Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Another male offered her his arm. Fordham protested, trying to keep her for himself, but that wasn’t fair. A lady should dance with everyone equally throughout the night. Showing favoritism toward one male would be wrong. She needed to have a full card and dance the night away. That was all that mattered.
One dance turned into three and then five.
Then, a hand was on her sleeve in the middle of the fifth dance. She blinked in surprise at the indecent arrangement.
“You will wait your turn,” the male said.
But when she looked up, she found a handsome face with thunderstorm eyes. Her fog lifted, if just for a moment. She should be with him. Be dancing with him.
“Kerrigan, look at me,” he said, wrenching her out of the other male’s embrace. “Look at me and know me.”
“Fordham?” she whispered.
“Good. This way.”
They danced across the room, and as they reached a corner nearest the orchestra, he ripped them out of the dance.
She startled and protested. “No, wait …”
“Walk the gardens with me,” he purred. “We can dance more after you’ve had a breath of fresh air.”
She blinked. Yes, she wanted fresh air. But the dance …
She looked backward and ached for the dance like nothing else she had ever wanted. Fordham was dragging her away from the dance, and suddenly, they were through the door and into the starry night air.
“Oh,” she gasped. “Oh.”
“Welcome back.”
She blinked. “How long was I dancing?”
Her feet ached. She bent double and wrenched off the shoes she had been wearing. The soles were worn through. Much longer and she would have bloody feet. Scales.
He shook his head. “I have no idea. It felt like a few minutes, but it could have been days.”
She showed him her shoes. “It might have been days.”
He grimaced. “I lost you. I thought they would steal you away from me and I’d never find you again.”
“Did … did you get lost to the dancing too?”
“For a time,” he admitted. “But without you in my arms, it felt wrong.”
She frowned. How had she escaped the drink but not the dancing? How had he escaped the dancing but not the drink? This faerie trick made no sense.
“And look,” he said, pointing beyond the elaborate gardens.
She squinted and saw smoke on the horizon. “Is that the cottage?”
“I would guess so. We hike down to it, and that’s our witch.”
Kerrigan frowned. “You think it’s that easy?”
“Do we have a choice?”
“Good point.”
The gardens were hundreds of acres. They sprawled as far as the eye could see, complete with a hedge maze, dozens of enormous fountains, and a river running through half of the grounds. They crossed the pebbled stone walkway between blooming bushes to a magnificent stone staircase that led down to a fountain.
“Do you think it’s a wishing well?” Kerrigan asked. “I heard they used one at the last dragon tournament.”
“Ah, I heard that.”
“Before Cyrene found you,” Kerrigan teased.
Fordham smiled fondly. “Cyrene was unlike anyone I had ever met.”
“You sound as if you fell in love with her.”
He laughed. “Ah, no, she was more like a hurricane, wrecking her way through the House of Shadows and tearing down everything I thought I knew a human could be.”
“That sounds like her.”
“Sounds like someone else I know,” he said, his gaze suddenly landing on her face.
“I learned from the best. Cyrene taught me to be fearless.”
He choked on a breath. “I don’t think anyone needed to teach you that. You were born fearless.”
He stopped before the fountain, turning her face up to him. The moonlight shone bright upon their faces, and the stars twinkled overhead. It was a perfect night. So pristine as to be halted in time on this very moment.
“Fordham,” she breathed, wanting to extend this second into eternity.
“I have missed you so much.”
“How could you leave me?” she asked, taking a step into him. “How could you leave me all alone?”
“I never wanted to. I left for you.”
“Can you admit that you left for you? We could have lived through this curse. We could survive anything. We were amazing together.”
“I wanted nothing more than this, but if my curse was between us, you’d end up dead, like my mother, like Dacia.”
Kerrigan closed her eyes against the pain of those names. His mother and his lover both dead, and he blamed himself. “Can you not see that their deaths are not on your hands? We’ve been together for a year, and I am still very much alive.”
“And how many times have you been close to death?”
“That isn’t because of you.”
“How can you know? It is only with me in your life that you have been closer and closer to perishing.”
“That is hardly true. I was in trouble long before you got here.”
“I only make it worse!”
Then, why have my visions put us together?” she asked, grasping the front of his suit and pulling him closer. “Why are we always pushed into each other’s path? I can find you anywhere. I know you belong to me. Just admit it.”