Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131875 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 528(@250wpm)___ 440(@300wpm)
“Perhaps,” Vera argued. “It depends on the strength of the bloodline.”
“And I am … from a strong bloodline?” Kerrigan said tentatively.
Keres stilled. “You’re the first granddaughter of He Who Reigns.”
Vera snorted. “As if that means anything to her, cousin. He Who Reigns is half a faerie tale in this world. A scary story to keep kids in line. It would mean nothing to someone from elsewhere.”
“He’s my father. He’s not just a scary story,” Keres argued.
“She doesn’t know what any of this means,” Vera quipped. “So, maybe you should start explaining yourself instead of tiptoeing around the problem.”
Keres stood imperiously before her cousin, as if she wanted to argue, but she had impeccable control. She wasn’t a powerful magic user and daughter of the strongest person in Domara for nothing.
She nodded her head. “Thank you for your candor, cousin. As always, you get right to the point.” Keres turned to face Kerrigan. “Can we go for a walk? The grounds really are nice this time of year.”
“Uh …” She glanced over at Fordham.
He came to his feet quickly. “I’m going to find a room to bed down in. I kept watch while you all slept in the wagon.”
Kerrigan deflated. She should have anticipated him doing that. “We should have switched off.”
“You needed it more than me.”
“Ford …”
“Talk with your mother. I need the rest.” He bowed slightly to Vera. “Would you assist me in finding a bedroom?”
“Yes,” Vera said, recognizing the tension with a smile. “This way. Let’s give the ladies some privacy.”
Fordham met her gaze briefly with so much emptiness in those irises before they slid away from her, and he disappeared into the depths of the house. She wanted to run after him. He shouldn’t be alone in an unfamiliar house, brooding. The last few months hadn’t been kind to their relationship, and she wanted to begin to heal it if she could.
“Leave him,” Keres said kindly. “He needs time.”
And Kerrigan knew she was right. Even if she hated that it was true.
“This way.”
Kerrigan followed her mother through a door out the back of the house and into Vera’s garden, which had been carefully designed with enough fruits and vegetables to feed a village.
“This is incredible,” Kerrigan said. She’d seen planting like this in the greenhouses back in Kinkadia, but not a single person producing so much at once.
“Yes. She’s always had a knack for it. She gives most of it away to nearby villages or those in need.”
“That’s generous.”
Keres shrugged. “She feels she needs to atone for what happened. I won’t be the one to tell her how to do that. If she needs to be more reclusive and dedicate herself to the food insecurity of this region, it could be worse.”
“I suppose that’s true.”
“Most don’t atone for their actions at all,” Keres said as they passed the gardens and moved onto a wide, well-kept trail into the hill country. “I haven’t atoned for mine.”
“What do you have to atone for?”
Keres looked at her, puzzled. “You, of course.”
Kerrigan gulped and looked at her feet. “For … having me?”
“No, of course not,” Keres said swiftly. “Never for that. I hope you don’t believe me capable of something so cruel.”
“I don’t know. I don’t know you at all,” she managed to get out. “I thought you were dead for most of my life. And my life hasn’t been … easy, to say the least. It wouldn’t surprise me if you didn’t want me and that was why you got rid of me in the first place. Probably worse than thinking you’d died in childbirth, but honestly, right up there with my dad throwing me into the House of Dragons when my ears revealed I wasn’t fully Fae.”
Keres breathed out harshly. “He did that to protect you.”
“Yeah. We’ve had that out,” Kerrigan said. “I know he did it because he feared Vulsan would kill me. That he wanted me safe. But all I knew for most of my life was that my mother was dead and my father didn’t want me.”
“I’m so sorry, Kerrigan. I’d do anything to change what happened. I wish that I could have kept you in my arms. You were only a few days old when I had to leave you with him.” She sighed and closed her eyes. “Why don’t I start at the beginning? That might make this all easier.”
“Okay,” Kerrigan said, soft and vulnerable. Just standing there in a strange place with her mother should have been enough, but the answers … she needed these answers.
“I was a different person when I met your father. You see, I was a soldier first and foremost. He Who Reigns had brought me up to be the first of his generals. That I might use my powers to help him expand his empire. I followed orders and razed the armies of our enemies and did what was best to his aim. I was insulated from any dissent or any knowledge of what I was doing to the people. I helped him create this.” She gestured all around her.