Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 105815 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 529(@200wpm)___ 423(@250wpm)___ 353(@300wpm)
Of course, if they were the height of the vampires and the elves, they would never have fit them all in the room.
“Your Highness,” several of the beings said with bows of their head as Rei approached.
Rei crossed to the center of the room near the table with the tea set and held up his hands. “Enough. I’m sure the news has spread that I renounced the throne. I’m not the crown prince or would-be king of the fae. No more of that. I’m just Rei.”
“Sure, but if we have to choose between you and that psychopath half brother of ours, who do you think they’re going with?” a cold feminine voice drawled.
Junjie turned from his inspection of the books on the shelf to find the white-haired elf seated on the stairs. Her spine was hunched and shoulder slumped as if she were exhausted after their rescue. She shoved a hand through her stark white hair, pushing it from her face and revealing a spectacularly pointed ear with a silver cuff and chain.
Rei sighed. “Clan, this is Ellora, my half sister…” Rei paused as he squinted at the female elf and leaned toward her before finishing, “from my father’s side. I think.”
Ellora leveled a very irritated and unimpressed look at her sibling. “Yes, King Ash was my father, so technically I’m not related at all to Trin. Bless the goddess for that.”
Yichen sidled up to Rei and pitched his voice low. “I thought you said that your parents had killed off all your other siblings, and that Trin was the only one left.”
Rei brushed a quick kiss on his mate’s cheek. “I said most. My parents had killed off most of their bastards. Out of the survivors, Trin was one of the few who stuck somewhat close to the royal family. The rest of those who hadn’t been slaughtered stayed away. They lived longer that way.”
“Arrogant wastrel,” Ellora muttered.
“Tedious harpy,” Rei shot back.
“Thank you!” Xiao Dan blurted out in an exceedingly loud voice, cutting off the sibling bickering. “Thank you so much for coming to our aid earlier. We had gone out following a lead that some of Trin’s soldiers had been in the area searching for a place to conduct their ritual. We weren’t expecting to encounter Trin or that he would have support like that.”
Ellora grunted, and Rei gritted his teeth at her in a silent snarl.
Yichen rested his hand on his mate’s shoulder and squeezed. He turned his attention to the white-haired elf and asked, “What’s your stake in this?”
Ellora’s dark eyes shifted to Rei before she spoke, her gaze moving to Yichen. “You’re the vampire that was held prisoner for a century. I heard rumors you survived and escaped. Impressive.”
“Rei saved my life. He’s the reason I survived my imprisonment.”
The white-haired elf seemed to consider this. She nodded. “Trin’s plan will not only destroy the humans, but all fae and our realm.”
“He’s gone mad, like my parents,” Rei grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest.
“Is it madness or a family trait at this point?” Huli inquired, and Junjie had to bite his bottom lip to stop his grin. The fox spirit wasn’t wrong. Both of Rei’s parents had been obsessed with power and taking over the human realm. Now their son was following in their footsteps. This was feeling more like an “absolute power corrupts absolutely” thing.
“Huli, hush,” Xiao Dan chastised, but Rei was waving him off.
“He’s right. Blood has stained nearly every change of power for our people. We are drowning in twisted plots and schemes. It’s been thousands of years since our struggles have spilled across the human realm. We’ve been content to keep the humans out of our mess.”
“Until now,” Ellora cut in. She shoved to her feet and descended the last couple of stairs to step into the room. “To keep the door endlessly open and conduct the ritual spells to wipe out the humans, King Ash and Queen Belladonna have been draining the magic from the fae realm. Our home is dying. That’s where I was, watching the magic get sucked away. There was no point in coming to the human realm if it was going to make me a target for Queen Belladonna.”
“But she’s dead now. Trin killed her,” Junjie murmured.
“Yeah, and I celebrated her death for about two seconds. Then I heard Trin was planning to carry on their plans of destroying the humans. He doesn’t care that he’s killing off our world and our people.”
“So, we need to close the door between the worlds,” Rei stated.
Ellora closed her eyes and shook her head. “The royal family continues to be filled with racist assholes.”
“Hey!” Rei shouted, and Junjie and his companions echoed it.
“Don’t deny it!” she shouted at him. “You’re all the same. If the fae isn’t an elf, they aren’t worth considering. They have no use outside of being servants or cannon fodder in your wars.”