Linked (Gilded Blood #3)

by Rachel Rener

While my stomach turned itself inside out and my lungs completely emptied themselves of oxygen, my brain took that opportunity to remind me that, upon opening my imminent missing person’s case, the last thing the authorities would find on my laptop’s browsing history was the diligent search for a high-powered vibrator I’d conducted the week before last.

God, if you’re there, I fervently prayed, please let me make it back home to clear my cache!

“I didn’t stab myself with a dozen needles just to run home to Mommy. Let’s kill this fornicator! Er—” I frowned at Zayn, who was still looking at me with a kind of awestruck expression I’d never seen on his face before. “Does ‘fornicator’ not translate into Elvish? No! Not fornicator! …Aw, fornicate!” I stamped my foot on the ground. “Forget it, you know what I mean. Let’s just fornicating go already!”

“No matter what happens,” he whispered against my lips, “whether in this realm or the hereafter, we’ll find one another – I promise you that.” His eyes darted over the top of my head, where the elves were dutifully waiting for our decision. “But for now, you have an elven army to lead…my queen.”