Read ROMAN: Fury of Her King (Kings of the Blood Book 2) for Free Online Page A

“And, girlie, you look a damn sight better than a bone.”
    Looking back at her reflection as she took a sip of wine, Cyn had
to admit she did look pretty good. Not super model good, but damn fine for
judgement day, as her daddy used to say. Turning back to her friend, she
laughed out loud as Adele snapped a picture with her cellphone and said,
“Gotcha!”
    Shooing her from the room, Cyn was still chuckling when she said,
“Okay, but no more pictures. You know I hate that. Now, I have to check my face
and hair one more time. Make yourself useful and see if you can find my little
black clutch in the hall closet, please.”
    “You got it,” Adele called over her shoulder as Cyn shut the door
to her bedroom and took a deep breath.
    Looking out the window across the room, the half-moon shining
brightly in a cloudless star-filled sky made her smile. It reminded her of her
grandpa, a small town farmer and one of Cyn’s favorite people in the whole
world. He had a saying for everything and even though they usually sounded like
something he’d made up, they always ended up foretelling the future or
uncovering a mystery of some sort.
    Of course, growing up smack in the middle of nowhere led to a lot
of star gazing, so she’d paid special attention to all the ‘grandpaisms’
concerning the moon and stars. She fondly remembered their conversation about
the half-moon.
    “Whatcha doing out here in the hayloft all by yourself, Cyndi
girl? Mimi was alookin’ for ya’.”
    She quickly closed her journal and slid it under her leg as she
heard the sole of grandpa Jim’s boots scrape against the rungs of the wooden
ladder leading to the loft and the place she came to write down her thoughts
and dream of the future. She knew it was him, more than their housekeeper, who
wondered where she was.
    “Oh nuthin’ much. Just countin’ stars.”
    The long, lean man with his dirty John Deere hat, overalls, and
ready smile, appeared over the stack of hay Cyn was leaning against and pulled
up his own bale to sit on. Taking the toothpick from between his lips, he used
it like a pointer and said, “You see that half-moon right there?” He looked
over his shoulder at her and winked. “That moon means it’s time to shuffle the
deck.”
    Putting the toothpick back in his mouth, Grandpa Jim looked back
at the sky and continued, “That means this week we work with what we got. Clean
things up, make them even better before the crescent of the waning moon and the
darkest night of the month comes. You want to be able to enjoy the calm of the
ending of one cycle and be refreshed for the beginning of another.” He adjusted
the hat on his head until the bill almost completely covered his eyes, then
leaned back against the pile of hay bales and grinned. “Your Great Grandma
Cleo, my momma, always said to be ready for new beginnings cause they were fun
but a lotta work.”
    “Boy, she was right, Grandpa,” Cyn mused as she made her way to
the bathroom for her final hair and makeup check. For some reason, the feeling
that tonight was going to be the start of big changes had been dogging her
thoughts since Roman had demanded they have dinner.
    No sooner had she touched up her lip gloss than she heard a knock
from the living room and Adele’s, “I’ll get it.”
    Opening her bedroom door, Cyn was shocked to see a tall, dark man
complete with driving gloves and hat waiting by the front door holding the
biggest bouquet of the most beautiful flowers she’d ever seen. He bowed his
head as she nervously smiled in his direction then returned to imitating a
palace guard by standing at attention and looking at nothing specific just by
her door.
    Adele grabbed her by the arm and pushed her back in the bedroom,
kicking the door shut as she went. “Oh my God, did you get a load of that shit
out there? A chauffeur. Your man sent a mother humpin’ chauffeur to pick you
up.” She waved her hands in the air and talked a hundred miles a minute.