Total pages in book: 98
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 92476 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 462(@200wpm)___ 370(@250wpm)___ 308(@300wpm)
I wept bitter tears and dug them little graves, covering them as best I could with dirt and twigs and leaves. I had no power in me to heal them or to bring them back to life, as some of the very greatest of the royal Fae were able to do. So there was nothing I could do but bury them and weep.
On that day, I tried to stay clear when I saw my cousins in the glade below the shaded grove I was in. I did not wish to see them perform their cruel tricks on another unsuspecting animal and I knew from experience that I couldn’t stop them. They would only turn on me and make my life hell for as long as it pleased them.
So I was about to move through the shadows as quietly as I could and go to another part of the wild lands, when I saw what they were doing. It seemed strange to me…so I stayed a moment to watch.
Calista had the top of her lavender gossamer dress open to show the tiny buds of her breasts. As with most Fae maidens, they were no larger than wild strawberries and her nipples were tiny pink pinpricks in the centers. They were not big, but they seemed to be extremely sensitive because Asfaloth was touching them and Calista was sighing and moaning in a way that made me think she was either in pleasure or pain—or maybe both.
Fascinated by this strange display between my cousins, I crept a little closer. As I said, I was completely innocent, for my nurse had not seen fit to tell me where babies come from or the pleasure and pain of making one. So I had no idea what my cousins were doing together. I only knew that at least they were not torturing another rabbit or squirrel or some other hapless creature.
“You like that, sister?” Asfaloth was saying as he touched her.
“Ah…yes, brother. It feels good!” Calista moaned and stuck out her chest, as though inviting him to do it even more.
I shifted my position and it was at that moment that my clumsy foot found a dry branch and a loud crack alerted them to my position.
They jumped up at once, Asfaloth scanning the forest for intruders and Calista quickly fastening her top to hide her breasts.
I tried to run—of course I did—but as I have said earlier, I was only ten and my cousins were five or six years older than me. They had me in an instant and were dragging me back to the Summer Palace between them, twisting my arms behind my back fiercely and threatening to do much worse if I cried out.
Once they got me to the privacy of my rooms, Calista cast a summoning to cause a swarm of nimble-bugs to roost in my long midnight-blue hair. Then Asfaloth put a binding on me to keep me frozen in my chair with my hands behind my back so I couldn’t get them out.
The bugs were as big as my thumb and had long spotted legs—red with yellow splotches. They made a chrr-ep!chrr-ep! sound as they crawled through my hair and nibbled the ends of my pointed ears with their sharp mandibles.
I have never liked bugs—I know few maidens who do—and I was nearly mad with the horror of having a whole swarm of them crawling on me. I remember I wanted to scream but I was afraid one would crawl in my mouth—so I simply sat where I was, bound in place, crying silent tears and hating my cousins so much I felt like I was dying inside.
“Alira?” My older brother Quill had a shocked expression on his face when he came to find me for the evening banquet and saw my predicament. “By the Shining Throne—what happened?”
I was unable to answer—afraid to open my mouth. But my big brother waved a hand and did a quick banishment to get rid of the bugs. And then—because I was still frozen in place—an unbinding.
I fell into his arms, crying and scrabbling at my hair, as soon as the nimble-bugs were gone. Asfaloth and Calista had left me that way for hours in the darkest corner of my room and the feeling of those creatures crawling through my hair and all over my skin was still with me even though Quill had banished them.
“Who did this? Who would dare!” he demanded, but I didn’t need to answer—he knew who, of course. Only those who also had royal blood in their veins would dare to treat a princess so. Only they would suffer no reprimands or reprisals. Their mother—my Aunt Lyrah—would never punish them for anything. She simply laughed and said that “children would be children” and then went back to ignoring them for the most part.