Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I had to stay calm.
“When we get there, will you be able to cry, Mom?” Fen asked quietly. When I looked up at him, his expression had turned serious. “When you see Dad, will it be safe enough for you?”
I stopped, closing my eyes and forcing myself to be still. This was one of the reasons why I’d skipped breakfast this morning. I hadn’t been certain I could sit down with the royals and the kids and not lose my shit. I’d finally found the one thing that could squash my often never-ending appetite. Sorrow. Deep and aching loss. Well, I’d also had a little morning sickness, but I couldn’t think about the fact that I was pregnant right this second. It was all too much. “I can’t do this right now, Fen.”
If I let the emotion out, the wolf would come, too. It had been a while since I’d felt this deep need—to either fight or fuck—and I wasn’t doing either here.
“It’s okay to be upset. I think the queen’s already lost it a couple of times. Lee’s worried about her.” Fen moved over to sit on the bed I’d slept in the night before. “He thinks she might try to fix things.”
That sounded like the queen. Zoey Donovan-Quinn wasn’t the type to simply accept bad things happening to the people around her. I knew better. Also, Zoey didn’t lose her mind from time to time and threaten to wipe out the people around her because she had no control. “There’s no fixing this. Your papa saw it coming a long time ago. The queen probably thinks she’s in the wrong timeline or something, but I know now we were always going to end up here.”
“It would have been nice if Gray had found a way to give us a heads-up.” There was no mistaking the hint of bitterness in Fen’s tone.
“It doesn’t work that way. Please tell me what he’s done to hurt you.” I set the pack down and faced my son.
I had twelve years of family drama to catch up on. The apparent rift between my demon prophet husband, Grayson Sloane, and Fenrir was one thing I couldn’t afford to avoid dealing with.
I wanted to know why Gray hadn’t contacted me yet, where he was and if he’d missed me or if he’d moved on.
Because this was his baby I was carrying.
I’d been transported to the outer planes a few days ago, and that act along with the royals falling in as well had fulfilled one of the prophecies that my life seemed to revolve around. I’d fallen into Myrddin’s trap—the trap my dark prophet husband had been warning me about for years.
It turned out the trap was a painting, and now I understood why I’d never been a big art fan. Somewhere in the back of my head I’d always known fine art would fuck up my life.
When we’d returned to our plane, we discovered twelve years had passed. The pain was so overwhelming I wasn’t sure I would be able to breathe if I let it wash over me. I worried that pain was a tidal wave that would drown me in it, the fury of the water stripping me of my every defense.
I’d walked into a time where Myrddin had taken over the supernatural world and turned my best friend into something twisted and evil, where my son was an adult who’d grown up without me and he didn’t call Grayson Sloane Dad, where everything had flipped and I was reeling. I needed my defenses.
“It’s nothing he did. He hasn’t been around a lot in the last couple of years.” Fen’s shoulders shrugged. “I will certainly call him Papa if that’s what you want.”
“Why won’t anyone talk to me about this?” I asked the question quietly because I was worried about the answer. Fenrir had been upbeat the whole time we’d been here. When I’d briefly talked to Trent on the phone, he’d been cagey with me. When I’d asked Lee Donovan-Quinn, he’d changed the subject.
Of course he’d changed the subject by telling me he was a latent vampire. As diversions went, it was a good play.
“It’s complicated,” Fen replied quietly. “Honestly, I don’t understand everything that happened. It wasn’t one thing. After Papa started descending, he changed. He’s not cruel or mean. He’s simply distant, and he’s gone for long periods of time. Trent is my dad. Christopher and Gray have become…helpful male role models.”
Christopher was Fen’s biological father. He’d been accidentally killed when Fen was very young, and no one had suspected he was a latent vampire. When he’d turned, he hadn’t had the king around. Fen’s family had been on the run, and they’d hidden behind wards that stopped Daniel Donovan from sensing the vampire’s rising. So Christopher had turned, and he’d done what almost all vampires did in the first days of a turn. He’d killed. He’d killed his wife and would likely have killed Fenrir if Fen hadn’t run. “He’s still with the primals? You see him from time to time?”