Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Cassius’s head shot to the side so sharply, Elena lifted hers to catch his gaze.
“The unicorns built The Enchantments?” he asked.
She nodded.
“It was not your grandmother?”
“It was her spell, the craft of my bloodline, but it was the unicorns’ magic.”
“By the gods,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she whispered in return. “It is also why they now reside only in The Enchantments. It’s where they’re safe, for regardless if it is forbidden, there were many who coveted the horn of a unicorn and thus they took them. So it’s not only Nadirii magic that keeps The Enchantments hidden to all but our sisters. It is also the unicorns. The unicorns united with my bloodline, my queen.”
“What other man knows of this?” he demanded.
“None,” she admitted.
He turned to her. “Elena, you should not have told me.”
Her brows drew together, tiny lines forming between them. “Can I not trust you with this?”
“If something were to happen to the unicorns…”
She held his gaze steady and finished for him, “The Enchantments would fall. We could possibly keep them strong for a time, but it would take much magic. It would deplete us and eventually…” she trailed off and shrugged.
“This is why you shouldn’t have told me,” he growled.
“Cassius—”
“Intelligence that crucial to your defense must be protected at all costs.”
“You’re to be my husband,” she reminded him.
He had no response to that.
Liviana, his dead wife, had not had state secrets that needed to be guarded by any means necessary.
He had never in his life experienced this level of confidence shared.
Her expression assumed a look of concern, even fear. She started to draw away, and Cassius felt her withdrawal.
He also took measures to stop it for the moment he felt it, he could not bear it.
Tightening his fingers around hers, he pressed them to his stomach.
“I have never…no one has ever…” He couldn’t seem to find the words. “Even my father shares only what I need to know for the safety of our land and I’m his top general.”
Elena stared into his eyes.
He dropped his voice. “The confidence I gave you is nowhere near the one you gifted me.”
“Cassius—”
“I have nothing to give you that has that level of beauty.”
Her eyes grew large and her mouth clamped shut.
His did not.
“There must be balance in a marriage, Elena, and we can never have that. And I must admit to you that this troubles me, and it has for some time.”
“What do you mean?”
“You have much to give, I have nothing.”
The concern came back to her features, but not the fear, before she said, “How on earth can you utter those words?”
“They are but truth.”
“They are so false as to be laughable,” she retorted.
That was when Cassius shut his mouth.
“You are beautiful,” she snapped.
He opened his mouth at that.
“My appearance is inherited, not of my making.”
“You could be slovenly, and you are not,” she retorted.
He could not argue that.
“I like your beard,” she declared.
He suddenly felt like smiling, but he did not smile.
“I, personally, have naught to do with the growing of my beard either, my princess,” he pointed out. “Just the decision not to shear it.”
She went on as if he did not speak.
“You are mighty. You are fierce. You are loyal to your men. You engender loyalty from them. You are a very good kisser. You are an exceptional lover, and I have no experience, but I still know that. You are protective of your daughter. Against all that is rational with how you were raised, you understand the importance of family. And even if the burden of responsibility you carry is unwanted by you, you don it with no complaint and wear it like a mantle made for only you. You had the strength of character not to become your father, like your brother did. And…and…I like your ink.”
She would be inked into him, he vowed in that moment.
She would be inked all over him.
But he knew where he’d put her first.
“Elena—”
“By the goddess, Cassius, your sense of compassion is so strong, you wished to shield me from knowledge of your life you thought would harm me. Your protective instinct is so…so…instinctive, you moved to shield me from unicorns. It is your first thought in any uncertain situation. That thought being not about you but about me. How can you even begin to say you have naught to give? I’ve never heard anything so preposterous in my entire life.”
So heated was she in this tirade, he could see the pink in her cheeks in the moonlight, the fierceness in her violet eyes making them appear to glow amethyst.
He could also feel the attention of the unicorns, but they did not move away.
Nor did Cassius.
He moved closer, taking her to her back and covering her again.
“What are you—?” she began.
“It won’t be gentle this time either, my warrior,” he growled against her lips.