to be the gods-damned hero,” Faunus bit.

Mars had nothing to say to that either.

But from what he knew of the man, this seemed to be his bent.

They were attacked from the side by a brunette.

Only then did Mars let go, for Faunus now had someone to hold up.

She grasped his man’s arms as she peered over the mouth and screamed, “Teddy!”

“Moira,” Faunus murmured.

“Teddy!” she shrieked.

Pain for another shredded Mars’s insides.

Fortunately, as this occurred, Mars felt Silence slide her arms about his middle.

He guided one of his around her shoulders and held her close.

Saturn approached them and sandwiched the woman between the two warriors, his eyes cast down into the mouth.

Mars felt his friends gather at his and Silence’s sides.

“T-Teddy,” she sobbed and then collapsed to her knees.

Faunus and Saturn went down with her.

The rays of the sun pierced through the night as another angmostros appeared over the side of the cliff.

Atop one of the heads was a stunning, redheaded woman with a mermaid’s tail glittering brilliantly in the increasing daylight.

“He was always one to make the most of an entrance,” she called.

Right before something shot out of the hole.

It darted into the air, then speeded down like a javelin, before it twisted, arse aiming down, and landed on the head of the other angmostros, which dipped slightly on impact, but mostly held strong.

And there sat a man who looked a lot like Aramus, except he had a head of short, tight, curly black hair and a much longer black beard.

Not to mention, the lengthy, winding tail of a Mer king.

“It is done!” he pronounced grandly.

“You took love!” Aramus shouted in fury.

“I did not take it, Sea King, it is love!” the mermale shouted back. “It gave itself!”

“You’re a sirens-damned son of a bitch!” Aramus raged.

“And I made your many-greats grandfather king so I could get to you,” the mermale returned.

Aramus had no retort to that.

The redhead smiled benevolently down at them through all of this.

The mermale tugged on a spike of the head of the beast he sat atop, and it swung toward her.

The instant they got close, he reached for her and took her into a hearty embrace.

“Erm, am I watching Triton and Medusa have a snog?” Silence asked.

“Yes,” Mars answered.

“Faith,” she breathed.

Dragons floated down to the stone all about them and Silence broke away from him to approach the trio holding onto each other at the edge of the mouth.



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