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)
“Inside Amberdash’s office,” she told Graves.
“Two minutes. Hold tight.”
Kierse fidgeted in the server room. She wished that she had any idea how to access them for her benefit. Walter or Laz might have gotten something good out of it if they’d had the time.
“Now.”
Kierse breathed a sigh of relief as she burst out of the server room and took off to the back of the offices. Under normal circumstances, she probably could have broken the vault open in a matter of minutes. But she was just the distraction here.
Heavy foot tread rang out behind her.
“She’s here!” the voice rang out.
“She’s in the back.”
“How did she get in?”
Kierse grinned. Oh, poor babies. As if she’d ever let them know she was here if she didn’t want them to know.
Kierse skidded around another corner and nearly barreled into one of Amberdash’s attendants. The girl shouted and threw her arms up as Kierse passed.
“Sorry. Excuse me,” Kierse said as she continued forward.
“Security threat has been activated,” Graves said. “They’re upset, but protocol demands they empty the chamber.”
Kierse smiled. Protocol. That had been the real kicker for her plan. She’d read the security protocol that Schwartz had given them, and it had stuck out to her that maybe they could use that to their advantage. Malicious compliance.
Because once a threat had been activated, all delegates had to immediately vacate the assembly for a full sweep of the premises. Nothing could be removed from the meeting space as it was sealed and searched by their team. A perfect time for the stone to be unattended.
“Amberdash is throwing a fit about leaving the stone.”
“Are they going to let him take it?”
Graves was silent for a moment as her breathing filled the space from running to the back of the office. “No. They manhandled him from the room for making a disturbance.”
“Just as we planned.”
“Yep.”
Kierse hit the vault room. Two guards remained. The woman pulled out a gun at the last second, and Kierse kicked it out of her hands as she ran full tilt for the other guard. She slid her legs around his neck and tackled him to the ground before she slammed her hands into his temple, knocking him out as the woman launched at her again. Kierse rolled out of the way and then kicked the woman solidly in the back. She went forward into a hard roll, but Kierse had grasped her gun.
She held her hands up in Kierse’s direction as Kierse stalked toward her. The woman lunged, and Kierse shot at her knee. She screamed as it buckled, and as she continued her momentum, Kierse slapped the gun across the woman’s head, knocking her unconscious.
The whole fight took under a minute but gave security enough time to catch up to her. Excellent timing.
Kierse put a bullet in the door handle and flung herself inside, throwing up a ward on the door the instant bullets started flying. She breathed a sigh of relief even as the tiny ward drained her magic further.
She stood before a beautiful modern vault. Amberdash had recently had it commissioned. Before the team was fired, Schwartz had met with the guy who he’d purchased it from, and it came with all the fanciest high-tech assembly. Amberdash had it wheeled in and taken upstairs through a service elevator against the plans of the entire Monster Treaty Convocation committee.
And for a moment, she wanted to try her hand at it. The ward would hold for a while longer. She needed to give the assembly time to fully clear, but not too long that security began their sweep.
What other treasures did Amberdash keep within? As she reached toward the precious vault to uncover its secrets, Graves was in her ear again. “They’re closing the doors. Be quick.”
Kierse shut her eyes, her fingers lingering over the keypad, desperate to unlock the rest of his secrets. Then she drew a door instead and stepped back into the General Assembly room.
Chapter Fifty-Nine
In Amberdash’s now-abandoned seat was the Stone of Fal.
“Thank you, protocol.”
She removed the smaller circular stone from its casing. And from the depths, a voice rose up to greet her.
“Hello, hero,” the voice said into her mind. “Long have I awaited meeting you.”
“Hello,” she said with a shiver down her spine.
Hero.
That was certainly not the word she had expected from one of the objects of the Tuatha de Danann. It wouldn’t recognize her as the rightful ruler of Ireland, the overking incarnate, but she hadn’t known it would pierce straight into her heart, either.
“You have met one of my ilk before. It has claimed you.”
The Spear of Lugh. It could tell that she had handled the spear. That the spear answered to her.
This feeling was unlike anything she had ever experienced. She was stunned and unable to move as it seemed to weigh her rather than the other way around. The stone that was so ancient that it had come from the otherworld, from the ancient realm the Tuatha de Danann gods had first come from. And it had not found her wanting but worthy.