Total pages in book: 203
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 199654 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 998(@200wpm)___ 799(@250wpm)___ 666(@300wpm)
“I brought what I was given,” Jase clips.
She stares at him in an assessing way for a second, then yanks on my ponytail hard, making me grunt with pain.
Metal strains against that pole as Jase again does his best to pull free.
“Jase! You’ll hurt yourself!” I warn.
His eyes flit to me and he growls again. A long, low primal-sounding growl that feels like it has all my hair as well as all my nerve endings standing on end.
She snickers and looks about to say something when a phone rings. She straightens up and pulls the ringing device from her pocket, grimacing and touching the screen. When she puts it away, it almost immediately starts ringing again.
Her mouth tightens before she glares at us. “Not a word or you’ll be sorry.” She answers, “Can I call you in a couple minutes? I’m smack dab in the midst of pruning some very temperamental shrubs and–” She’s cut off by a loud female voice I clearly hear on the other end of the call. “Alta! What are you actually doing right now? Do not lie!”
“Why would I lie to you?” she asks, stepping away from me, climbing the stairs. “But honestly, I’ll call you back shortly. I just need a couple of moments.”
I strain to listen as she gets farther away and still clearly hear the voice on the other end. “Tell me you’re not interfering with that wand Aviva unearthed.”
My eyes dart to Jase’s. He also heard that.
She doesn’t answer right away so the voice speaks again. “Alta, you’re toeing the line and my patience is thin. Explain what you’re doing and why. Does this have to do with Eduardo?”
Alta doesn’t answer but her face changes to distress and I can tell she’s trying to think of an answer on the fly.
The woman on the phone’s voice is fading but I make out, “It’s too dangerous. We’ll find another way. And this is a direct order. Do not lay hands on it. I’ll deal with The Collective to have our property returned to us. Just release them. We don’t need additional problems with the Youngs.”
“It wasn’t with them. They carried decoys,” Alta says and she’s about to disappear through the doorway, so I scream my loudest, “Help! She’s kidnapped us!”
The woman sprints with surprising speed down the stairs and backhands me, hard, fury radiating in her eyes as the back of my head hits the pole behind me and fully rings my bell, making my vision blur.
Ow!
The loud and murderous roar that comes out of Jason is his wolf, though it’s not his wolf there chained against that pole.
My eyes are squeezed shut as I take a minute with the radiating pain until I hear the thunderous bang with a near-deafening reverb and see the beam he’s attached to has hit the floor.
A chilling dragging sound pierces my ears and makes my teeth tingle as I take in the image of Jase who maneuvered his way off that pole and twisted to get his cuffed wrists in front of him. His ankles are still cuffed and as he yanks the vines off his legs, he hisses with the pain. His hands are instantly blistered and raw looking. There’s still a ring around his neck, but it’s no longer attached to anything.
He's moving slowly, like he’s disoriented, like he’s ill.
And, oh shit! Is this ceiling going to collapse?
The woman has dropped her phone on the floor, and I can see the call is still engaged. The screen reads Anya.
If memory serves, Alta is Anya’s first cousin. They’re either Aphra’s aunts or second cousins, I can’t recall. This witch wasn’t all that bright to have that phone call in the same room as us.
Jase stalks toward Alta with a murderous look in his eyes. He’s staggering, definitely feeling affects from those flowers, but he’s intent on getting to her.
“Hello?” I call out toward the phone. “This is Bailey Blackwood. She kidnapped us from Rome. Please call my brother Greyson in Arcana Falls or call Erica or Vivica Young.”
Two men are now on the stairs and she’s holding one hand up in their direction, silently demanding they stay where they are.
The woman is glaring at Jase, fury brimming in her dark eyes. She throws something at him and then blows some powder in his direction. Something green washes over him and makes him freeze mid-lunge for a solid three horrifying seconds before the liquid seems to seep into him and he falls back, landing hard on the concrete.
And I’m holding my breath, so I don’t breathe whatever that is, freaking out at the sight in front of me.
Alta grabs her phone and runs up the stairs. All three of them leave, slamming the door.
Now I’m gasping, immediately followed by hyperventilating until I find my voice. “Jason!”