Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
I was mourning years. I was mourning potential. I was mourning for Liv and Gray and the whole world that had changed into something I didn’t completely understand.
“Not as obvious as my mother,” Evan replied. “But I don’t think it’s a huge leap to understand how much losing that time must have hurt. I was so young I barely remember you. My parents—I have some memories of them, but it’s hard to remember exactly what it was like before. I was five. I remember how safe I felt. I remember they loved me. I wonder if they can still love me.”
“Yes.” I knew the answer to that one, and I didn’t have to consult the queen. “They love you.”
“They don’t know me.”
“It doesn’t matter. They love you. Your mother is processing. It’s what she does. Don’t be surprised if she comes up with some plan to right this whole thing.”
A brow rose over her hazel eyes, an expression I’d seen many times on her mother’s face. “Like turn back time to when I’m five again?”
I could see the queen trying. It wouldn’t work, but I could see her plotting. “She’ll think about it, but in the end she’ll understand that there are some things we can’t undo.”
“How are you so sure?”
“Because Gray saw this years ago, and he’s never wrong. There was nothing in his prophecy that said we would get a mulligan on this one.” I thought about the fact that in some ways, I’d seen it, too. “You know sometimes I have prophecy dreams. I hate them because they don’t make sense to me until after things have happened.”
“You have them because you were connected to Grayson Sloane when he transitioned, right?” Evan asked.
I’d been his balance that night, holding onto his kite strings so he didn’t fly away. It had affected me mightily. It had been the first time I’d realized how much Trent would come to mean to me, and the first time I’d seen my children.
My demon boy and she-wolf.
“Yes. I sometimes dream, and one of the dreams I had a few months ago…it’s been years for you.” My heart hurt to think about it. For me it had been a few months since I’d gone into those woods with Casey and Liv and my guys. And little Lee. I’d gone into those woods and come out with my son, Fenrir. “We were in Wyoming.”
“When you found Fen.”
I nodded. “I had a dream about Lee and Fen. I saw your wedding, Evan. Your wedding to Fen.”
A soft look came over the princess’s face. “You did?”
“Yes. So don’t worry about Fenrir. He will be there on the day, and he won’t let anything stop him,” I promised her. “And so will your parents. I saw them there, too.” I didn’t mention that only one of her dads had been giving her away. Zoey and Devinshea had been standing to the side. Huh. And now so much of that damn dream made sense. “I think that dream told me about Lee. Jacob, the heavenly prophet was there, and he kept going on and on about the new world beginning and how the crown is twofold. And then Lee stabbed himself with a sword and died.”
Evan huffed. “That sounds like my brother. He will definitely try to upstage me at my own wedding.”
“He was smiling when he did it, and I think I was supposed to figure out he’s a latent vampire from that.” Dreams are never plain old here’s-what’s-going-to-happen things. There’s a lot of metaphor involved, and I’m not particularly good with those. “At one point Lee turned into my dad and he said something about how it was written in his DNA. I probably should have figured that out. I wonder if he’s a king. I wonder if that’s what Gray meant when he said don’t believe the myth there can be only one.”
Evan’s eyes rolled. “I hope not. He would be insufferable.”
But it kind of made sense. I would have to run that by the royals when we got back. “The crown being twofold seemed to talk about Fenrir and Lee. Gray warned me to not leave the king behind. At that moment I thought he was talking about your dad, but now I think it was Fenrir. Our world has never seen both a vampire king and a wolf king.”
“Well, they have now since my dad is a king,” Evan pointed out.
“But a vampire king and a wolf king who grew up as best friends could change the world.” Vampires and wolves were often at each other’s throats. What if their kings were as close as brothers? The simple fact that Fenrir was marrying Daniel Donovan’s daughter would bring about a change in how the two groups worked together.
I could still remember how somber Jacob had been as he’d stared and told me to let the new world begin.