Finch Merlin and the Everlasting Vow , livre ebook

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133 pages

English

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No more Mr. Nice Guy...Finch is tired of people jerking him around-and now, it's time for payback against the powerful forces who have made him a pawn in their games. Returning to the surface world is his endgame, but while that seems nearly impossible, especially when a certain Necromancer and demigod have teamed up to take Finch out of the running, Finch plans to use all the tricks up his sleeve on his enemies. And before he's force-fed the love potion that will ensure he loves Princess Kaya forever.Good thing Shapeshifters are known for their trickery.

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Publié par	Distributed by eBookpartnership
Date de parution	01 juillet 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9798600819146
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

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Copyright © 2020
Hot Pancakes Ltd
www.hotpcakes.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
ONE
Finch
I stared into the mirror in Kaya’s bedroom. A dead man walking stared back. But he wasn’t done yet. Oh, no. Fire glinted in his eyes. The ghost of old Finch reared up, stretching out those sweet muscles of deceit, which hadn’t been used in a long time.
“At least I’m in a pretty cage,” I muttered to my reflection. Minimalist gray-and-white furniture surrounded me. Not exactly Versailles, with the sparse sleekness only adding to the prison vibes. But right now, with so many people planning to skewer me if I slipped up, this was the safest place I could be-under Kaya’s protection and behind a locked door.
I can’t marry her. I love Ryann. I couldn’t live with myself if I ended up at the end of an aisle, the wrong woman standing in front of me.
I started pacing across the endless floor . The new Muppet Babies were probably still in that fancy room, wondering what had happened. They’d stood between me and Erebus, ready to give everything to save me. That only fueled my fire. I’d return the favor when I could.
As long as I pretended to behave, they’d be okay. I’d already convinced myself of that, while pushing back a tidal wave of worry. Hell, I even spared a worried thought for my gargoyles, who were likely misting around in one of those Bestiary orbs.
Lux wanted me to marry Kaya solely to get revenge on her wayward husband. Kaya wanted to marry me for the same reason, as well as some crap about doing what was best for her people. Ovid wanted me in the suitor race so that his daughter would have more options. And everyone’s okay with that?!
I wished Apollo hadn’t been arrested for attempted murder. But the whole situation stank, fishy and rotten. I didn’t know the guy well, but he hadn’t seemed like the kind of dude who’d arrange a knife in Kaya’s heart. A knife that could easily be traced back to him. Yep, big old salmon stench, there… Maybe it was because we were underwater, or maybe it was just my dubious feelings about supposedly utopian societies, but Atlantis reeked right now.
And if Apollo wasn’t the mastermind behind the assassination attempt, then the killer could still be on the loose-a killer who might gun for the other suitors, now that they’d gotten Apollo out of the picture.
I groaned and paused my pacing. “I swear to Chaos, the last thing I need right now is another person trying to off me. This plate is full!”
I’d just started some lion-esque prowling to get my thoughts in order, when the door opened and my wannabe bride strolled in.
“I thought you would be asleep.” Kaya looked surprised to see me wandering around, for some reason. It was only early evening.
I gave her my best withering stare. “What, you thought I’d just snuggle up in your bed with all this going on? Or did you think I’d doze off and wake up with a total change of heart? Tell me, did you drug the pillows?”
“You seemed tired, that is all. There is no need for unnecessary snark.” She rolled her eyes and gestured for a scurrying little servant to come in.
“Who said it was unnecessary?” I shot back. Just because she’d snared me in a courtship trap I couldn’t immediately wriggle out of didn’t mean she would get a softer, more amenable Finch.
She ignored me and crossed the room. There, she stepped out onto the expansive balcony and sat at a table on the terrace, where the servant hurried to set a tray of food and a pewter pitcher. The poor guy looked like he was trying to beat his personal record. With everything laid out, he almost cracked his back in an attempt to make the deepest bow in history, before rushing from the room. The door clicked shut with a quiet, yet threatening, lock.
“Come. Eat.” It wasn’t a request. So, like the “Belle” I’d apparently morphed into, I went out to join Kaya in the balmy Atlantean glow of evening. Only a few hours had gone by since she’d brought me to her room, but it felt like weeks.
“Shouldn’t you turn a key or something, so I can at least feel like a hostage?” I sat opposite her and eyed the tasty smorgasbord. As it turned out, all this stress had made me insanely hungry.
She chuckled as she gazed out over the city. “There is no need.”
“Ah, yes, the multitude of hexes you’ve slathered on this place.” I sank back, knowing it’d be bad form to start chowing down before the princess did.
“They are necessary,” she replied.
“You know, since you keep saying that, I feel like I should buy you a thesaurus. It might give you another word for ‘necessary.’” I faked a smile, trying to walk the tightrope between irreverent and rude.
She shook her head with a hint of a smile. “Then, I should say, it is for your benefit. The hexes will keep you safe and prevent any of the suitors, or those who wish you harm, from entering or trying to toy with the door or windows.”
Including Davin and Erebus… A security measure that should’ve comforted me but instead left a sour taste in my mouth. The tang of incarceration, gussied up to look like hospitality.
Kaya had really done a number on her quarters since bringing me here, installing all kinds of magical reinforcements. Of course, I hadn’t been given any kind of key to exit at my leisure. And the windows had been additionally secured and locked, again with no spare key for little old me.
But I was nowhere near defeated. I had an ace up my sleeve. Who needed a key, when you could Shapeshift the way I could? But to use that honed skill, which Kaya knew nothing about, I needed outside help. My friends. Which begged the question of how to get them here, so that I could put a plan into action.
“Any sign of my two biggest fans? I thought they’d be scratching at the door, desperate for an autograph.” I took a slice of an Atlantean favorite-gray-toned laver bread-just as Kaya popped a green berry into her mouth. The bread glistened with their version of salted butter, all thick and creamy and delicious. It had a subtle hint of the sea, but so did everything else down here. I devoured the whole thing as if I hadn’t eaten in a month, before going back for seconds.
Kaya ate another swollen green berry, somewhere between a grape and a gooseberry. “They are prowling around, as I expected.” She laughed sharply. “It is rather amusing, in truth, how desperate they are to find you. I have never seen Erebus so incensed.”
“I bet you’re just loving that, aren’t you?” I mumbled with my mouth full, spitting crumbs. She wasn’t about to get any table manners from me.
“Pardon?” She narrowed her eyes.
“Well, that’s the crux of all this, isn’t it?” I swallowed the bread, the chunk almost lodging in my throat. “You get to sit back and enjoy your old flame getting jealous and angry, at my expense. Frankly, it’s ridiculous. And selfish. You’ve already shanghaied me into being your suitor, and now you’re using me to make jabs at Erebus, even though it’s putting my life on the line. You clearly still have feelings for him.”
“You can be rather intolerable at times; do you know that?” Kaya asked stiffly.
I picked up another slice of the tasty, umami-tingling bread. “I’m aware.”
“How many times must I reiterate the point, Finch?” She sighed in exasperation. What could I say? I had that effect on women. “There is more to my decision than inciting Erebus’s jealousy. A great deal more. Chaos brought you to my city for a reason.”
“Have you convinced yourself yet?” I cast her a knowing look.
“I need not convince myself when I am already certain.” She didn’t take the bait. “If, at first, I was tempted to consider Erebus, I can no longer justify prioritizing my own feelings. The greatness, and continued greatness, of Atlantis is much too important. And you are a vital part of seeing it persist in its excellence. A Merlin sharing my throne will be a miracle if ever I have heard of one.”
Since a plain “NO” hadn’t worked, maybe she’d respond better to a more subtle approach. Though subtlety had never been my strong suit.
“Okay, fine-say I agree to marry you, so Atlantis’s greatness and all my juicy Merlin blood can prevail. Will you keep me locked up here forever, not letting me see anyone?” I added a touch of sadness to my tone. “This imprisonment thing doesn’t work for me. Been there, done that, almost drove myself nuts. I need freedom, or I’ll shrivel up like a potato, forgotten in the back of a cupboard. It’s not right, and it’s definitely not good for me to be locked up.”
Kaya rolled one of the berries around in the palm of her hand. “Until our engagement is announced, you will not leave this room. For your own safety.” She met my eyes with a steely regality. “Only once vows and rings have been exchanged will you regain your freedom to move around the palace and city however you please.”
“Because of Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dumber?”
She frowned. “Who?”
“Erebus and Davin.”
She nodded in vague understanding. “At a minimum, yes.”
“You think other people might be after me?” I pried a little, hoping to strike gold.
“Apollo is in prison. A man I trusted more than… most people, in truth. If he sought my death, there is no telling who else may be working against the crown. If you are to, potentially, be the crown, then you may be under more threat than is currently evident,” she replied, crushing the berry between her thumb and forefinger. An odd look crossed her face-an expression of doubt. But doubt about what?
“Come on, you don’t actually think Apollo did that, do you? You’re a smart woman, and if you trust him as much as you say, then you can’t really believe he’d be capable of murdering you. I mean, if nothing else, he’s smart
-why would he use a weapon that could be traced directly back to him? It doesn’t make any sense.” I decided to throw t