Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
“I’m not here to kill you. You left the party. We’re square.”
“It was unfortunate what happened to you,” Rio said, releasing their tight grip on the orb. Still, they didn’t set it down.
“Any excuse to clean out the underbelly of New York is a welcome pleasure,” Graves said with a shrug. “I’ve let them grow fat since the treaty. They should know they’re no longer safe.”
Rio nodded. “Then why are you here? Are you after your Druidic magic?”
The memory of the tarot reading was still fresh in Kierse’s mind. As far as she was concerned, he was still forever in the Five of Cups, staring at the past in despair and ignoring the good he had in the present.
Graves just tensed. “No. I don’t believe the market would ever willingly part with that.”
“That is the smartest thing you have said yet.”
“We’re seeking access to Sansara.”
Rio’s eyebrows flickered upward briefly. “What would you give me to help you get in?”
“Nothing. We don’t need your help in. We need to know where their cultists are currently preaching.”
“That’s unusual information. What makes you think that I know it?”
Graves reached for Kierse’s arm. Her entire body tingled at the contact. The first touch since she’d left. “Come on. They don’t have the information, then we can find it elsewhere.”
“Wait,” Rio said, holding up their hand. “I could find it out.”
“In exchange for?” he asked, not letting her go.
She forced herself to keep her face steady, look at Rio with indifference, and ignore the somersaults currently in her stomach.
“It is not a large request,” they admitted. “I would do with…the first name on your list.”
“From the party?”
They nodded.
Graves pursed his lips. “All right.”
Rio held up a finger. “Allow me to make a call.”
They disappeared into the back with Daisy trotting out after them.
Kierse glanced at Graves. His hand still rested on her arm. Her body thrummed at just the slightest touch. In her darkest moments, she’d wondered if he would ever touch her again.
“Do you have a list?”
“Yes,” he said, that burning fury underneath it all.
He really was going to make them all pay. And she wanted nothing more than to be there when he did enact his revenge. What did it say about her that it made her like him even more?
Rio reappeared in the doorway. They pressed a piece of paper across the wooden counter. “This is their current location.”
“Much appreciated,” Graves said, reaching for the paper.
“The name.”
“Ithra,” Graves said.
“Interesting,” Rio said. “I look forward to seeing the outcome of your vengeance.”
“I intend to enjoy it as much as they did,” he promised before guiding Kierse out of the shop.
Graves sighed as he came back to her side, sliding his gloves into place. “Plan B, it is.”
“Seriously?” she asked, staring out into the alternate Times Square. “I thought you’d get the location out of them and we’d be off.”
Graves gritted his teeth. “They’re shielded.”
Kierse arched an eyebrow. “They’re all human, though.”
“I’m aware.”
“Shouldn’t they have swiss-cheese minds for you to get your claws into?”
“Not all humans are that susceptible,” he admitted. “But it’s the tree. Sansara is doing the work for them.”
Kierse frowned. “Nothing can be easy,” she muttered under her breath. “So…Plan B.”
He nodded as they both turned to the maelstrom that was Times Square. The Goblin Market version felt exactly like the human one. No one went there anymore after the delegate for the shifters had shown up for the convocation and doubled down on the fact that it was their territory. Now everyone avoided it like it was the Monster War all over again.
While this Times Square belonged to the goblins, it was every bit as contentious. A boiling pot of monsters defending their territory and the optimistic, peaceful cultists standing in their green robes with little oak trees on their breasts were at the center going toe to toe with them with the offer of salvation on their lips.
“I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to walk through the snake pit,” Kierse said. She mapped out the various monster gangs. Werewolves to her right with vampires opposite them. Mer were past the wolves, and across from them were the shifters. In the spot where the Times building stood in the human world was the largest gang of goblins, of course.
“You’ll be fine.”
“I survived the Monster War once by keeping my head down. All hell is going to break loose when we walk in there.”
Graves smirked. “That’s the idea.”
She hadn’t thought that they’d have to activate Plan B. It wasn’t exactly elegant, and it was potentially destructive. But knowing the plan and seeing what Times Square looked like were two things.
“I don’t know if we should be stirring up more trouble. The whole place feels ready to explode.”
“And you don’t think these monsters have it coming to them?”
“I don’t know that the humans do.”