Total pages in book: 157
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 156907 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 785(@200wpm)___ 628(@250wpm)___ 523(@300wpm)
Completely true.
“And since he’s in love with you—” Finnie began.
Wait a second.
“Hold on,” I interrupted. “He’s not in love with me.”
This time, Finnie stared at me.
She then cast a glance to Circe, who was also staring at me.
Circe felt her gaze, looked her way, and they both stretched their mouths in expressions that were not lost on me.
“He’s not in love with me,” I reiterated.
“Um…okay,” Circe muttered.
“Okay” meant “all right,” I’d learned.
And in this instance, she didn’t mean it at all.
“He really isn’t,” I said quietly. “He was married before. He lost her in childbirth. He loved her dearly and he still does.”
“No doubt,” Finnie agreed. “He’s still fallen in love with you.”
I felt my lips part.
“And knowing this, knowing he’s lost someone before you, would explain a good part of why he does not wish to take you somewhere he thinks is dangerous for you,” Finnie concluded.
“But,” I whispered. “He’s not in love with me.”
They looked to each other again and seemed to come to some accord that I did not understand, and not simply because I was reeling due to the fact they thought Cassius had fallen in love with me.
Not to mention feeling equal measures of terrified and experiencing the bubbling of sheer glee at this possibility.
Finnie took my mind from these thoughts when she squeezed my wrist a bit tighter but held on.
“After we explained it to Aramus and Ha-Lah, we discussed this. Frey, Apollo, Lahn, Tor and among us women, all decided that the best thing we should do was to keep it from you.” Another wrist squeeze. “All of you. Too much pressure, and you’re all already under too much. More would not be good. But right now, I wonder if that’s wise.”
“I always wondered if it was wise,” Circe stated. “I mean, I haven’t been around them as long as you, but anyone can see it’s already happening, or has happened, so what’s the big deal?”
“I know, right?” Finnie said to her.
“Right,” Circe agreed.
My voice pitched higher when I asked, “What are you two talking about?”
“The prophecy,” Finnie answered on yet another squeeze, but this time she let my wrist go and sat back.
“The prophecy of us defeating the Beast?” I queried.
“That very one,” she said on a nod.
“What about it?”
“It’s not about alliances,” Finnie said.
“It’s about love,” Circe said.
Love?
“It’s always about love,” Finnie noted.
“Always. People need to get that. It’d make every world I know, and I know more than most, a better place,” Circe added.
At that, they both burst out laughing.
I wasn’t quite sure I knew what they found so amusing.
Because…
Love?
“What do you mean…love?” I asked.
However, I would receive no answer.
The door flew open and we all jumped.
Cassius prowled through, looking in a record-setting foul mood.
Frey then came through, appearing relieved (yes, we had been triumphant).
Lahn came after Frey, and even though all the men were tall, he had to tuck his chin in his neck and even bend a bit at the waist to get in the door, that was how large the man was.
He definitely looked like he could be Firenz (or Airenzian). Dark. Forbidding. Big.
But he was all that multiplied by about fifty.
I was not surprised he was known as the most powerful warrior in the Southlands and the Northlands. Indeed, I would imagine many wet themselves before turning to run just being confronted by the idea of battling with him.
That said, he was ridiculously attractive.
Not as good-looking as Cassius (my prince’s tattoos, shorn hair, those blue eyes, there was no compare).
But Lahn was not hard to look at.
Then again, neither was Frey.
“We dock,” Cassius veritably barked, making me jump again at his tone and tear my eyes from my assessment of Frey to look at him. “The men will deal with distributing the supplies. We’re away to the Citadel. Prepare yourself but do not concern yourself with your belongings. They will be fetched.”
And with that, he stalked out.
I stared at his back and then at the open doorway he’d disappeared through.
Both Jasmine and Hera filled that doorway, Jazz with her head turned, undoubtedly glaring in the direction of the departing Cassius. Hera had eyes to me.
“Quickly, for I’m getting that if there are delays, his mood will deteriorate,” Finnie said, and I looked to her, wondering how Cassius’s mood could possibly deteriorate from where it was now. “Woman to woman, long-time wife to a sister who’s learning the ropes.”
The ropes?
“Have a mind,” she continued. “This is not a question of your skill or abilities and what he feels about them or how you disagree about you using them. This is about where his head is at and that is not a good place. In other words, my friend,” she leaned closer, “in choosing battles, this is one to set aside and instead channel your energies into looking after your man.”