Eternal Duty and Desire: Eternal Saga : Spicy Fantasy Romance by Emory Gayle & Anne K. Whelan

Author:Emory Gayle & Anne K. Whelan [Gayle, Emory & Whelan, Anne K.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clan Whelan Publishing (CWP)
Published: 2023-06-14T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 25

REN

The death of Hessi was just a little more than I could take. I stormed into the house after putting away Zeph and ran straight into Pops.

“Whoa! Where have you been?” Pops asked and then took a good look at me and stilled. “What happened, Ren?”

“Hessi is dead,” I said, opting for a straight-forward approach to the news.

“How?” Pop asked, the pain in his voice matching mine.

“We don’t know for sure, but it looks like someone slit her throat,” I choked out.

“Gods damn,” he swore. “What would drive someone to kill a beautiful soul like that?”

“I don’t know, but I have my suspicions,” I said.

“I just put on water for tea,” Pops said. “I’ll pour us some and you tell me all about it.”

Pops’ tea had my favorite special ingredient—rum. The sting of it felt good as it went down my throat and warmed my belly. I drank my tea quickly and then filled the bottom of my mug with just rum for round two. Pops didn’t say anything as he watched me drown my pain in booze.

“Talk to me, son,” Pops said.

“The way I see it, there are three possible answers to who did this.”

“Okay,” Pops said, leaning back in his chair.

“We turned two Elite families away that didn’t bond with their magical baby last month. They were not happy.”

“Nothing we can do about that. They shouldn’t have let their horses breed if they weren’t prepared to potentially lose it because it had powers. They brought it to us; we didn’t seek it out.”

“I know, but they weren’t happy about losing out on the horse.”

“We paid them for the baby. It’s not like we stole it from them. It’s why we were so short this month and couldn’t replace the supplies lost in the fire,” Pops said.

“Right. Still, they could have done it.”

Pops conceded to the possibility, so I moved on. “Then there is the growing unrest among the Lowers against Elite. More and more I’m hearing how things have to change. People are angry at the way this realm is run and want things to finally move forward for the betterment of all the people of Elkion.”

“Who out of our side of things would attack Hessi? We have strong relationships with the Lowers in the community. They would never hurt us like that,” Pops said, leaning forward and placing his hands on the table.

“Let me finish. The Elite are upset about Shal and her job while the Lowers are ecstatic about it. We sit at a cross section of the two worlds. We deal directly with Elite families all the time. They don’t like that we are the only ones who have the ability to care for magical horses. They want someone they can control, so they can get their hands on more magical horses without having to go through us. Lowers know we run a good business, but they can’t afford the magical horses like the Elite can. Neither side knows what we have to do to raise magical horses nor the cost of running this place.

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