Hotter Than Blue Blazes by Kimbra Swain

Author:Kimbra Swain [Swain, Kimbra]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-06-28T22:00:00+00:00

NEVER IN MY life had I considered a ginger-haired man to be handsome. They were all hair and freckles. However, this man’s deep auburn hair looked almost brown but glistened with copper highlights in the sun. His face was cleanly shaven. The freckles along the edges of his hairline and across his cheeks were faint and endearing.

“Astor!” Tabitha exclaimed. She ran to him and hugged him. His laughter escaped his lips in a low, warm chuckle. He squeezed her tight. It wasn’t sexual, then it hit me. They were related.

“Sister! It is good to see you. She did not tell me you were here,” he claimed.

“You know how she is,” Tabitha said. Those in my group relaxed their stances, but Luther remained in his fiery ifrit form. He tucked his wings behind him forming a lump of flesh and flame at his back like an incendiary backpack. He held his craggy hand out to me. Pulling up, I stood to my feet with a wobble. Astor’s eyes shot to mine with concern for my well-being. His armor glistened in the sunlight. The tree of life was etched into the breastplate, and the limbs of it stretched around to his back weaving their way in everlasting knots down the arms and legs of his armor. It was a deep blue, almost black. Underneath he wore a pure white tunic with seams of golden thread. A large sword rested at his hip. Golden tree branches made up the guard that sat around the grip. The sheath was a fine leather, tanned and bearing the same knotwork from top to bottom.

He winced to answer Tabitha, “I know all too well.”

“Come meet the Queen,” Tab said, pulling him toward me. He smiled at her urgency. “Queen Gloriana, daughter of Oberon, Queen of the Exiles, I would like to present to you my brother, Astor, son of Rhiannon, First Knight and Guardian of the Tree of Life.”

I bowed slightly to him as the child of a monarch, but to be the First Knight of the Tree of Life was the highest honor in the Otherworld outside of ruling a season. In all actuality, he probably outranked me in the grand scheme. In the past, the tree would have a shared guard of Summer and Winter. I had heard in recent years that the task had fallen to Summer to protect the tree. It should have been Finley’s job, but I knew why he didn’t take the opportunity. The tree guardians were celibate. They never married, because they dedicated their lives to the protection of the tree.

Astor went to one knee, taking my hand and pressing it to his forehead. “It is an honor to meet you, Gloriana.”

I suddenly remembered what Joey had said about Rhiannon wanting me to marry one of her children. I just assumed she meant one of her daughters, then she mentioned that she’d given her heir to her son. Finley also said he was a good man. This virile man kneeling before me was the man they spoke of.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.