The Tainted Web (The Godhunter, Book 7) by Amy Sumida Read Free Book Online Page A

mind.”
    “ Of course,” my hopes were instantly dashed, though I knew the rightness of it in my bones. Death cannot be swindled. I, of all people, knew that. Everything had its price.
    “ There are other uses though,” King Cian traded a look with the now beaming Arach, and I frowned at both of them. “It was created as a tool of remembrance or nostalgia. When you live to be as old as we, you tend to forget things. The ring allows one to go back and witness it all over again. If you go back to your own past, you actually relive it, your body melds with your previous one and you're able to experience everything again. I'm told it's a strange experience though, as your words and deeds have already been set, so they come without your will.”
    “ Like being possessed or controlled,” I grimaced. “I know all about that.”
    “ Ah,” the High King nodded, “perhaps, but these are things you originally decided to do so you're possessed by yourself really. However, if you go back to a time or place you had no part of, you may interact freely, as long as your actions don't come into conflict with the prerecorded future. You could say, use it to even out time between the realms.”
    “ What?” I couldn't process it all fast enough. “I thought Faerie was faster than the other realms anyway. I could spend a month here and go back to have only lost a day.”
    “ Yes,” Arach took over the explanation. “But now you can go back and not have lost even that, you could return to the same moment you left, and when you came back to Faerie again, you could do the same. It would be like you never left either realm.”
    “ Sweet Daddy Finnian,” I breathed and the ring seemed to glow softly in response to my father's name. “Is it safe to wear? I mean, how do I activate it? It's not like Lord of the Rings where he puts it on and he's instantly in some weirdo shadow-world, is it?”
    “ No,” Arach laughed as he frowned a little at my reference. “You can wear it constantly if you like. To use it, you simply ask it to return you to the time and place you'd like to be in. I recommend you be as specific as possible.”
    “ Ask it?”
    “ Did you not get the part where he said it was alive?” Arach smirked at me.
    “ You know,” I grimaced back at him. “I think you're getting a little too loose with my lingo, lizard breath.”
    The crowd gasped again, guess tonight was all about the shocks, but Arach just laughed, knowing that it was kind of a compliment coming from me. He took the ring from me and put it on the pointer finger of my right hand. It shifted and shrunk, till it fit me perfectly, and I gaped at it. The clear cabochon swirled colors once, every color imaginable, and then returned to clear once more.
    “I think it likes you,” Arach whispered as he looked at it over my shoulder.
    “ Thank you so much,” I smiled at the King and Queen. “I don't have the words to tell you how much this means to me.”
    “ Your return to us is thanks enough, daughter of little fire,” the High King said, referencing my mother's name, Aednat, which meant little fire. “From witch to goddess to faerie, maybe it's time for you, like your leader lion, to take a new name.”
    “ I already have many names,” I smiled at him. “I am Vervain, Sabine, Rouva, Tima, Minn Elska, Carus, A Thaisce. I am the Goddess of Love and Lions, the Queen of Fire, and the Godhunter. So many names and not a single one I'd ever give up.”
     
    Chapter Six
     
    “Where the hell are all the bathrooms in this place?” I griped as I wandered the area surrounding the throne room/ballroom. “Please don't tell me I have to go all the way up to that damn branch to pee.”
    “ Do you need some assistance?” A beautiful pale man leaned casually against the smooth wood wall, regarding me with very amused eyes.
    “ You wouldn't happen to be privy to where the privy is? I joked as I took in his sleek swimmer's build and long, green hair. It looked