Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 126030 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 630(@200wpm)___ 504(@250wpm)___ 420(@300wpm)
“Tip of the iceberg.” Jess nodded slowly. “But who knows. Maybe they did see the error of the Guild’s way, have wanted to leave for some time, but haven’t been able to. I guess the Guild doesn’t like losing some people, and so they make sure those people don’t or can’t leave. Maybe these mages were scared Sebastian planned to kill them or take them in or whatever. I don’t know. We need to hear their stories with people who know more about the situation than we do. Our mages can help there.”
Drex faintly smiled. “You’re the good cop, I see.”
She shrugged. “Not always, but I do like to give people the benefit of the doubt. My gargoyle, however…” She trailed away.
“How’d they come to be here?” Austin asked.
“Two years ago, our sentries were doing a random sweep and found the mages five miles from here, half dead. They were starved, terrified, and desperate. Usually, when we find Dicks and Janes, lost for whatever reason, we give them money and return them to town. They find their way. These mages had nowhere to go. They were being pursued by the Mages Guild. They would have been killed or worse if they were found, and had no plan.”
“Did they warn you that you’d be in danger?” Jess asked, crossing one leg over the other with wary patience.
“They said the Guild was hunting them. That implied the danger. I took them in, anyway.”
“Hmm,” Jess said noncommittally.
“And these mages of yours?” he asked her. “They have a bad reputation. I knew the name Elliot Graves without needing to look it up. Then, seeing him… He has a lot of swagger, and apparently, even more power. Forgive me, but those combined attributes don’t inspire a lot of trust.”
A burst of frustrated power filled the room. “Sorry,” she said in response. “On the surface, no, they probably don’t. But I know them well.”
“And what made you decide to give Elliot Graves a shot?”
“I decided to give Sebastian a shot, a weird mage who nerds-out with magic. Elliot Graves is his persona for the mage world, and I was just about to kill him when I realized who he really was.”
She gave him the gist, explaining how Sebastian came to be in their lives, their hiccups and learning curves, and what they were now.
“I don’t know Elenor,” she said.
“Who?” Drex asked.
“Do you mean Tilda?” Austin asked.
Jess screwed up her face in irritation. “Tilda, I meant. I don’t know Tilda. But I know Sebastian and Nessa. I know them beyond their personas, beyond their walls and barriers. I’ve seen their worst, and I’ve heard their sins. Niamh has recently created some of those sins.” At his confused look, she waved that away. “I am the mostly broken moral compass of this crew, but I do not put innocent people in danger, Drew—“
“Drex,” Austin helped. He’d never seen her so wound up.
She screwed up her face again. “Drex! Craps-sakes, I’m turning into Edgar. It’s just…” She looked away, her eyes becoming distant.
“You good?” Austin asked. A shiver worked down his spine. She’d been like this on the way here before Drex’s attack had a chance to come.
She glanced up through the glass ceiling, taking in the clouds. “Yeah. I just feel strangely…expectant. I’m probably reacting to confronting those mages. Anyway, Drex, I do not needlessly kill. I have the same mission as you and Austin—to protect those who cannot protect themselves. To create a safe space. And those mages are not—“
She blinked rapidly before turning to stare at the pool area. Then she angled her face skyward again. Her emotions started to churn.
“Should we send out people?” Austin asked, scooting to the edge of the couch.
“A few of the basajaunak connections just lit up with emotion,” she murmured, standing. She walked to the glass door leading out toward the pool, currently shut, and looked out. “I feel like I need to get sky bound.”
Her gargoyle was acting as a warning system, like on the way into the territory. Maybe her beast detected the same off-ness about this mountain that the basajaunak had. Whatever the reason, he wouldn’t ignore it.
He stood up even as Dave came running across the lawn, trampling the flowers in his haste. Jess froze, watching him, and suddenly her gargoyle connections glittered in his mind’s eye. She was connecting them all as a unit. That meant battle.
“Let’s go.” He motioned Drex on.
“We’re being attacked,” Jess ground out, hurrying for the door.
“What?” Drex shot up.
“Follow her lead,” Austin commanded, hurrying after. “She has a way to connect her people. She’ll know what’s happening better than anyone.”
Jessie
Those mages must’ve gone dark before the extraction. That’s why Fred hadn’t seen anything about it online. We’d walked right into an ambush.
The timing made this situation incredibly suspicious. So, too, did the reaction of the basajaunak. They’d known something was off, but not what. That shouldn’t have been the case.