Total pages in book: 116
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109099 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 364(@300wpm)
“The Jewel of Lolth!” I exclaimed out loud. Of course! Why hadn’t I thought of it earlier? Well, probably because I couldn’t think of anything earlier—I’d been too busy rubbing against Sel like a cat in heat and getting ready to drain him dry. But now that I had some distance between me and temptation, I could think.
Krynn had told me that the Jewel of Lolth—the beautiful silver necklace with the deep purple stone which had been found with me when I’d been abandoned as a newborn—could help me control the Thirst. So that was the key—I just needed to get it back from Christopher and I wouldn’t have to bite anyone!
Now that I knew what I had to do, I burst into action. I found my discarded jacket and sure enough, it still had the car keys in one pocket. I thought about changing into something more modest and less gaudy than the Quenching robe I was still wearing but decided there was no time. At any minute, the Thirst might make me crazy enough to attack someone—I couldn’t have that.
Filling the silver pitcher one more time from the cold tap of the tub, I took another deep drink and then put it down and pulled on my jacket. Stuffing my feet into the soft slippers I’d been wearing earlier that morning, I headed out of the Cavern and down one of the many long corridors which led to the rest of the Palace.
I had to get out of here and get back the Jewel of Lolth. Then I could worry about what to do next, but first and foremost I had to get the Thirst under control before I killed someone.
30
Lily
The minivan was just where I had left it—thank goodness! I sighed with relief as I climbed into the car, slammed the door shut behind me, and locked it.
The first thing I did was to reach for the bottle of water I knew I had stashed under the seat. It was lukewarm from sitting in the car all day but I didn’t care. I drank the whole thing thirstily, then jammed the key in the ignition and turned it.
At first I didn’t think the minivan was going to start. It had a few false tries that put my heart in my throat. What would I do if I couldn’t get it going? Despite my new status as a Princess in the Fae Realm, back here in the human world I was still technically just an unemployed mom. A broke unemployed mom and I didn’t have the money for an Uber or a Taxi to get me back to my old house.
Finally, however, the engine turned over and the old minivan roared to life. I breathed a sigh of relief as I backed out of the parking spot and sped out of the Grab N Go parking lot.
I don’t know if time flows differently in the two worlds, but a glance at my dashboard clock showed that it was eight o’clock in the evening. Which was good because it meant that Christopher should be home. I wondered if his little blonde girlfriend had made him dinner. I pictured the two of them eating whatever it was she’d whipped up and then settling down on the couch for a night watching a favorite show together. That was how we’d spent our nights after the kids were in bed—back in the good days of our relationship.
But had they been any good? When I looked back on my marriage with a dispassionate eye, I saw all the times I had eaten alone with the kids while Christopher worked late. Now I wondered if he had really been working—maybe he’d been having affairs.
How many nights had I put the kids to bed all by myself and then cleaned the house so it would be nice and neat for him while I waited for him to get home? Then, when he finally came in he might give me a kiss on the cheek…or he might just go directly to bed without even bothering to greet me.
He treated me like a maid and a nanny—like the hired help. No, not even that because it wasn’t like I ever got paid for all that labor—he just expected it of me. And I went on stupidly delivering everything he wanted, right up until the day he kicked me out and changed the locks.
I wondered now why I had been willing to accept so little from the man who said he loved me. Why had I given up my dreams of a career to cook and clean for him for free—to raise his kids without his help? Why had I let myself be such a doormat?
It was thoughts like these that were simmering in my brain as I finally pulled into the driveway of my old home. I could see Christopher’s Range Rover parked there but also a cute little hot pink sports car that must have had a custom paint job. It looked brand new and when I pulled in behind it, I saw that it had a bumper sticker that said, “Yield to the Princess.”