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)
She nodded. “He’s not that bad. Promise. If you come to New York, you’ll see what I mean.”
He grasped her hand and squeezed. “I look forward to it.”
“I’ll see you soon,” she promised.
Then she was out of the van with Graves, George, and Walter at the front door. Bram pulled away into the night.
“Go easy on him, boss,” George said with a laugh as he leaned against the frame.
“He needs to practice his warding,” Graves argued.
George ran a hand back through his hair. “And we all need to get some rest.”
Kierse crossed to the door. “He’s not going to get your wards down. Just let him in, Graves.”
“After all that time he kept me out of Third Floor?” Graves asked.
Walter chuckled. “You had that coming.”
Graves waved his hand and adjusted the wards. “There. Consider yourself lucky.”
Then they were inside the little cottage-style townhouse. It was actually charming with hardwood flooring, recessed windows, and bookshelves covering half of the available space. The books were old and musty, bound in leather, and smelled of Graves’s magic.
Walter and George were staying in the downstairs bedrooms while Kierse and Graves shared the room upstairs. She took the old creaky stairs to the top floor, replacing the Spear of Lugh in its sealed carrying case, and then shed her leather jacket. She hissed as she found the injury the conjured demon had left across her wrist.
“What’s this?” Graves asked, taking her hand in his.
“Nothing.”
He walked her to the bathroom and made her sit on the toilet as he fetched supplies. He cleaned and bandaged the wound to his liking, and for a moment, staring up at his beautiful face this close to hers, she forgot the rest of the night entirely.
Her heart thudded in her chest, and she longed for that ease they had managed to find between them. She longed for the ability to open herself up to his magic. The connection that brought.
They were closer than ever, and sometimes he was as far away as he’d ever been.
“What do you think?” he asked her.
“Feels fine,” she said, circling her wrist to show him.
“About Bram?” he asked.
“That you don’t give yourself enough credit.”
His eyes were a light winter storm as he searched her expression. “You thought I was going to let it go that you had family here?”
“We had other things to deal with.”
“They can wait,” he said, caressing her cheek and placing a kiss to her mouth.
Kierse tried to revel in it, but it was too hard. If they didn’t get the real stone soon, she felt like peeling her skin off to get away from Lorcan.
She pulled back on a sigh. “They can’t wait.”
“I know,” he said slowly. “I was in your head. I could feel what you were feeling.”
Left unsaid: that pull to Lorcan, the way it felt to magic share, the bond thrumming against her chest. All the things they both hated and couldn’t escape.
“I want that back,” she whispered. “Not this.” She pointed to the east and could pinpoint his exact location with barely a brush against the bond. “Lorcan’s there. Still in the city.”
“I know,” he said, offering her a hand to stand. “We’ll figure it out.”
She took it and let him lead her back into the bedroom, pulling back the covers and letting her get in bed. She thought for certain that it would be hard to go to sleep despite the early morning hour and the adrenaline-fueled night, but she was out almost as soon as her head hit the pillow.
And awoken too early to someone knocking on the door.
She cracked her bleary eyes open and found Graves getting to his feet.
“Go back to sleep. I’ll get it,” he said.
“Who could it be?”
“I don’t know. Walter sleeps through anything, though.”
Kierse didn’t like this. She stuffed her feet back into her boots and followed Graves down to the first floor with a yawn.
Graves pulled the door open, and a cheery face stared back at them. Behind him was a portal that led into a museum.
“Hello, old friend,” Kingston said with his typical cheer.
Chapter Seven
“Kingston,” Graves said, his shoulders tensed at the intrusion. “What are you doing here?”
“What do you mean? You told me you were coming,” Kingston said. He leaned on a black cane and ripped a top hat from his head. Why he was in a full suit at some ungodly hour of the morning was beyond her.
“You did what?” Kierse asked as she surreptitiously checked her ears. Graves had not mentioned that.
“Ah, hello, my dear,” Kingston said with a wide grin as he bowed over Kierse’s hand.
Graves sighed as if he were long suffering. “I told you that I would visit London after I was finished in Edinburgh.”
“Close enough,” Kingston said dismissively. “London. Edinburgh. It’s all the United Kingdom, after all.”
Graves ground his teeth together. “You made it quite clear that you believed we were rude for not visiting when we were in Dublin. So I gave you a courtesy call to let you know I’d swing by.”