The Dawn of the End Read online Kristen Ashley (The Rising #3)

Categories Genre: Alpha Male, Erotic, Fantasy/Sci-fi, Magic, Paranormal, Romance Tags Authors: Series: The Rising Series by Kristen Ashley
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Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
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I lifted my hand in which I held my cards and shook it side to side.

And when his beautiful blue eyes slid to them, I announced, “Time for a reading.”

His gaze returned to mine.

“I don’t want a reading.”

“You’re going to get a reading.”

“Elena, I don’t want a reading.”

I scanned the heavily curtained canopy over his bed and told it, “He repeatedly asks me for a reading, but when I want to give him a reading? Nooooo. He suddenly doesn’t want a reading.”

“Stop being endearing.”

The despondent tone to his deep voice had my eyes jumping back to his.

“I don’t want a reading for I don’t need a reading, my darling. I know what today will bring,” he informed me.

I leaned to him, reaching out a hand to tug the beard at his chin affectionately, and suggested softly, “How about we let the cards tell us?”

“Elena—”

“Five,” I whispered. “Just five. Not a full reading.” I pressed the cards to his chest. “Just five.”

“Have you turned your card today?” he whispered back, knowing I did just this every day if I had even the slightest amount of time.

“Yes,” I shared.

“And will you tell me what it was?”

“It was the Lovers,” I told him unreservedly. “Union. Balance. Harmony.”

He stared into my eyes, and I could see the flash of hope in his as given to him by my card.

And I seized on that.

“Please, Cass?” I cajoled.

He let out a heavy breath before he pushed up. I then allowed him to manhandle me until I was arse to his lap with his arms around me.

“What do you wear?” he asked, noticing his shirt of a sudden.

“Your shirt.”

“Why?” he pressed.

“Because it smells of you.”

His head was turned to me, and at my words, his eyes veritably drank in my features.

All right.

Er…

It had to be said (though not out loud), I loved, adored, and maybe even worshipped this man.

And not simply because he could look at me in that manner.

“You can smell me, my princess, for I am right here,” he noted quietly, but his words nor tone did aught to hide how much it meant to him the reason I wore his shirt.

“Well, I wanted to smell you everywhere I went this morning, which was not all right here, so I made it so I could do that,” I stated, trying to hide my fluster.

I then jerked the cards to him.

“Shuffle and cut, set aside the bottom cut, shuffle again, then cut, set aside the bottom, shuffle again and hand me the top five cards,” I commanded.

“As you wish,” he murmured and took the deck from me.

He did this decisively, handed me five cards without looking at them, and all this lasted perhaps twenty seconds.

“Most people spend time with the cards,” I educated him.

“I do not need to spend time with the cards for I know what they’ll say,” he retorted. “Now turn my first, Ellie.”

“Are you certain you don’t wish to reshuffle?” I offered.

“Yes.”

“Positive?”

It was then I received what I was working for.

His full lips framed by that dense, dark beard I liked so much hitched into a grin.

“Just turn the first card, woman.”

“Happy to oblige,” I stated, nestling my ass more firmly in his lap, feeling his body tense about mine, which I was also working for, and I turned the first card, letting it fall to the velvet-covered duvet in front of us.

Drat.

It was the Earth

A high card.

Sometimes not bad.

This time, maybe not good.

“And that is?” Cass prompted.

“Earth,” I told him. “Training. Study.”

“Mm?”

He knew I was holding back mostly because neither he nor I in this time of our lives needed either training or study.

“Work,” I pushed out. “Toil.”

“Ah,” he murmured.

I quickly tossed down the next one.

Shite.

The Crow.

“That does not look like it bodes well,” he noted, staring at the inauspicious black bird sitting on its black perch, the background a foreboding mix of blues, purples and grays.

“The Crow.” And before he could ask, I quickly shared, “It is not bad. It is a middling card. It means second sight. Reflection. Magic. Mystery.”

“And you read that as…?”

I turned my head to look at him. “Perhaps, after the toil we both know today will bring, you need to take some time to center yourself.”

“Center myself?”

“Think. Meditate. Recognize you’re on the right path but ascertain if the way you intend to move down it is correct.”

He cast his gaze to the cards and again hummed, “Mm.”

I threw down the next, and seeing it, I was surprised he had two high cards come so swiftly, at the same time I was thinking what that card said was not all that card meant.

“The Moon,” he said.

“The Moon,” I confirmed. “Intuition. Magic. Womanhood. Power.”

His arms about me tightened as he remarked, “That one is not difficult to read.”

I would let him think that, for the now, even if I had a feeling it meant far more.


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