Total pages in book: 161
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 162269 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 811(@200wpm)___ 649(@250wpm)___ 541(@300wpm)
My body hummed. My skin felt alive.
No.
I felt alive.
More alive than I ever had.
I was of the earth.
I was of the sea.
The sky.
The fire.
These women.
The ones who had come before.
And my power would serve the ones born after.
“Can we bloody approach now?” Cassius bit off.
“Yes,” Melisse allowed. “It is done.”
In an instant, I was dragged off my arse, disconnected from my sisters, and pulled into Aramus’s arms.
“Fuck, shite,” he spat over my head. “Bloody sirens-damned hell.”
Well, apparently that was as intense to watch as it was to feel.
I curved my arms around him to show him I was all right, and to make him the same.
“You will not be doing that ever fucking again, piccolina,” I heard Mars decree.
“Boarding a ship bound for any-damned-place else is looking a bloody sight better right now, Ellie,” Cassius clipped.
“True?” I heard Farah call hesitantly.
“We will talk later,” True bit out.
“That was extraordinary,” I heard Chu murmur.
“Wasn’t it?” Serena asked.
I smiled against my husband’s chest.
Chu would most definitely be at one with discussing Serena’s desires.
Aramus pulled just enough away to scowl down at me.
“I do not know what there is to smile about, wife,” he ground out. “A bloody angmostros almost bit your bloody head off.”
“Really?” I queried.
“Really,” he stated curtly. “Or at least one bloody head of one, the other head of it nearly took Silence.”
“How remarkable,” I muttered.
“It wasn’t remarkable, Ha-Lah. It scared the shite out of me.”
I pressed my lips together.
He carried on scowling.
“Can we get them back and dry and away from this gods-damned place?” Cassius demanded.
“Of course, the ritual is done, the spell complete. We can go now,” Melisse stated calmly.
She had barely finished speaking before Aramus was guiding me toward our mounts.
I went with him, for he was in a state.
But I did so looking back, to Elena, who was similarly being “guided” (though it appeared more like she was being dragged) to her mount by Cassius.
To Silence, who was actually being carried by Mars.
Also, to Farah, who was tucked so closely to True’s side, it was difficult to see where she ended and True started.
And last, to Serena, who was talking calmly with Chu, still at The Cauldron.
They were all casting glances around as well, we were catching eyes, catching smiles, sharing spirits.
The future was a complete unknown.
But in the present, I had this.
I had these people.
I had my sisters.
And we…were…
Magnificent.
140
The Revelation
Teddy
Office of the Head Constable, Crittich Keep, Notting Thicket
WODELL
“You’ll wait here a moment, if you don’t mind,” the head constable murmured after one of his men put his head around the door.
“We don’t mind,” Teddy murmured back, though it was clear Faunus minded.
Sitting at one side of him, Teddy saw him shifting in his seat.
The constable rose from behind his desk and left the room.
“We should be finished soon,” Teddy said to Faunus when the door closed behind the constable.
Faunus said nothing.
“He’s keen to take you home,” Moira declared from his other side.
Teddy looked her way.
“I am patient to do whatever Teddy feels needs done,” Faunus decreed.
“You want to be done with Wodell in order to take him away,” she retorted.
“Of course, I want to go home, and as it is also Teddy’s home, take him with me,” Faunus returned.
“Wodell is Teddy’s home,” she fired back.
“Firenze is Teddy’s home,” Faunus retorted.
“Look at him,” she demanded, tossing a hand to Teddy. “Does he look Firenz to you?”
“He…is…Firenz,” Faunus growled.
Teddy turned his gaze to the ceiling and then he looked to Saturn, who was standing behind Moira’s chair.
It had been days of this bickering.
Faunus laying claim.
Moira laying hers in return.
He had gone his whole life, until recently, without anyone giving any real shite about him, and now two people he cared about deeply were constantly fighting over him.
And when he laid eyes on Saturn, he saw a muscle jump up his jaw, and Teddy read this as Saturn being angry, at him, for he thought Moira had feelings for him in a manner that she did not.
“I’m Dellish,” he stated to Faunus then turned to Moira. “But my home is in Firenze. My family is in Firenze. My friends are in Firenze. And I’m sorry, love, but I’ll be going back to Firenze once this business is done.”
Her brows shot together. “Your family is in Firenze?”
“The one that matters,” Faunus put in bitingly. “And they are Firenz.”
Moira glared at Faunus.
Faunus scowled at Moira.
Teddy cast a look to Faunus that communicated he wished him to calm down and then he turned to Moira, reached out and took her hand.
And when he spoke, he did it gently.
“I fear you’re feeling some unease now that we’ve made the Thicket. Now that we’ve made our report. And now that it is coming closer to me leaving.”
“You don’t know anything about what I’m feeling, Tedrey Swensson,” she stated heatedly then jerked her hand away, cast her gaze to the top of the constable’s desk and glared at it.