Her Instruments Box Set, Books 1-4 by M.C.A. Hogarth

Author:M.C.A. Hogarth
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: A four-book saga set in the space operatic Pelted universe: merchant trader Reese Eddings just wants to be left alone. So naturally she spends four books wrapped up in pirates, spies, and a space elf civil war!
Publisher: Studio MCAH
Published: 2017-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

The door shut on Reese, and the room seemed far emptier for it than her presence alone should have warranted.

“Now there goes a woman I shall be proud to take into the family,” Liolesa said with relish. She grinned at Hirianthial. “I had thought she would be a good investment when I bought her ship back from her creditors, but I had no idea how high the dividends would be.”

“She is remarkable,” Hirianthial said, folding his hands behind his back. He tilted his head. “You truly mean to make her a vassal?”

“If she accedes?” Liolesa huffed. “I had always planned to open the world to some number of aliens and have spent some small time in the cultivation of likely prospects. To have found one who cleaves to our ways as readily as she appears to, who wants to be here… I would be a fool not to.”

“She swore to the Veil, you know,” he said, quiet.

“Did she now?”

“And her people with her,” Hirianthial said. “On the Galare unicorn.”

“Did she!” Liolesa laughed. “And I am guessing you explained the ramifications of such a promise, and they made it anyway?”

Hirianthial looked away, eyes closing. “I told them about the Tams and Lesandurel, yes.”

“And now you will have your own multigenerational household,” Liolesa said, going to the fire.

“Me!” He suppressed his revulsion with difficulty. “They swore on your seal, not mine.”

“But it is you they fell in love with, cousin, no mistake.” She looked up at him as she sank onto a chair and sighed. “Hiran. Sit, please. You make my joints ache standing thus so rigidly.”

“They do not—“ He stopped because he could not continue, could not lie. He knew how much they cared for him.

“They do, and well you know it.”

“They’ll die,” he said, low.

She was quiet a moment. Then she said, “So did Laiselin, and she should have lived fifteen hundred years.”

God and Lady, how that could still hurt. “Then you know why I must not.”

“Must not what? Must not care?” She shook her head. “It’s too late for that. You do already, and so do they. All that remains is to decide what you will do about it.”

“As if there is something to be done!” he said. “Lia, in less than a hundred years they’ll all be dead!”

“So?” she said.

“So?” He stared at her, could not believe the settled pool of her aura. “You would have me enter into something, knowing the loss I court?”

“Why not?” she said. “I have.”

The truth of it shone through her calm like sun through water, a dazzling radiance.

“You have… what?” he asked, carefully.

“I have loved a human,” she said, her hands folded on her lap. “And in the fullness of time he died.”

“You… did what?” he said, stunned. “When? I have been your fast companion all your life—“ He stopped. “No. Not when you were newly heir.”

“And went off-world on behalf of our aunt?” she said. “Yes, that was when it happened. And then I stole away whenever I could, and said I was—“

“In the convent!” Hirianthial exclaimed.

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.