Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
She smiled up at them, rocking back on her heels. “Hey. Gotta say, I’m feeling kind of drunk right now. What is up with that?”
“Nothing is up, honey,” Cain assured her, resting his hand on her shoulder.
She felt her nose wrinkle. “Honey?” That was a new one. And it made her chortle to herself, though she didn’t really know why.
Wynter’s head sagged forward. Whoops. She frowned as she saw the bottom half of her body. What was with the dress? What had happened to her jeans? And why was the hair dangling around her face auburn?
Questions for the ages.
“The glamor spell won’t last long, so let’s not waste time getting to the surface,” said Cain.
She looked up at him, ready to ask what was happening. But then her stomach did a nauseating flip. “I don’t feel so good.”
That breeze came again, slapping at her skin this time, demanding her attention. Jeez, she was kind of busy here. Freaking deities thought they were the only ones with lives.
“You’re just tired,” Cain told her, his voice low and full of assurance. “Come on, let’s get you home and put you to bed.”
“Okay,” she said softly, wishing her monster would stop freaking out over jack shit.
Cain curled his arm around her shoulders and blurred them across the bailey and into the Keep.
Wynter’s stomach lurched. Oh, fuck. Convinced she’d puke all over him if they didn’t stop, she shoved hard at Cain. They both stumbled to a stop in one of the Keep’s many hallways.
Wynter pressed a hand to her stomach. “I think I’m gonna hurl.”
“No, you won’t, you’re fine,” said Seth, urging her forward. “We’ll just walk at a normal pace now.”
Cain frowned. “But—”
“If she spews up her guts, it’ll attract attention,” Seth said quietly. “We don’t want that.”
Feeling her brow furrow, Wynter looked up at him. “Say what?”
Seth gave her a shaky smile. “Well, you don’t want people seeing you vomit, do you? It’s very unladylike.”
Okay, that would be embarrassing.
A horse whinnied somewhere close by. A horse? In the Keep?
She frowned . . . and suddenly her surroundings smeared and shifted as the walls peeled away. Outside. She was outside. And she was approaching one of the city’s towers.
She blinked. “Why are we . . .” She trailed off as the hallway walls slammed back up as if they’d never been gone.
What the hell?
Wynter shook her head hard, unable to properly think. Process. Reason. It was like she had no grip on reality. Like the Keep wasn’t solid around her. It made no sense.
Cain stopped near the door to their chamber and briefly touched the wall . . . as if pressing a button or something. Seth began tapping one foot like crazy, repeatedly throwing looks over his shoulder. Why was the dude even here?
He’d better not be hoping for a threesome. The thought made her snicker.
Her surroundings briefly wavered, like the flicker of a faulty bulb, and she saw a flash of an elevator door. The image was there and gone lightning fast.
Wynter closed her eyes and pressed down on her eyelids. “Why are we waiting outside the chamber?” No one answered. Her monster kept on pitching a fit, and the otherworldly breeze again whipped at her face. Ow. “I thought I was going to bed.”
“You are,” said Cain. “See?”
She opened her eyes and watched the door to the chamber split into two and then each half slid to the side. Split. Into. Two. What the—
A blaring sound made her jump and hunch up her shoulders. An alarm was going off. And it was loud. Mega loud.
“Fuck,” muttered Seth. “Let’s go.”
Cain roughly ushered her into their chamber. “Move.”
“Don’t be snippy with me,” she snarked, frowning when he turned and started jabbing his thumb hard on the wall. “You’re being so weird right now.”
Everyone was being weird. Everything was weird. Including her.
She still felt giddy. But it was false. Like the emotion had been planted there. Beneath it, she was confused, uneasy, and frustrated.
The two halves of the door began to meet—again moving sideways—and Cain’s shoulders lowered in what appeared to be relief. He looked at her, his eyes dispassionate.
Dispassionate?
She tensed. Not even in the very beginning had he looked at her that way. He looked at most people that way, sure, but not her.
Something was so very wrong here.
His form shimmered. Flashed into something else for the merest moment. Into someone else. But then he was normal again. Only not. Because that detached look was still there.
Her uneasiness built, overriding the giddiness. Not Cain. No way.
Her surroundings flickered. Furnishings and walls shrank to nothing, revealing—
And then they were back.
She squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. No, this wasn’t real. It wasn’t. But when she opened her eyes, nothing had changed.
Her monster shoved her hard, and a breeze swirled urgently around her. Her vision swam again, becoming a swirl of colors . . . and they reformed into a whole other scene. The chamber walls were gone. The Ancients were gone. She was inside the city elevator, and two male fey were staring down at her.