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)
“They did? But what about the baby’s real mother? What about Talandra?” I asked.
Liath looked grave.
“Dead—not a month after her child was born,” he said shortly. “By her own hand. She couldn’t bear the shame of what was done to her.”
“Oh…” I breathed and my eyes filled with tears when I thought of what my ancestress had endured. The Pool of Seeing made it all so real—she wasn’t some dusty figure from a history text. She had been a real, breathing female—a girl not unlike me and she had gone through a monstrous ordeal.
“Her death is sad and what was done to her is fucking unforgivable,” Liath growled. “But her son passed on the Unseelie blood, which has remained dormant—even in you.”
“So this is why you kept telling everyone I have Unseelie blood in my veins?” I asked, looking up at him. “But it must be so faint after all these years!”
“Faint or not, it’s there and the power of mixing the blood of the Seelie and Unseelie Courts is undeniable,” Liath said firmly. “You do have magic, Alira—you’re the one foretold in the prophesies and in the stars—I’m fucking sure of it. You just have to reach down inside yourself and tap into it.”
“But…how?” I asked as the pictures in the Pool faded and it went back to being dead black.
“I’m going to show you once we get back to the Palace,” Liath promised. “Come—we need to go.”
“Wait!” I stopped him when he started to lift me. “Wait—I know what I want to ask the Pool—ask it who killed my brother!”
Liath’s face was grave.
“We can try but the Pool doesn’t always answer—or show what you want it to. Sometimes it shows something completely unrelated.”
“Can we just try, though?” I begged softly. “I need to know, Liath! Please!”
“Very well.” My new husband nodded. Unsheathing his dagger, he drew it across his palm again. Then he squeezed his hand into a fist and held it over the dead black waters. “Show us who killed Quill,” he said in a commanding voice.
Once again the Pool swallowed the drops of his blood eagerly and then the surface rippled and showed the hazy outline of a warrior. At least, I thought it was a warrior—he had on the sleek, golden armor of the Seelie army. But his face was obscured as though by a cloud—I couldn’t get a gook look at him, no matter how I peered and squinted.
“Why is it doing that?” I asked, feeling a rush of pure aggravation. “Why is it hiding him? Hiding his face?”
“Whoever it is, they’re using some pretty strong obscuring magic,” Liath said grimly. “They’re hiding what they’ve done from everyone—it won’t be easy to find their true identity.”
“But, then how am I ever going to find out?” I demanded. “I need to know who to go after to avenge my brother!”
Liath gave me a look that seemed to hold grudging admiration.
“You really mean to kill him, don’t you? Whoever he is.”
“Yes!” I said fiercely. “I don’t know how, but I’m going to do it! He’s going to die for what he did to Quill!”
“Well, to find him, you’re going to have to have strong magic—stronger than his—strong enough to break the obscuring spell,” Liath told me. “If you can break his magic, you can break him.”
Suddenly the pool rippled again and the warrior with the cloudy face faded. In his place, I suddenly saw Asfaloth and Calista. Neither of my cousins had clothes on and they were kneeling on a bed—or rather, Asfaloth was kneeling behind his twin sister while she was on all fours in front of him.
“Oh Gods, brother—deeper!” she moaned, tossing her long golden hair over one shoulder. “Fuck me deeper!”
“As deep as you need me to go, sister,” Asfaloth panted. He had his hands on her hips and he was ramming into her, I saw—ramming his shaft between her legs as her tiny breasts jiggled with every thrust. And though I couldn’t quite see everything because of the angle the Pool was showing, I was fairly certain where his shaft was going.
Deep in her pussy, whispered a little voice in my head. That’s where it’s going—he’s ramming his shaft deep into his own sister’s pussy.
“By the Shining Throne!” I gasped, as it dawned on me exactly what my cousins were doing. It was no more than what I had accused them of, but I hadn’t actually believed they were doing it! I hadn’t really thought that Asfaloth would breed his own sister!
I could feel my face going hot as I watched the two of them rutting together, unable to look away. I wondered what Liath would think of them—of me. They were my kin, after all. And the thought of what they were doing together made my skin crawl.
I dared to look up at my new husband, and saw that he had one eyebrow raised.