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)
And truly, though I would never tell him this, I wouldn’t have it any other way.
He grinned at me, lifted to kiss my forehead then pushed from the bed.
He had his hand on the door when I called, “I love you, my king.”
Aramus looked back. “And I you, with the depth and breadth of the sea.”
And with that, he was gone.
Marian
Argyll Forest
AIREN
I saw them, but not before he.
I could feel his elation.
And I could sense the power coming from there.
It was a hum so strong, it was a vibration.
And not from the veil that the priest spoke about.
From that place in the trees.
Five stones standing around what appeared to be a slab.
Those stones were not of nature, but they were so large, I could not imagine how they had gotten there.
Except, perhaps, very mighty magic.
“Finally,” he whispered jubilantly.
And then he kicked his heels into our steed.
Princess Serena
Lowgate, Sky Bay
AIREN
Their four horses galloped through the gate, and the guards there did not delay in rushing it closed behind them.
They took the sea path only shortly, before they cut onto the track that would guide them to the top of the cliffs.
It was a grueling climb for their steeds, but they made it and galloped over the top and down into the forested mountains on the other side.
Brix broke off first when his Fell, Baldrick and their mounted squad of gnomes came into view.
Brix joined his people and they immediately rode to their positions.
Gal broke off next when Fern and her women came into view.
Gal joined them and they rode to their positions.
They made a turn and passed Silvanus.
Serena lifted her staff, and the Zees, on foot, turned and stole through the trees.
She felt it before they joined the final battalion, and when she did, her gaze jerked up to the tips of the trees.
“Ride on,” Chu clipped, and she realized she’d lost speed.
She loosened her grip on the reins and again drew abreast of him.
“You feel it?” she asked.
“Ride on,” he grunted.
“Chu, do you feel it?” she pushed.
He turned to her and slightly lifted his chin.
He felt it.
Then he faced forward and they both rode on.
When they met them, they headed straight to the front.
Darma, Genia and Heloise were there.
Serena and Chu rounded them and turned their mounts to come to a halt facing them.
“All are in position?” Serena asked.
“Yes,” Heloise answered, and Serena noted her lieutenant did not look at Chu.
“One squadron will have to take orders from a Trusted, is this going to be an issue?” she demanded.
“No, Serena,” Darma stated firmly.
Serena stared hard at her mentor.
She then did the same with both of her friends.
It was Heloise who spoke.
“A new Airen. A new era.”
With that, her heart grew light.
These words had a double meaning.
One of them was that, they would try.
That was all that could be asked.
Serena nodded once, sharply.
She then ordered, “To your posts.”
Instantly, they broke off.
Serena looked to Chu, and before she could speak, he did.
“They will lay down their arms.”
She opened her mouth.
“My love,” he said quietly, “they will lay down their arms.”
She didn’t care about that.
She knew that.
She cared about what might come before that.
“You are my love too,” she stated.
“Pardon?”
“You are my love too. I am in love with you, Chu.”
He smiled. “I know.”
She frowned. “I know you know, but it needed the saying.”
“Yes,” he whispered. “It did.”
He then shifted his horse so it was right alongside hers, grasped her about the neck with his hand, and pulled her to him for a wet, thorough kiss.
Chu released her mouth, but not her neck, when he declared a gruff, “And I love you.”
Only then did he let her go, pull his reins to the right and ride off to head his squadron of Nadirii.
She watched him until she could see him no more through the trees.
She then turned to the warriors that sat atop their horses amongst the forest.
Her gaze moved through them.
“Fortitude, sisters,” she whispered. “For if the goddess is with us, we will not lose a one of us today.”
And then she shifted her mount to face the direction of the grazing plain.
Queen Silence
Antechamber, Guest Bedchamber, Sky Citadel, Sky Bay
AIREN
As was Mars’s wont, he had already given me mine, so I held on tight with limbs and other parts of me as I enjoyed the velvet violence of his thrusts as he sought his.
“You’re…a gods-damned…minx,” he grunted, his fingers digging into the curves of my behind where he held me aloft against the wall.
I grinned.
“I should be atop Hephaestus,” he growled.
“Then hurry,” I whispered, pulled his head down and kissed him.
My bottom slammed repeatedly into stone, and my throat welcomed his groan, as he gave me his seed.
He pulled his mouth from mine, his torso back, but kept his neck bent so he could watch himself glide in and out of me through his aftermath.