“And so proud of you,” Luciana added.
Brigitta shuddered. “I hate it that the Chameleon managed to escape.”
With a whimper, Brody slunk under a chair.
“Look what you did.” Maeve gave Brigitta a sour look. “You hurt Julia’s feelings.”
“Julia?” Annika looked at Brody and laughed.
He flopped down, covering his ears with his paws.
Gwennore gave him a wry look. How shocked her sisters would be if they knew he could talk!
“I hear you’re getting married soon?” Luciana asked Annika.
With a grin, she nodded. “Next week.” She elbowed her cousin Sorcha. “Your turn is next.”
Sorcha shrugged. “Not interested.”
Gwennore scoffed. She knew Sorcha had wanted to meet someone special for years now.
“Let’s see what the Telling Stones will say!” Maeve ran to a trunk and pulled out a linen bag.
“No, no.” Sorcha waved her hands. “I don’t want to know my future.”
“What are you afraid of?” Maeve emptied the stones into a wooden bowl. “Everything turned out wonderfully well for Luciana, Brigitta, and Gwennore. I’m sure it will be the same for you.”
Annika fingered the colored and numbered stones. “You use these to predict the future?”
“Luciana does,” Sorcha grumbled. “She’s right so often that it’s downright scary.”
“It sounds exciting!” Annika pushed the bowl toward her cousin. “Do it.”
Sorcha glared at her. “You do it.”
“I already know my future.” Annika shoved the bowl toward Luciana. “Will you pick them then?”
Luciana gave Sorcha a questioning look.
“What the hell,” Sorcha growled. “Go ahead.”
Luciana closed her eyes as she reached into the bowl and grabbed a few stones. She opened her hand, and everyone leaned forward to see the pebbles nestled in her palm.
Lavender, white, and five.
“What do they mean?” Annika asked.
Luciana studied them, her face drawing into a frown.
“Dammit,” Sorcha grumbled. “I knew it. It’s going to be bad news.”
“It’s not bad!” Maeve insisted. “It’s obvious. In five days Sorcha will meet a tall and handsome stranger.”
“That’s what the five stands for?” Annika asked.
Maeve shrugged. “Or it could mean he’ll have five fingers on each hand and five toes on each foot.”
Sorcha snorted. “That really narrows the playing field.”
Brigitta laughed. “Maybe it means you’ll curse at him in five different ways.”
Sorcha nodded. “Now, that one I can believe.”
Gwennore swallowed hard. What if it referred to the Circle of Five?
“What does the lavender and white mean?” Annika asked.
“He’ll be wearing a pretty lavender shirt,” Maeve said. “And lavender breeches.”
“And he’ll be eighty years old with snowy-white hair,” Brigitta added.
Gwennore eyed the stones with an uneasy feeling. Was no one realizing that an elfin man might have white-blond hair and lavender eyes? When she lifted her gaze, she found Luciana staring at her. At her own white-blond hair and lavender-blue eyes.
Luciana set the stones down. “I’m sorry. I’m not seeing anything.”
Gwennore suspected she was, but didn’t want to frighten anyone. She touched Sorcha’s arm. “I’m sure your future will be everything you ever hoped it would be.”
Sorcha turned toward her, smiling. “We’re real sisters now that you married my brother.”
Gwennore nodded, smiling back. “Are you going to live here now?”
Sorcha glanced at their oldest sister, Luciana. “I’m not sure.”
“You’re Norveshki,” Annika insisted. “You should live here with Gwennore and me.”
“I suppose,” Sorcha said. “But I’ll miss my other sisters.”
Gwennore nodded. “I know what you mean. I’m going to miss everyone so much.”
Brigitta sighed. “It’s the price we pay for being queens.”
Luciana smiled. “We’ll visit one another often. And remember, it’s always good to be queen.”
Don’t miss these other novels of otherworldly romance from New York Times bestselling author KERRELYN SPARKS
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From St. Martin’s Paperbacks
Also by Kerrelyn Sparks
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New York Times bestselling author Kerrelyn Sparks’s novels are:
“An absolute delight!”
—Lynsay Sands, USA Today bestselling author
“Full of vulnerability and tenderness … rich romance.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Mixed paranormal romance with humor … Sparks clearly has a style all her own, one that readers love.”
—USA Today’s Happily Ever After blog
“Infuse[d] with deliciously sharp wit … wickedly fun.”
—Booklist
“Stellar … excellent storytelling.”
—RT Book Reviews
About the Author
Kerrelyn Sparks apparently has issues with reality. After writing sixteen books about vampires and shifters, she has now completely gone off the deep end and wound up on another planet. But how thrilling that she can share this new world with her readers! Although she is best known (so far) for the Love at Stake series, which has hit as high as number 5 on the New York Times list and 22 on the USA Today list, she hopes her readers will love The Embraced as much as they did her merry band of vamps and shifters. To learn more about her paranormal, historical, and new out-of-this-world fantasy romances, please visit Kerrelyn on Facebook, Twitter, or her website at www.kerrelynsparks.com, or sign up for email updates here.
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Contents
Title Page
Copyright Notice
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Map
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Chapter Twenty-Four
Chapter Twenty-Five
Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Chapter Thirty
Chapter Thirty-One
Chapter Thirty-Two
Epilogue
Also by Kerrelyn Sparks
Praise
About the Author
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.
EIGHT SIMPLE RULES FOR DATING A DRAGON
Copyright © 2018 by Kerrelyn Sparks.
All rights reserved.
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eISBN: 9781250108265
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St. Martin’s Paperbacks edition / April 2018
St. Martin’s Paperbacks are published by St. Martin’s Press, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010
