Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 136009 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 680(@200wpm)___ 544(@250wpm)___ 453(@300wpm)
“Yes.”
He moved faster, his pace quickening as her body unraveled under his practiced thrusts. Her breath was coming out in short pants, and sweat beaded on her brow.
“I don’t want to wait any longer to belong to you,” he admitted.
Her left hand lifted to his brow. The diamond glittered on her ring finger. “I already belong to you.”
“Promise?”
“Promise.”
He captured her lips once more, sealing their bargain as they both reached their peak. Kerrigan cried out as wave after wave rocketed through her body. Fordham buried himself deep and shuddered as he finished.
Her hand dropped over her head as she blinked away stars. Their gazes met once more, and a slow smirk came to his lips.
“I want to do that again.”
She laughed. “You’ll have all the time you need after the coronation.”
He groaned as they separated. “One more before I fight for my life?”
“I don’t fear for your life at all.” Then she paused as she stretched out across the bed. “Though maybe a second time would be in order.” He reached for her eagerly and she laughed. “After we figure out what to do with all the dragons I brought home…”
“Exactly how many did you secure?”
“Half,” she said.
“Half of what?”
“All the dragons at the Holy Mountain.”
Fordham examined her face. “And how many is half?”
She smirked. “Why don’t I show you?”
Chapter Thirty
The Denouncement
The dragons had already figured out the logistics, but she enjoyed watching them negotiate with Fordham and the war council. Barron Laurent looked anything but pleased by the contingent of dragons who had just appeared. He’d been eyeing Gelryn like he might jump on the dragon’s back and hope that it would be enough to force the binding, as if a Fae could choose a binding instead of the dragon.
Who the dragons would choose was a problem for after the coronation. She and Fordham were up late into the evening, helping the best they could with everything that would come with feeding and housing this many dragons.
It had been exhausting, and Kerrigan was feeling it the next morning, especially since she’d stayed up well into the early hours rolling around the bed with Fordham until neither could even lift their head.
Except he was gone in the morning.
The morning of his coronation.
Kerrigan approached their designated waiting room for the denouncement, but Fordham wasn’t there either. Everyone else was already filing into place outside.
“Delle, have you seen Fordham?”
Delle tilted her head. “He said he went to find you.”
Kerrigan froze. “Uh…he wasn’t with me.”
“Perhaps he is just running behind.”
But that didn’t seem like him.
“He wouldn’t leave,” Delle hissed to her mother, who had been apprised of the situation.
“It would be tantamount to abdicating,” Adelaide said.
Kerrigan leaned into their bond. There was no response to her warmth, but she had a general sense of direction, and it said down.
“He’s still here. I’ll go get him.”
She headed out of the waiting room and followed their bond. She could have reached out to him and asked him directly where he was, but something told her that he needed the space right now. That talking to him in person would be better.
The bond took her to a door with an eye etched into it. The pulse of their bond said here. She opened the door and then took the steps down, down, down into the depths until she came upon the open crypt door.
“Fordham,” Kerrigan whispered as she stepped across the threshold and into his family’s crypt.
She had only been here once before. Fordham came here to think, and today was one of those days.
“Hello, love,” Fordham said, glancing sideways at her.
He was laid out across the sarcophagus of his original Fae ancestor. The black of his cloak was draped across the stone steps that led up to it. He looked indomitable and every inch the broody Fae princeling she had fallen in love with. And now he looked the perfect part of the king of the Dark Court.
She was glad she had left her pretty, silver dress back in their rooms for the coronation. There was water dripping onto the floor, and it would have ruined the silky material. She had refused to wear something so restrictive to the denouncement. Not when anything could happen. Not when she was a fighter. She was instead draped in a black-and-silver tunic and pants.
“Needed time to think?”
“Communing with the ancestors,” he said as he sat up.
“And do they think you’re ready to be king?”
He shrugged. “Fifty-fifty.”
“I doubt that.” Kerrigan came to his side and saw his face in repose mirroring the crowned Fae ancestor below him. “You are made for this moment.”
“This shouldn’t be how this happens.”
“How so?”
“We should be getting married instead of having the coronation.”
“You know why we can’t.”
“Those reasons are bullshit,” he snapped. “They’re the reason the House of Shadows has fallen in the first place.”