Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 75457 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 377(@200wpm)___ 302(@250wpm)___ 252(@300wpm)
“Have you and Maddox?” I blurt out, a surge of jealousy hitting me hard.
“No,” she says with a grin. “I can’t speak for Onyx or Circe, though.”
I grit my teeth because I’m not about to ask them. I only asked Veda because it was heat of the moment. I backpedal.
“It’s nothing,” I insist as I continue to walk, and she follows beside me. “We’re nothing.”
“If you say so,” she says, and I can tell by her tone she doesn’t believe me.
“I’m a god. He’s a demigod.”
“There are no rules or prohibitions against that,” Veda reminds me.
I huff out my annoyance. “He infuriates me. He’s bossy and high-handed. Likes to control me.”
Veda hums in approval. “Those are the best types.” My head whips her way, and she shrugs. “I’m just saying… when you’re female and you have all this power, having a man who isn’t intimidated by that is a huge turn-on. There aren’t many like them. Not all demigods have Maddox’s confidence.”
She’s paving the way for me to have no reservations about growing something with Maddox, but she can’t make me feel good about the last reason.
“I don’t know how to care for another individual,” I say.
Veda frowns. “Contrary to all the kids you just saved.”
“Kids. A group of them. I spent minutes among them and I doled out power. I’m talking about caring for a singular person.”
“You can’t do that?” Veda asks in confusion.
“I don’t know how. I was raised without love and learned only to depend on myself. I was abused, beaten, made to feel less than. Even though Amell cared for me as best he could, he was still loyal to Kymaris and followed her orders to fill me with dark magics. I never had a single soul to depend on and conversely don’t know how to give care to others. It’s foreign and doesn’t feel right.”
“And yet we know it can be done,” Veda says. “Look at Amell himself. Evil Dark Fae who rules the Underworld and yet he managed to fall in love.”
“That’s different,” I mutter.
“It always is when it’s not something we’re brave enough to try.”
Damn… that was harsh but probably accurate. Regardless, I haven’t heard from Maddox in four days. Not since I sent him to Amell for help. I have no clue if he even went. I’ve resisted going to Amell to find out and have been impatiently waiting for news.
“You should go to him,” Veda says, and her tone gives me pause.
“Why?” I ask suspiciously.
“Because he’s upset and brooding.”
I hold up a hand, close my eyes and shake my head in disbelief. When I open them, I demand, “You know he’s upset? How?”
“Because I’m nosy.”
“But how do you know where he is?”
Veda shakes her head in amusement. “Honestly, Zora, do you even know the extent of your own powers?”
I know I can kill or heal and I can blow out windows.
“Open yourself up to Maddox and you can be taken to wherever he is. Don’t you ever go visit him?”
“No,” I reply sullenly. “Because I don’t want or need him. It’s fine when he comes to me, but—”
“Fine.” Veda holds up her hands and I snap my mouth shut. “You have my advice. It’s up to you what you want to do with it.”
Before I can respond, she disappears and I’m left with more doubts and uncertainties than I had when she appeared.
Breathing out my annoyance, I consider what to do next. My choices are unlimited because I have no obligations. I can go home and be with my dogs or I can go visit Finley.
Or… I could go find Maddox. See what’s bothering him.
I conjure his image in my mind… beautiful man with flowing hair and jeweled eyes. I open myself up to his essence, and his dark, sour mood hits me hard. He’s angry, frustrated, and… reckless feeling.
I don’t like that combination at all.
I allow myself to be pulled to wherever he is. I have no clue if he has a home of his own or even what dimension he’s in.
As the landscape begins to clarify—aqua water and white sand beaches—I know I’m in the First Dimension.
Before me is a large pool surrounded by tropical trees, lounge chairs, and waterfalls. Beyond that is a beach studded with umbrellas and vacationers.
I glance over my shoulder and see a towering resort.
Apparently, Maddox decided to go on a tropical vacation and before I fully materialize, I change my wardrobe to a black bikini with a sarong around my waist to blend in.
I step from a shadowy corner and look around for the demigod.
It’s not him I see first, but rather a group of giggling women at a bar built inside the pool. One of those types you can swim right up to, sit on a submerged stool, and have a drink while cool water laps over you.