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’ll get Corey to meet us, too,” Ethan said, pulling out his phone to text his boyfriend.
“You three have fun,” Niamh said.
“You could come with us,” Kierse offered.
“I’m running headquarters. Too much to do.”
She said it like she meant it, but her eyes were on Gen, and the tension between them was palpable. Kierse wanted to tell her to make her move, but Niamh had been hurt when Saoirse died. It was clear that she may not be ready or ever ready to move on from that.
They said their goodbyes to Niamh, and Kierse went with them to get dressed. Gen came out in a floor-length, flowy dress that she’d gotten from a boutique in Soho while shopping with some of the other High Priestesses. Kierse was simultaneously happy for Gen having new friends and jealous that they existed.
“So…Lorcan?” Gen asked as they headed to the subway station where they were meeting Ethan.
“Showed up when we were getting the stone. Just sitting in the vault room waiting for me,” Kierse said. “And he was all in my head and shit.”
“You didn’t feel him there?”
Kierse shrugged. “I did, I guess. I was trying to ignore the feeling and thought it was a ghost, which by the way I saw an actual ghost. Terrifying.”
Gen shot her a look that said, You can’t change the subject on me. “So you’re doing pretty well keeping him out, then?”
Kierse hesitated. What was pretty well when he could slice through her defenses?
“Or not?” Gen said through her silence. “What’s going on?”
“Well, shit changed.” She explained about how Lorcan had given her magic back, how incredible it had felt, how the three of them had worked so well together, and how she’d killed Archie, but how Lorcan had then shut her powers back down.
“So now you’re conflicted?”
“No, I’m madder than ever at him,” she said. “He gave it back just to take it all away. Like dangling a carrot. And now he’s getting bolder.”
“Bolder how?”
Kierse hung her head. “Graves and I were kissing when we got back, and Lorcan got in my head.”
“What did Graves have to say about that?”
Kierse went silent again. Because right, she hadn’t told Graves. She didn’t want to have to tell Graves about it.
“Kierse,” Gen said on a sigh. “Tell me that you’re talking to Graves about this.”
“Not…exactly.”
“Look, I’ve done a lot of reading on the bonds since it happened. I know you want it to go away, but without the stone, that doesn’t look like it’s happening anytime soon. You’re going to have to face this.”
“And do what?” Kierse asked. “I don’t want it, Gen. I want my magic back. I want Lorcan Flynn dead. How do I work past that?”
“I think you start by telling your boyfriend how you’re feeling.”
Kierse ground her teeth. “It’s not that he doesn’t know. He knows exactly what’s happening.”
“Maybe he does. He’s Graves, after all. But maybe you wouldn’t feel this bad if you two were communicating.”
“We’re not not communicating,” Kierse said. “I can’t bring my absorption down, but I know what he’s thinking. And then the one time I did have my powers down, it hurt him. What he saw hurt him.” She wrapped her arms around herself. “I don’t want to do that again. I can’t control the bond. I want to focus on getting rid of it.”
Before Gen could respond, Ethan appeared on the subway platform. “What’s going on?”
“Nothing,” Kierse said before Gen could explain.
“Are you ready for sushi?” Ethan asked, oblivious to their discomfort. “The new place in Hell’s Kitchen sounds incredible.”
Gen and Ethan chatted about the new sushi restaurant they were going to on a double date while they took the subway to Chelsea to visit their respective beaus. She padded around behind them, visiting with Maura, until jet lag hit her like a freight train. It was the middle of the night somewhere in the UK. And though it was only early evening in the city, she was ready to crawl into bed and not move for a few hours.
Kierse stepped into the brownstone and shed her jacket as she headed up the stairs, listening for Graves somewhere in the house. She suspected the library, but when she peeked her head in, she only found Walter, typing away on his computer. She slunk out before he noticed her and found a light on under Graves’s office door.
When she popped open the door, he sat near a mountain of books. A laptop was propped open to his right, and he stared at it absentmindedly with his thumb holding a page open and a pen between his teeth. The gloves were discarded on top of the tallest pile. His button-up was rolled up to reveal his holly vines tattoo, the top two buttons undone at the neck. His dark hair hung like a curtain in front of his eyes as he bent his head over the laptop.