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)
His smile was dangerous as he said, “I’ll take care of that.”
Walter didn’t know what to think of that. Should he go with this strange man? Weren’t there all sorts of bad men kidnapping kids like this?
But…magic. A word he hadn’t even been able to say in his own head. Was it possible that it was true?
“Do you have it, too?”
“Of sorts.”
“Can you show me?”
Graves pursed his lips. “Maybe. Let me see your hand.”
Walter gave it to him, shaking like a leaf. Graves didn’t do much of anything, just touched it. His eyes went really far away.
“You think that I’m going to traffic you?” he asked with a rueful smile. “Well, that’s a first.”
“What?” Walter gasped. “How did you know that?”
“Your mind is open,” Graves said, brushing his hand off. “I didn’t know that you had hacked a security feed and turned in the brother of one of the men who tried to kick your face in. They thought you were just a snitch. They didn’t know you went looking for trouble.”
Walter went red as a tomato. “But…no one knows that!”
“And no one else has to.”
Magic. Magic was real. And all those times he’d been building up a shield between him and his tormenters had resulted in the magic that he had now to resist those bullies. And Graves—this imperious man who moved into his mind like water filling a glass—had seen it all. Seen the potential in him.
“When do we start?”
That was so long ago. The training, the mind work, the force fields. His sadistic methods. And then Walter going too far, the burnout. His magic abandoning him and Graves taking no sympathy on him. He’d kicked him back out on the streets. Walter had sought revenge, working with Graves’s enemies. All the time just trying to be good enough to make Graves notice him again. To make Graves regret his decision.
And it had worked. It had only taken Kierse being able to get through his wards to bring it all back together. Now he was back in the inner circle, with a new Graves, who doled out praise, who actually cared about his people, who—dare he say it—would never kick Walter on the street like he had the last time.
He was someone worth working for. As he’d always had the potential to be.
Now he was too late and his magic shields were down.
Really down.
He clutched at his stomach as if he had a knife wound where his magic should have been. It was so similar to the last time, the burnout. Only he was stronger and knew that he wouldn’t last forever. It would just be terrible until it came around…he hoped.
“Well, what do we have here?” a voice asked, leaning over him to get in his vision.
Walter’s eyes rounded in alarm. Jason.
“The warlock’s little pet,” Jason said.
He flipped a knife in his hand and drove it toward Walter’s face. Walter barely managed to move out of the way. But Jason’s boot connected with his temple, and his vision went even blurrier. Black spots at the corners of his eyes.
“Stay out of my way,” Jason snarled, stabbing the knife down into Walter’s gut.
Walter shrieked again, a long, agonizing pain. “Fuck…you.”
Jason ignored him. He stepped up to Walter’s computer and gave it a cursory look. Walter was barely conscious. He was going to lose everything. Jason couldn’t touch his life’s work.
“Ah, here we are. Just one tweak.” His grin was terrifying. “Now let’s get her to come to me. All alone.”
Jason had Walter’s phone in his hand. He typed something out and then threw the device back onto Walter’s stomach.
“Jason is out here!” he yelled as loud as he could.
He wrinkled his nose. “Better luck next time, kid.”
The boot came down on his temple, and darkness followed.
Part VI
ConvoCation
Chapter Fifty
“You let the other one get away!” Lorcan roared. The sword turned toward Graves as if he were going to stab him through with it again. “We should have killed his lover.”
Graves stared down at the dead body of his mentor. Even he couldn’t mask the distress at the sight. Kierse felt for him in that moment. No matter how much Kingston deserved to die, she couldn’t imagine what he must be feeling at that moment. Still, he said nothing to Lorcan’s accusation.
“Lorcan, stop,” she hissed.
Kierse wasn’t sure anyone could have predicted what had just happened. She’d thought Andrew was on their side, but letting him escape after what he’d witnessed was a serious mistake. And he had a huge head start. Even with Kingston’s magic leveling out between her and Lorcan, she didn’t know if she could open a portal across the ocean to get to him.
“Leave him,” Bram snapped, brushing aside Lorcan’s sword as if it were nothing as he helped Kierse to her feet.
“We have a bigger problem,” Kierse said as she yanked at the door. Bram helped her tug at it. “Walter just cried out something about Jason.”