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)
“Walter!” Kierse said, smacking the back of his head.
He flushed. “I meant that clinically! He has noise distortion! No one has to hear it.”
Gen snickered and shot Kierse a we’ll talk about this later look while the rest of them filtered deeper into the room. Anne Boleyn hissed at Niamh as she got nearer.
“This cat really hates birds,” Niamh said.
“Tell me about it,” Kierse said, waggling her fingers at her.
Niamh crashed into Anne’s vacated seat. While Graves entered after them all, his head was in a book. His smile was slow and predatory. He smacked Kierse’s ass as he passed.
“See!” Walter argued.
Kierse glared at the both of them. They were not that loud.
“What do you think of the shirts?” Gen asked Graves.
When he realized that everyone was wearing merch for him, he actually cracked a smile. “I’m not wearing that, mind you.”
“But you’re pleased,” Kierse pointed out. “Gen did good.”
Gen looked up at him with a hopeful expression.
Graves must have clocked it because he nodded once. “Yes, Genesis, you’re quite talented.”
Gen beamed with the praise, looking to the rest of them like the professor had told the rest of the class she was a rising star.
Lyra dropped into the chair next to Walter. “I think she’s a total babe.”
Laz and Schwartz sauntered in then. Laz looked like a regular swashbuckling adventurer in extra khaki this morning, complete with a hat. Schwartz was more refined, in a suit coat and trousers. Not that any of his sophisticated clothing could keep the mer sway out of his gait. Gen eagerly handed them each a set of vinyl stickers.
“I know wearing merch doesn’t exactly say ‘spy’ and ‘arsonist’, but I thought the holly sprig would be discreet enough.”
“Aww, you think of me as a spy?” Laz asked, throwing an arm across her shoulders. “How sweet.”
“Arsonist?” Schwartz said. “I don’t just set things on fire.”
“Demolitionist?” she offered.
“Bomb technician,” Laz countered.
Schwartz waved them all off. “Fine. Fine. Arsonist it is.”
The rest of the team was seated. Gen flopped onto the empty sofa, and Kierse took the seat next to her.
“Speaking of,” Gen said, interrupting something she had no idea was happening. “I have some other thoughts about the group. And about you, Graves.”
“Thoughts?” he mused, dropping the book onto his table with his back to his band of merry thieves.
“Well, it’s about branding.”
“Branding,” he repeated deadpan, reaching for the cup of tea that already waited for him, courtesy of Isolde.
Niamh barely smothered a laugh. “About the team’s branding?”
“Well, about everyone thinking Graves is a villain when he’s actually a good guy.”
Graves choked on his drink. “I’m what?”
The rest of the group laughed, but Gen wasn’t laughing.
“I mean, okay, maybe good is going a little too far, but you’re not bad, either. I think it comes down to branding.”
He stared at her as if she had grown a second head.
“Branding, boss,” Laz said on a guffaw. He threw down a newspaper in the center of the room and gestured to the headline. “Is it branding that says three terrible monsters are dead over the last three days and no one has a suspect?”
“It says the killer is at large. Could be anyone,” Graves said.
Laz snorted. “Could be, boss. Could be.”
Kierse jumped up, reaching for the paper at the same time the rest of the group leaned in. The headline read that the troll, Ithra, her second-in-command, Hunder, and the goblin Brix had all been gruesomely murdered.
Ithra.
The first person on Graves’s list from the party. And he’d been mysteriously absent last night. The last three nights. Hunder had been the other troll that hurt Graves at the party. Brix, too, had been the goblin he’d humiliated. Which left Fury, Nova, and Amberdash.
Her eyes lifted to his, and she raised a brow. “Next time, right?”
“Fine. Fine,” he said, waving a hand. “Can we start the meeting?”
Gen sighed. “I thought it was a good idea to rebrand.”
Kierse patted her hand as she daintily sat back down on the sofa. “It was, but can you really imagine him rebranding?”
They both looked to Graves and then giggled.
“You dragged me out of rehearsals again,” Lyra said. “I need more than an hour’s notice next time.”
“Yeah, boss. What gives?” Laz asked, kicking his feet up on the table.
“We’re infiltrating the Monster Treaty Convocation and stealing the Stone of Fal from Gregory Amberdash.”
The room went silent. A few of the group looked back and forth between them as if they hadn’t quite heard him right.
“That’s in three weeks,” Laz said.
“Yes,” Graves agreed.
“Isn’t the convocation at the old UN General Assembly building?” Schwartz asked. “That’s still one of the most secure locations in the world.”
“Correct.”
“And they have a closed security network,” Walter added. “I’d need to be on site to get in and be useful.”
“I know,” Graves said. “I’m aware of all of this already.”
“And Amberdash wants you dead,” George noted. “And Kierse for his own.”