Total pages in book: 60
Estimated words: 55964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55964 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 280(@200wpm)___ 224(@250wpm)___ 187(@300wpm)
Ossev plants a kiss on my cheek and caresses my backside through my skirts. “Neska is looking for you.”
“I haven’t gone anywhere.” I’m amused that Ossev is here to relay the message and not Neska himself. The Fate of the Present is the most prickly of the three, quick to sulk if he feels he doesn’t get his share of my time. It’s a constant push-pull between us for control of the relationship, but I always win. Neska wouldn’t share me at all if he had his choice, but I’ve made it clear that I’m here for all three of them, not just him.
And because the three of them make me happy, he goes along with it. We don’t all three get into bed together often—they’re still happiest having me to themselves—but when we do, it’s explosive and exciting.
“Yes, but Neska says he has something important to speak with you about.” His arms go around me from behind and then Ossev is hugging me. “You should talk to him.”
This isn’t like Ossev. He’s not clingy like Zaroun. If anything, he’s the most playful out of the three. His mood seems to be off and that worries me. Has he seen something bad in his threads? Another war? Now that Aron of the Cleaver has returned to his plane, he’s been quick to start more conflicts, and sometimes I feel the reverberations of those in my Spidae’s moods.
“What is it?” I ask Ossev, curious.
“Just…speak to Neska.”
I nod, putting aside my cucumber to eat later. I’m hungry, but I’m always hungry as the anchor to three gods. Food can wait for a little while. Ossev’s insistence and his strange mood is worrying me. “Let me tell Zaroun I’ll be late. I’m supposed to spend this afternoon with him.”
We kiss and I study his face, trying to determine what’s wrong. It can’t be war. They get agitated when there’s war, but not worried like this. Ossev’s touch lingers as I step away, as if he can’t bear to let me go, and I think about that even as I climb the ramp up the tower towards Zaroun’s web chamber.
The Aspect of the Future is there, waiting for me as always. His back is to me, his hands buried in the glowing strands as he sorts through them, pulling them from the weave and pinching them free when necessary.
“Zaroun?” I call out, waiting by the doorway. “I am here.”
He turns, his eyes closed, and a smile curves his face as he steps in my direction. “Yulenna?”
“It’s me.” I move toward him, touching his arms when I’m close enough. “I must visit Neska before I return. Do you know what that’s about?”
“All will be well…?” He tilts his head in that spiderlike way they do sometimes.
“Is that a question? Are you asking me?” I chew on my lip, anxious.
“Will it be well?” Zaroun touches my cheek. “Yulenna is happy. All well.”
He doesn’t know the answer, then. He doesn’t know what this is about, and that worries me. Zaroun’s words get confusing when he tries to explain things he can’t see clearly. Whatever this is, though, it’s about me. Have I done something to offend Neska, I wonder. I think of last night, when I sat at his feet and he fed me tidbits, and then he lapped at my pussy until I came three times. Then he had Ossev fuck me while I had my head in Neska’s lap and sucked his cock. I had a lovely time and we’d curled up in bed together afterward, so I thought he’d enjoyed that, too. I don’t think he left upset, but perhaps something else is wrong?
“I’ll return shortly, I promise,” I tell Zaroun.
“All well,” he says softly, a sad look on his face.
Tears prick at my eyes and I blink them away, frustrated and worried. It makes no sense to weep when I don’t even know what’s wrong. But I don’t like the sadness and concern in Ossev and now Zaroun. I all but race up the ramp towards Neska’s chambers, my heart pounding in my breast.
He’s there, standing apart from his strands and staring at them thoughtfully. When I enter the room, he turns toward me, and his expression is typical Neska—completely unreadable.
“What’s going on?” I ask, storming in, my rustling skirts catching around my legs as I rush forward. “Ossev told me to come here and Zaroun is being distant. Why is everyone acting so strange? You’re worrying me.”
Neska gazes down at me for a long moment. Normally when he stares down at me like that, he reaches out and touches my face or strokes my mouth. He loves to stroke my mouth. Today, though, he doesn’t reach for me, and that worries me as much as anything.
“I—we have been conferring with the High Father.”