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)
Hans’s body jolted.
“I—” his father began.
But he stopped when Faunus’s hand came up.
“Your words are uninvited, but even if you spoke them, they would mean nothing. As you mean nothing. You are incidental in a man’s learning to be a survivor. I am here as the one who loves him. I am here as the man who has given him my heart, to share with you the depth of your profound mistake, so you can think on that until you rest on your pyre.”
Clearly finished, Faunus turned, his mantle swinging about his shoulders, and his gaze came to Tedrey.
“Now, we can go home.”
And with that, he strode to his horse.
Teddy didn’t follow him for Moira’s voice took his attention to where she stood, Saturn close to her back, within inches of his father.
“I am one of those women he saved,” she declared.
Tedrey jumped and his father flinched and took a step away as she spat in his face.
Directly, she moved away, Saturn following her.
He watched as his father slowly lifted a hand to swipe the spittle from his face, and Moira and Saturn came up beside him, Moira taking Teddy’s hand.
“Let us go, Teddy,” she urged.
He just stood there, staring at his sire.
“Teddy,” Faunus called from where they had left their horses.
Father and son looked into each other’s eyes.
His father opened his mouth to speak.
But he didn’t, for Teddy said, “How odd. I feel nothing.”
The man looked struck.
Moira tugged on his hand. “Good. Then let us go.”
He turned to her.
Saturn was correct.
She had lovely skin.
And her voice was beautiful.
He curled his fingers around hers and allowed her to guide him to his horse.
Faunus was already mounted.
Teddy didn’t hesitate to swing up in the saddle.
Saturn assisted Moira then he swung up in his own.
Faunus was the first to put his heels to his steed and the horse raced down the lane with Teddy following him, Moira following Teddy, and Saturn taking the rear.
They made the road and headed toward Trevor’s Gorge.
Not a one of them looked back.
147
The Reckoning
Jellan
Sky Citadel, Sky Bay
AIREN
Jellan was taken aback.
He thought it would be much more difficult, especially in a time of war, to gain access to the Citadel and an audience with the Regent.
But he had given his name at the guardhouse at the bottom of the lane, the guard had looked at him, allowed him into the structure to sit by their small fire (for which he was thankful, northern Airen by the sea was shockingly chill), and asked him to wait.
Another guard had cantered up the lane on his horse, only to canter back down in what could be naught but half an hour.
To which he had spoken quietly with the man who was in the guardhouse with Jellan.
That guard came to him, and he said, “His Grace awaits you at the Citadel. Please remount your horse. The corporal will guide you there.”
And now, there he was.
The guard who had guided him to the Regent’s palace was sweeping open the grand doors to the Citadel, and Jellan was walking through.
Easy as that.
He nearly smiled to himself, and would have, if he did not have to assume an air of urgency in heroically escaping the Beast and sharing with them the creature walked amongst them.
But it was difficult to force it down.
He had sat a number of diplomatic tables, and he was a well-known Go’En of the Go’Doan.
But truly, he did not expect this quick of reception.
The door barely closed behind him, and he was blinking in some shock at the massive spray of colorful gladiolus atop a handsome table that adorned the always severe, and even grim (to Jellan’s opinion on the décor) entryway of the Sky Citadel, when he heard the quick staccato clip of boots hitting stone.
He looked in that direction to see Macrinus, Cassius’s closest lieutenant, approaching, alongside him Hera, Elena’s captain.
Dismissing Hera and watching Macrinus, Jellan thought, Ah, but it is good to again be amongst the Airenzian.
His dead lover Rupert had been Airenzian, with his tall, muscular body and his thick cock.
Airenzian, like the Firenz and Go’Doan, had little problem with male on male lovers. Though they were quieter about it than the Firenz.
It was female on female lovers that had been outlawed many years ago.
Jellan wondered, without much interest, in the sweeping change that the Regent was making that they’d heard much news of in their meanderings, if Cassius had put a stop to that law as well.
He then ceased wondering this as he noticed Hera move her arm out then in, to rest her hand on her stomach, just as he felt an odd chill, as if he was under a warm blanket, and someone had tugged it off.
“G’Jell,” Macrinus greeted shortly, and the hall might no longer look severe and grim, but Macrinus’s expression was.
Hera appeared even less inviting.