Total pages in book: 56
Estimated words: 53433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 53433 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 267(@200wpm)___ 214(@250wpm)___ 178(@300wpm)
“Daddy! Daddy!” Arch came running up behind her. He looked so much bigger than I remembered, but he was still a child. I scooped him into my arms and held him tight. “I’ve missed you, son. More than you know.”
CHAPTER TWENTY
Jeni
Ansin came by once a day to check on me but only stayed for a few minutes so I wouldn’t drain him. He brought me books, so many books. He brought flowers and food, too. Whatever I needed, I just had to ask.
But all I wanted was Draco or to be able to accept that the baby I loved had never existed. At least, not that version.
When I told Dad the truth, he took it hard. I think he felt robbed and, in some ways, violated. Ansin had taken away his memories, pieces of his life, and then replaced them with a dream potion and fake ones. It had been my choice, but that didn’t help. What had been done to him wasn’t right. It wasn’t wrong, either. It just was what it was.
In any case, only time would heal me from the losses I couldn’t remember but felt deep in my soul and from the losses I remembered but knew weren’t real. It wouldn’t be a question of weeks or months, but of years.
“Knock, knock.” Ansin appeared on the back deck, where I was sitting on the porch swing, reading a new book I’d ordered about a woman who was a trash collector and falls in love with a man after finding his love letters in his garbage can.
“Hi,” I said, trying not to check him out. Lately, he’d been wearing his painting clothes when he popped by—worn snug blue jeans, tight white T-shirts, and work boots. I found out he’d bought a place down the street. Now he was fixing it up. A first for him, he claimed. Something about working with his own two hands on a home he actually bought for himself was rewarding, he’d said. I thought it was incredibly out of character for such an undomesticated creature, but that was what made it endearing. He was trying to turn over a new leaf. Maybe for me. Maybe for himself. Didn’t matter. I just liked knowing he was around, even if we couldn’t be in the same room for very long. I had become a supernatural kill switch.
“Reading that smut again?” he asked, smiling in that Ansin sort of way where it looked forced. Smiling didn’t come naturally to him. At least he’s trying.
“You know it.”
“But I brought you a ton of great books yesterday.”
Oh, yeah. The Biography of Socrates, Quantum Physics for the Modern Girl, and Medieval Warfare—a Psychological Journey of Weaponizing Pain. Super light reading.
“I’ll stick to fairy tales today.”
He reached behind him and produced a thick, worn, leather-bound book. “I actually brought you a new one.”
“Is it how to build a nuclear reactor?” More light reading.
“Much more complicated. I had to barter for this one. Cost me a boat.”
I set my book on my lap and slowly turned to face him. Was he talking about the boat or a boat? “You traded your arsenal?”
“Yes,” he replied.
I didn’t know what to say. Like King, Ansin had spent his existence tracking down artifacts, weapons, potions, rings, and other items that gave him power. They’d all been stored on his boat, according to him. “Why would you do that?”
“Because this book is the only one ever written by a Seer. It is hundreds of years old. Maybe thousands. It is inked in her blood. She felt it was the only way to preserve her work.”
“Oh God.” I cringed. “I think I’ll pass.”
“Actually, it was King who suggested I seek it out before he left. It holds the Seers’ history, traditions, and even talks of their rules. More importantly, the Seer wrote about their gifts. King thought you might find something useful in there.”
“You traded all your treasures just hoping I ‘might’ find something useful?”
He cocked his head to one side. “I cannot teach you how to rein in your powers, Jeni. And, unfortunately for me, you grow stronger by the day.”
Why wasn’t I aware? “I don’t feel any different.”
“Trust me. Even now, I’m struggling to stand.”
“Why? What’s happening to me?”
“I do not know. I read the book, hoping to find answers.”
Ah, so he’d acquired it for himself and was passing it off to me. “Then why should I read it?”
“As I said, there are passages that refer to controlling one’s power.”
“Did you try it out?” I asked.
“No. The Seers are bound to the earth. They derive their powers from it. My people draw from each other.”
Then how was Ansin so strong? His people were dead. Then again, he had told me he was the keeper of all their knowledge and power.
“I’ll read it.” With gloves on.