The Men of Otherworld: Collection One Read Online Free PDF Page B

I asked you not to mention it to my parents? If they had known that I stepped over the threshold to Leelee’s house, I would have gotten the hiding of my life.” Trillian wiped one hand across his eyes. There were so many politics to worry about at home. It had almost been a relief when his father had turned him away for good and Trillian had left the Subterranean Realms.  
    They were standing at the foot of the palace. Spacious and ornate to the point of being gaudy, it reflected the queen within. Lethesanar liked her opium, and she liked her bling, and the more addicted she grew to the drug, the more lavish her spending became. The stirrings in the underground were that civil war was in the offing. Rumor had it that Tanaquar—Lethesanar’s sister who had vanished some years back—had banded together with an army and that they were planning a coup. But rumors could be wrong, and best to work with the powers that be, rather than the powers that might never come to the throne. At least until the changeover.
    Trillian was a pragmatist. He’d watched friends get mowed under when they gotten caught up in ideals, when they chose the wrong cause, the wrong side, the wrong battle. And now that Svartalfheim was readying itself to relocate to Otherworld from the Subterranean Realms, everything was up in the air. Turmoil was the name of the game, and he watched every move he made. That was the way to survive, and Trillian had made it through some dicey spots before.
    As he and Darynal lightly ran up the steps to the central doors, Trillian flashed back to the last time he’d seen Camille—their last parting.

    “I can’t believe you are doing this again. How many times do I have to tell you, I am not like the rest of my people?” Trillian couldn’t believe they were here, in this place, again. How many times had they stood at this point, and how many times had either he or Camille stormed out, ending their relationship for good this time ?
    “I know how your family feels about me—about us . Eventually, you’re going to get tired of running from them. You’re going to want to go home and claim your inheritance. And I can’t go with you. I can’t live in the Subterranean Realms, and I can’t…I can’t live with people who hate me. I get enough of that here from my own relatives.” Camille dropped into a chair, rocking as she hugged herself tightly. Her hair trailed down her back, a cloak of raven curls. She gazed up at him, her eyes pale and flashing. She had been running magic heavily the past month, and the violet of her irises was almost eclipsed with the silver flecks.
    Trillian wanted to tell her that his father had thrown him out, once again. He wanted to tell her that he hardly ever saw his family, that they had turned their back on him. But his pride was still stinging, and the truth was, he wanted her to accept him as was, with all his flaws, including his family. After all, he accepted her father and sisters hating him. He had ignored their taunts all the way through the time when he and Camille were openly dating. When she begged him to “Just give it a little longer, they’ll come to love you like I do.”
    He let out a long sigh and dropped to the bench opposite her. “You know I would never cast you off. I know what this is about. It’s about Rona, isn’t it?”
    Rona …the name weighed heavily on his thoughts. Rona was the woman his family had chosen for him to marry. They had made it clear that he was of age now and if he ever expected to be accepted back into the family and to inherit his share of the family fortune, he would return home and marry the King’s niece. His mother had even gone so far as to tell him, “Your father says you can bring your half-human whore, if you like, but make no mistake: She’ll always be part of your stable. You can never marry her and you’d better accept that now. Just come home, marry Rona, and fences will be mended.”  
    So, Trillian had run back to