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)
Kierse actually cackled out loud at the thought of Graves wearing his black cat on a T-shirt. She passed the mer, who congregated in Central Park Lake. Only this summer, the lake had been full of tourists riding the little boats out on the lake, but now it was empty. No one dared to engage with the mer after a man nearly drowned in the water.
Kierse jogged up the steps to the Mall as she headed leisurely toward Graves’s brownstone on the Upper West Side.
Graves: I actually have no words.
Laz: what else is new?
Schwartz: That sounds cool as shit.
Walter: I’m putting the group on mute.
Lyra: Put me down for an Anne Boleyn shirt, too. I’d wear that literally everywhere.
George: I’ll wear it under my uniform.
Graves: …
Kierse pocketed her phone and felt so much of the last couple days slide off her back knowing her friends would be in one place. The chill from them put her own worries to the backseat. A place she was happy to have after the angst of Lorcan fucking Flynn.
Somehow, she still made it to back to the brownstone before anyone else arrived, pushing through Graves’s wards with ease as she stepped inside to the empty house. She found Isolde baking in the kitchen.
“Hello, dear. I heard that we’re getting the team back together,” she said, pulling out a loaf of bread from the oven.
“Yep. It looks like everyone is back.”
“That’ll be so nice for the house. It’s been so quiet.”
Kierse agreed and hefted her bag of goodies. Isolde took them and promised to slice them all up for the party. Even though Kierse couldn’t convince her it wasn’t a party.
“Oh, this came for you as well,” Isolde said.
She slid a cream envelope with no return address across the counter. It was addressed to Kierse McKenna with Graves’s Upper West Side address. She had never received mail at this location. Truthfully, she had never really received mail.
She turned it over, and her heart stopped. A gold wax seal was stamped on the back of the envelope. Inside the stamp was an arrow through a pair of wings. Not good.
Inside was an invitation.
The Men of Valor presents:
Wings & Arrow
A monster gala
Hosted by Gregory Amberdash
Saturday, September 27th at 8:00pm
It went on to list the location as the Amberdash building on 5th Avenue, proper black-tie attire, and a place to RSVP. It was only ten days away, and nothing was explained as to why she would get this invitation.
He’d ordered the hit on Nate and had been the reason that Nova silenced one of her oldest friends. Gregory knew that that alone would put them on opposite sides of this impending war.
So what was he thinking? Did he wish to recruit her? It was almost laughable. There was nothing he could offer to join him.
She squinted at the last line that read, “This invitation admits one. Nontransferable and no plus-ones.” Ah, the catch.
“Did Graves get one of these?” she asked, holding the letter up.
Isolde shook her head. “Not that I know of.”
“Did I get one of what?”
Kierse found Graves striding through the front foyer and into the kitchen. Her heart stuttered back to life at the sight of him in his all-black suit and tie, his gloves firmly in place. The look of the villain she had made a bad deal with on his too-beautiful face.
“Where were you this morning?” she asked.
“Research.”
More time spent looking for a way to break the bond. As if last night’s endeavor had rejuvenated his search.
“Anything new?”
“Same old. Same old,” was all he said as he pushed her hair behind her ear like he always did. Only this time he stalled. “Your ears.”
“Oh,” she whispered.
“Do you have your glamours back?”
“No. Lorcan…”
His face shuttered closed at the mention of his enemy. “Ah,” he said slowly. “You saw him.”
It wasn’t a question because nothing was with Graves. She should find a way to get the words of confusion past her lips. To let him know that of course she loved him and chose him and the thing with Lorcan didn’t mean anything. But he’d seen into her mind in Edinburgh, he knew about the bonds across time, and so she couldn’t lie to him, either. The thing with Lorcan—despite her best efforts—was complicated.
“Anything new?” he mirrored her question.
“Same old. Same old.”
He searched her eyes as if trying to read her in that glance and immediately not liking what he saw. “All right.”
She swallowed and drew the invitation between them. “This came for me. You didn’t get one.”
He took it from her, skimming the letter. “Hmm…well, I’d like to see what he has planned. Someone will be there to watch your back.”
“You’re the boss.” She barely suppressed a snicker. “Boss man.”
“Not you, too,” he groaned.
A commotion at the door drew their attention, and they separated to find Laz, Schwartz, and Gen standing in the doorway. They said their hellos and then headed up to the library where Walter was already seated behind a computer screen. Gen stood between the two men, elbowing them as they all laughed at whatever had been said.