Knight of the Goddess (Blood of a Fae, #4)

by Briar Boleyn

I was horrified. “No! We would have seen signs before now. We would have noticed.”

Would you have thought… 🙄🙄

Had she secretly been battling my father in her mind on my behalf, just as I had done in my true dreamings?

That’s why I had been thinking. That’s why I thought he had gotten to Amara and made her give her the sleeping drought to disable her for a time. Luckily that part turned out not to be true, but I still think she might be fighting him, which says a lot considering she’s just a human.

Would all our friends and loved ones fall around me? Would I lose even Draven at my father’s hands?

Probably because she don’t get heroic until someone around you dies and then that powerfulness tends to fade after that particular battle comes to and end and then you’re useless all over again, like you never had an awakening or anything significant happen to your power until someone else dies… 🤷🏽‍♀️ I don’t know why you were weren’t that way, but tis true.

“You,” I said to myself bitterly, looking at the broken arch. “It’s always been you, hasn’t it?”

She said it to herself or to the temple…because it seems like she’s talking to the temple…

But it was also a part of my father. Forged by the gods under sacred skies.

Gods, plural. So who all forged it and why is it only her father that she’s mentioning as a part of that. Who else?

I turned and looked at him. Truly looked, as I had not done in days. So wrapped up in my own grief that I had selfishly spared no mind for his own.

Days? The battle was just yesterday morning or so. She was just staring at him in the tent right before it started and she left to bring Gawain breakfast…. Now it’s the next day and Rychel just died and she went to stand in front of the temple…

Love was more than sharing pleasure.

You finally realize having sex is not the answer to everything wow. Amazing.

Bury yourself in me and give me all of your grief.”

Didn’t we just say this wasn’t going to be about sex…

We had lost people we loved.

And on that note, didn’t Tempest say they knew where Medra was and that someone had her? Yet there was no fire under her ass like it was the night her father first saw Medra…

Even with only a few days apart, I had missed him more than I’d realized. I needed him more than I knew.

Days? So she’s been standing in front of the temple for days? Cuz I swear she just watched him walk off after Rychel’s death then she walked to the temple… I can see hours passing by but not days. Where and when did they sleep. Was all that stuff edited out? Has she told anyone about Guinevere being drained?

“Is this what you want?” Draven growled from behind me. With a slight movement of his hand, he whirled me around. I collided with his chest, the breath going out of my lungs. In an instant, his hands were around my throat. “To fuck in the house of a god? To fuck in the darkness?”

Well that was truly off script and doesn’t even make sense to have escalated to that.

Between your legs, inside your mouth. Everywhere I can.

Booty hole too?

With a roaring, crashing sound, he rushed towards me,

Didn’t you just pull him backwards with you as you walked? He didn’t really have far to go to actually rush towards you…

my breasts tilting upwards towards the high cavern overhead as if in a twisted distortion of worship.

I’m confused as to how her breast can do that. What is the rest of her upper body doing?

The thick strands were damp from sweat and the misty air around us.

How are they sweaty already and all he did was lick and suck some nipples?

taking me in, stripped and naked on the cold stone, breasts upturned,

Again with the breasts… is she leaning on her elbows or…🤔 idk.

gaze. All too aware of how I must look, vulnerable and nude on the altar slab. A sacrifice to lust. To grief.

Yeah, that grief part is a stretch but definitely a sacrifice to lust.

“What do I want? I want to fuck you with my face until you come so hard screaming my name that the stones crumble around us. And then...” There was more? I shivered, palms down on the cold stone.

Yep, this definitely helps with grief… 🙄🙄

A look of near-torment crossed his face, as if waiting even another moment was causing him pain.

So then why is he still standing there talking then. Can we please get on with it so we can remember we are on a mission to save the world even though we are getting everyone we loved killed in the process…?

grabbing my wrists and slamming them down on the stone, then pushing them over my head.

That was a bit extra… so I guess she wasn’t on her elbows then… she just has magic boobs that upturn when laying down.. or teeny tiny ones.

Our love had blossomed into a dark flower, covered in thorns. Only we could give each other what we needed right now.

Blah blah blah…

He drew his hips back then slammed into me, and gods, I felt every inch of him. “Every twisted part of me is yours. And every twisted part of you is mine. The good and the bad. All of it. Forever. You’re fucking mine, Draven Venator. Don’t you ever forget it.”

He must not be pounding too hard since she’s able to speak so much, always rambling, even during sex.

“Are you cold? We can go back.”

How about go forward, to where her clothes actually are..🙄🙄

“I don’t think it could ever be wrong. I want you. I love you. That doesn’t mean I’m not still thinking about Gawain and...” My voice hitched in my throat. “And Rychel.”

And then you had to ruin it all, undoing everything your little sex fest was seemingly supposed to do, which was take his mind off the pain of their losses. Stupid idiot girl.

“There’s a leatherworker in the camp who Madoc introduced me to.

Conveniently… but wouldn’t she need supplies? Don’t tell me she packed those up and brought them along… 🙄🙄 I think the author forgot the concept of what a refugee is. They didn’t come with moving vans full of stuff.

“I’ll pay her well. She has children,” he explained.

Yep, even more reason for it to not make sense that she had a lot of non critical items. She needed basic necessities for her kids.

“Grace, huh?” Draven ran a hand over his jaw. “I didn’t think you thought much of that stuff.” “I don’t,” I said. “It’s mostly bullshit, of course.”

….

He coughed discreetly.

Was it really discretely though? It’s just you two there…

“Was that why you picked such a sacrilegious place for our dall...

How is the temple sacrilegious? What they did was sacrilegious in a sacred place, but the place it self was not sacrilegious…

“I met him at a tavern in Rheged, of all places. In a village close to Dornum.”

When did Caspar ever leave the castle to travel? Thinking back, Draven seemed to not even recognize her uncle laying on the slab with his chest torn open. Wasn’t his face still intact?

Draven hesitated. “Your uncle... I think he must have loved your mother very much. When she died, he began to plan this. Set things in motion.”

Isn’t that always how it is. The husbands the a-hole and the mistreated brother is the one that loves them and wants to take care of them but are too weak to do so…

“Did she know? Do you think she told him things?” Draven nodded. “How else could he have known all that he did?” Had my mother wanted me to find my true father? To take him down as Draven and I were now trying to do?

Yes… it all makes sense and THAT’s why he was putting iron shavings into the medicine your mother entrusted him to give you to keep your fae hidden and keep you safe. - Deadpan.

“Now it’s your turn. Answer something for me,” Draven said suddenly.

But I thought she had another, harder question…

I knew what he was asking.

No shit…

“I’m so tired,” I said desperately. “Can we go to sleep?

So fuck Guinevere dying to shield you huh. Let’s just go to sleep so I can avoid the hard stuff while slowing killing the lady volunteering to shield me, the same lady my brother has already violated in so many ways…

With one less mouth to feed, I had asked Hawl to bring our extra supplies to Madoc and Amara.

Why not ask the Exmoors to hunt some stuff for them…

The landscape was beautiful but forbidding. As we set up camp that night, the wind whispered through the valley we sheltered in, carrying with it the murmur of a cascading nearby waterfall.

So, they do realize that they’ve lost the element of surprise now right, since Tempest and Lorion found them basically at the foot of their father’s mountain?

I wondered why he hadn’t already sent for one or begun carrying Taina to the temple. Everyone knew Kasie, the High Priestess, was the best healer in Camelot.

Or why he hasn’t stitched…

But then, he wasn’t my responsibility.

Well dang…

I needed to block my father until we reached the Black Mountain so that we could destroy the three objects.

Why do you need to block your father now? First it’s so he couldn’t know where you were, but it’s obvious he knows you’re on your way so what’s the point? Give the girl a break.

I didn’t know what was involved in Guinevere blocking him from accessing my mind as I slept.

And you don’t even care enough to ask…

it was anything like what I’d gone through, I could easily imagine it and didn’t need the details.

Wow. This is no hero. She doesn’t care or care enough to know what someone is having to suffer through as long as she gets what she wants and needs and actually has the audacity to admit it to herself! What the hell kind of hero does this?

I’d already refused to fly him. To use him in any way that might involve him or Sunstrike becoming injured again. I wasn’t going to use the exmoor to fight my battles for me. Not like my father had done. But instead of being grateful, he’d been hurt. As I should have known would be the case.

Yeah, cuz as much as you link talking, I’m pretty sure you didn’t explain to him why you said what you said and are doing what you’re doing…

“Yes, so I’ve noticed. I suppose I should be grateful you didn’t hit me on the head with a rock and pull me into these bushes.”

Yep, especially with a nonchalant joke response like that when it’s the woman she loves that you’re slowly killing…

“Oh, ho, so this is how we’re finally going to get you to acknowledge what she is.” I rubbed my hands together gleefully. “Yes, do continue, I beg. She’s your...?”

You’re all excited but failing to realize that whatever she is YOU’RE KILLING HER, so it really doesn’t matter now does it?

I shook my head. “You’re so far gone. Well, I suppose it’s a good thing.” “A good thing?” “At least there’s one person you’ll smile for.

Yes,

I shook my head. “You’re so far gone. Well, I suppose it’s a good thing.” “A good thing?” “At least there’s one person you’ll smile for.

Yes, how is that a good thing honey? Yes, she smiled for her now, but you will kill her with your selfishness soon enough. You don’t need a shield. He knows where you are, roughly.

One person you’ll have to take care of you when...” I trailed off as I realized what I’d been about to say. Lancelet was staring at me. I quickly looked away. “When what? When you’re gone?”

And…… we’ve come full circle to bringing a talk about concern for Guinevere’s deteriorating health into a conversation about Morgan! Would you look at that!

I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to let her die for me. I can promise you that much.”

If that ain’t the biggest lie and bunch of bs. 1. You just said you needed her shield and it sounds like until you can destroy the three objects. 2. You have no clue how much farther it is to get to your father’s court and she’s already getting worse, falling and crap, so you will have to continue to use her based on your goals. 3. She’s getting weaker, not stronger, and y’all are getting closer to danger. She’s going to be so weak when y’all arrive and will be a sitting duck if one of those fae attack… All this spells you letting her die.

“But... Guinevere.” “I need her for now.” I looked away. “But she’s not going all the way with me. I won’t allow it.”

Well, at least she planned to let them fall back…