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)
“We’ve not been going that slow.”
“It feels like it.”
“I’m betrothed to a man of action,” I muttered.
“You’re betrothed to a man who does not wish inertia to turn him into a statue.”
I started giggling again.
I felt his body relax but his mouth warned, “Farah.”
“Fine. Fine.” I snuggled deep. “I’ll sleep.”
Some time later, I was again close to slumber, when he whispered, “My True.”
My eyes opened again.
He said no more.
But something about the way he said that…
No.
No.
It was foolish to hope.
I had what I had.
And it was beautiful.
The life I’d led after my father’s ugly deed, even with Mama’s untimely passing, I knew I was lucky.
My bones could be in a pit.
But I had True as I could have him and he gave so much.
I was greedy to want more.
I’d have Doors.
And I’d have Lights.
I’d also have chocolate custard swirls, something I didn’t know what it was, but it sounded marvelous.
And eventually, if we defeated the Beast, I’d have children and grandchildren.
But I’d always have True as I could have him.
And even if it didn’t include his whole heart.
With all he gave me, I couldn’t ask for more.
48
The Splendor
Queen Ha-Lah
Deep Beneath the Triton Sea
OFF THE WEST COAST OF FIRENZE
Rotating my fin in a corkscrew movement, I coiled through the depths of the salty sea, eyes wide, schools of glinting fish racing me.
I was free.
Free.
I twirled up, through the deep blue-green, feeling my fin brushed by my fellow creatures. I undulated it, speeding toward the surface, and the moonlight, murky in the depths, brightened as I got closer.
I surged up, breaking the surface, throwing back my head, the gills under my jaw sealing to invisible instantaneously, and I drew in surface breath.
“Heaven,” I whispered.
I felt my darlings peck cheekily at my fin before they darted back toward the depths.
When they left me, I allowed my bottom half to float up and I drifted on the waves.
It was very late at night.
Under a guise of magic, I’d left Aramus and his men sleeping in their tents on the beach.
And I’d come home.
Home.
I did a twirl on the surface, a flip under it, pitched back up and coasted on the surf.
Aramus had been so adamant that we leave, we’d departed Fire City even before Sofia’s death ceremony.
We’d arrived at the shore three days prior.
The journey was long and hot, and it was only made less of the former because Mars and his father before him had been erecting roads across Firenze that were straight and maintained—and cutting over those dunes—they probably took weeks off the journey.
And three days of walking the beach and feeling the saltwater on my feet and legs was heartening, but it wasn’t what I needed.
This was what I needed.
Now I was restored.
Now I felt I could face anything.
However, the night would not last forever and I did not wish my husband, maddeningly attentive since he had injured me so greatly with his angry words after the attack on the palace, to find me gone.
And he might. The magic I’d used to keep him and his men slumbering peacefully while I departed didn’t last forever either.
I had to go back.
But Aramus had told me that we would stay as long as I wished, and we’d journey to join the others in Notting Thicket only when I was ready.
So tomorrow night, I’d steal away again, to the depths and be home for a spell.
Home and free.
And the night after that, the same.
Then, I knew, we should resume our journey.
Farah was grieving.
Silence was adjusting.
And Elena had much on her plate, with a mother I perceived was quite ill (though she attempted to hide it) and with Elena herself facing a marital union with a mortal enemy that would not be taken well in his land, or possibly hers.
Not to mention, all the things Aramus wished to do when we returned home.
All of this after we defeated an apparently loath-to-surface Beast.
As much as I’d like to remain for weeks, we couldn’t dally.
But Aramus had given me this. He’d gone out of his way to give me this. He’d been tremendously discourteous (leaving before the death ceremony was rude to the point of disrespectful, but he didn’t care, he was on a mission). The journey had not been enjoyable (this land was hot and there was a great deal of it). We’d face more on the trek to Wodell.
But we were here.
Solely because I desired to be here.
I did not wish for this to cause a chink in the armor I’d erected around my heart to protect it against my husband.
He was arrogant.
He was thoughtless.
When he was angry, or overly emotional, vicious things came out of his mouth.
He clearly spent far too much time around men and had no watery clue how to handle a woman.
And he spent equally too much time being crown prince and then king, thus thinking the very earth and all its seas rotated around him.