Total pages in book: 208
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 209645 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1048(@200wpm)___ 839(@250wpm)___ 699(@300wpm)
He would know why when she looked away and growled, actually growled, “Mother.”
“She needed to know,” a stately voice came from behind his daughter from a person he could not see, but he knew was Ophelia.
“Do you not think it should be her father who told her?” Elena demanded.
It was at this demand, on his behalf about his communication with his daughter, when Cassius stopped thinking he could fall in love with Elena, Princess of the Nadirii.
Instead he realized that was already happening.
On this staggering thought, Aelia chimed in.
“Hullo. Are you the lady that’s marrying my papa?” she asked Elena.
Cassius froze again.
But he did not do this for long when Elena’s head turned Aelia’s way and the fierce warrior who could split the shaft of an arrow at twenty paces, ride like the wind and fearlessly fight Zees stared at a little, red-headed girl appearing terrified.
At her expression, he burst out laughing.
Aelia studied him quizzically as he put her down but took her hand and led her to his betrothed.
“Princess Elena, I would like you to officially meet my daughter, Princess Aelia of Airen. She likes chocolate pots, detests playing with dolls, started demanding to ride a horse, not a pony, when she was three, she can be a rascal and she is far too intelligent for my sanity.”
He looked down at his daughter and continued.
“Princess Aelia, this is Princess Elena of the Nadirii, the woman who will soon be my wife and your mother. She rides like the wind, something I suspect she will teach you. She can charm Zees with a smile. And her aim is so true with an arrow, she can probably shoot a walnut off your head at one hundred paces.” He paused when he saw his daughter’s eyes light, then warned severely, “But she will not be doing that.”
Aelia looked from him to Ellie, back to her father.
“She is most lovely,” she shared.
“In visage and in heart, my daughter,” he replied quietly.
Aelia looked between them again before she leaned to him and got up on her toes.
“Can she speak?” she whispered loudly.
He bent to his girl and whispered loudly in return, “I believe she wishes to make a good impression on you. I should have told her to come charging into the area making starbursts in the sky with her arrows.”
Aelia’s eyes got large and her whisper turned reverent. “She can do that?”
“She can, indeed.” Cass straightened, put his hand to his daughter’s shoulder and pulled her to his legs, murmuring, “I’m learning Princess Elena can do most anything.”
Aelia turned her gaze from her father to Ellie.
“Will you do that for me?” she asked shyly.
Finally, Elena’s musical voice came forth and it did this as she swept a low bow, saying, “It would be my honor, Princess Aelia.”
Aelia giggled.
Elena lost her fright and smiled down at Cass’s girl.
She turned that smile to her side and called, “No hug for me?”
“Did you bring me a present?” Dora called in return.
“You were in Fire City with me, darling,” Elena reminded her.
“I wasn’t in Wodell with you,” Dora pointed out.
“Hmm…” Elena hummed, looked down at Aelia, then lifted her hand, palm up, as she turned Dora’s way.
She bent to her hand and blew lightly.
From her palm swept a stream of sparkling purple and coral dust that turned green the closer it got to Dora.
And when it was right in front of her, it bloomed into a beautiful tree about three feet tall and two feet wide with lush green leaves that faded to red, then orange, then yellow, and finally brown before they fell from the tree leaving it barren for but a moment before the tree disappeared into miniature doves that wafted away into nothing.
“Golly,” Aelia breathed.
“Showoff,” Jazz murmured from close.
Elena winked down at Aelia before she gave her attention again to Dora.
“Will that do?” she asked.
Dora appeared unimpressed and solidified this impression by crossing her little girl arms on her chest.
“Are you going to leave me behind ever, ever, ever again?” she demanded to know.
It was at that, Cassius was stunned that Elena did not seek her mother’s eyes.
She looked to Cass.
And he was further stunned when she did this not as censure for the decision he made in Firenze as pertained to Dora, but to read the expression he gave her.
Thus, she turned back to Theodora to say, “Maybe. If there’s danger.”
Dora was unsurprisingly not mollified by this answer and thus continued her hostile interrogation.
“Is he sleeping in our treehome?” she asked with a jerk of her head Cassius’s way.
Bloody hell.
“As I told you, Theodora, he is.” Ophelia entered the conversation.
Bloody hell.
“Just you wait, Papa,” Aelia told him excitedly, shaking his leg as she did so. “You get to sleep with the princess in her eyrie. Dora’s taken me there. We play there. It’s all high up in the highest heights of her tree. High. Like the citadel, except, well…nice.”