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 okay,” she said.
Graves pushed his mentor aside and rushed to the side of the platform. He held his hand out. “Let me help you up.”
“I can do this.”
“Kierse…”
“I can do this,” she repeated. “Let me try at least.”
He ran his hands through his hair. “This is madness.”
Kierse focused her attention on the task at hand. The jitters of adrenaline fed her body and seemed to take over. She drew her door. That part at least seemed to be coming easier. It was the door to the attic.
She had lived with Gen and Ethan in an attic of Colette’s brothel for years until she’d moved in with Graves. That had been home for so long that it still seemed to be the door that she drew when she thought of one. They had other lives now, and things were moving at a much faster pace, but they were still family. And she looked forward to seeing them when she returned home.
The sound of the train coming down the tracks made her hands shake, and the ground beneath her trembled from the approach. She envisioned where she wanted to go. Just to the platform next to Graves. She imagined Graves as he was and where he stood currently. He was her new home, and she could get to him.
“Kingston!” Graves snarled as the lights of the train brightened on her.
She panicked, reaching for the door.
It dissolved into smoke as it had all afternoon.
The horn blared as it barreled down the tracks.
Kierse looked up once as sweat beaded on her brow and fear peaked within her. She didn’t have access to her time manipulation, and she couldn’t make the train stop so she could escape the tracks.
This was the worst thing she had ever done. She would die on these tracks. She would die right here.
“Kingston!” Graves yelled again. “Do something!”
Then Graves was there, holding his hand out.
And she hated herself when she took his hand and let him haul her out of the way at the last moment.
They both sprawled out onto the concrete floor of the tube, breathless and shaking. Kierse lay with her back on the disgusting ground and her eyes trained on the ceiling as she let her terror finally dissolve.
“Maybe not that again,” she said, checking her ears again before pushing herself up. “Might be too dangerous even for me.”
Kingston laughed at the pair of them on the ground. “I had a portal open behind you. I was going to scoop you up if it didn’t work.”
Graves glared at him. “Maybe a warning next time.”
“Well, it wouldn’t have worked if you’d known.”
“I don’t think it worked,” Kierse said.
“I suppose not,” Kingston agreed as he offered her a hand. She took it, coming back to shaky feet. “Well, more practice. Stay with me a few weeks and we’ll figure it out.”
“We can’t,” Graves said as he dusted himself off. “We have to prepare for the convocation.”
“I’m coming back for that. You could stay until Halloween and then go to New York with me.”
“The city is too volatile. The Men of Valor have taken over the trolls and effectively own the subway system. They’re drawing lines across my city, and they’re recruiting,” Graves said with distaste. “I couldn’t leave it that long. We’ll have to practice at home.”
Not that they could stay at Kingston’s until Halloween. It was one thing to get it by him that she was Fae for a few days. But he’d surely notice her ears, if not the mechanics of her magic, if they were here longer than that.
Even though she would have loved to avoid the bond for that long.
“Fine. Fine,” Kingston said as he gestured for them to head back out of the tube. “You need to take back control of your city, but the convocation is a good thing.”
“The monsters killed Nate,” Kierse argued. “They aren’t going to listen to anyone else if they’re willing to kill an elected representative.”
“That was unnecessary, but monsters should be allowed to rule themselves.”
“They did that, and it resulted in a ten-year war. I’ll avoid it again if I can,” Graves said.
“Yes, but you care about the humans.”
Graves shrugged. “I care about the health of my city. Humans live in it as much as the monsters.”
“That is where you and I have always differed.” They walked along the park and back toward Kingston’s home even though he could have easily portaled them over there if he wanted. “Humans are a lesser species. It is why my company remains with monsters. All the rest who get in my way,” he waved his hand, “matter little.”
“I find most monsters more irritating than most humans.”
“You find most people irritating—monster or otherwise,” Kingston said on a laugh. “Well, until this one.”
Kierse shrugged. “I thought I was human a long time. I don’t want them to suffer.”