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)
“Witchcraft,” Graves said. “All of this has medicinal properties if operated by the correct user.”
“Well, otherwise her desk is pretty useless. The computer wouldn’t boot up for me, but I’m not an expert. I can pull her hard drive for Walter.”
“Do it,” he said, rubbing his thumb over the note.
She got down onto her knees to get to the desktop computer, disconnected the cables, and pulled the hard drive from its position with a click. She passed that to Graves, who slid it into his pocket while continuing to look at the note.
“We should get out of here,” Graves said.
“All right. Does that note mean anything to you?”
“I’ve heard of Rosetta Davis,” he said, sliding it into his pocket and yanking the door back open.
She followed him out into the still-empty corridor. She ripped off the extra gloves and stuffed them into her bag. No trace that either of them had ever been there.
Walter said into her earpiece, “Loop is going off in thirty seconds.”
“Thirty seconds,” she told Graves.
He took her arm and pulled her through the first available exit, which led them out to a hotel corridor. “Through here.”
Kierse grasped onto his elbow as they navigated the busier client halls. “So who is Rosetta Davis?”
“A witch,” he said. “A very famous witch. I didn’t know she’d moved to Las Vegas or that she was taking clients anymore. She’s in her eighties. Though it’s hard to know because of the rejuvenation spells witches have access to.”
“So what do you think Dallas was going to see a famous witch about?”
“Think we should find out,” he said, glancing down at her. “If you’re up for it.”
“Me? I am perpetually up for anything.”
Graves slid his phone out and began furiously texting. “I’m getting George in position.”
Kierse grinned, relishing in another mission with Graves and pushing Lorcan farther from her mind. This was where she belonged and where she wanted to be.
George waited as promised at a side entrance to the Bellagio. They slid into the backseat of the limo, leaving the Strip behind. Their group chat was blowing up, but Kierse silenced her phone, letting Graves handle the rest of their team on the botched mission.
“Any hunches on who killed her?” Kierse asked Graves.
He put his phone away and met her gaze. “I have some hunches, but until we’ve looked at all the information, we can’t be sure.”
“Hunches?”
“She was an operating warlock in someone else’s territory,” Graves said. “The head of Las Vegas could have killed her.”
“Who is that?”
“Carlos. He’s a dowser.” She stared back at him blankly. “He can find water in the desert.”
“Oh. Well, that’d be helpful in Vegas.”
“Indeed. Though it could have been someone in the casino, too. It looks like she owed a lot of money. I found overdue bills by the bed, lottery tickets in her wallet, a scribbled note that mentioned the Syndicate with some figures by it. I’d guess she was in way over her head.”
The war did that to people. Perhaps it had done that to Dallas, too.
It was bustling and vivid with color on Fremont Street when George pulled them onto a darkened side alley. Fremont was the birthplace of Las Vegas with classic casinos lighting up the night sky. But despite the Vegas sparkle, Kierse could tell that the clientele was seedier, more monsters roamed the perimeter, and the glamour had worn off.
“Here you are, sir,” George said.
“Thank you, George,” Graves said as he exited the limo and offered Kierse his hand.
A couple pushed past them, knocking into Kierse’s shoulder. Graves kept her from toppling.
“Watch where you’re going,” she said.
The female human shot a middle finger in her direction. The guy she was with ate a very familiar fruit.
“Goblin fruit,” she hissed.
“Yeah. It’s making a resurgence,” Graves said. “I think the Men of Valor must have brokered a deal with the goblins to distribute it on the streets.”
“Just the most dangerous substance on the planet,” she said.
“We can’t do anything about it from here.”
“Fine. Fine. I’ll save my injustices for the city.”
“Save them for me, always,” he told her, sliding their hands together.
Graves stopped in front of a darkened door with a rose nestled in the center of a crescent moon. “This is the place.”
He knocked twice, and they waited. Nothing happened, but they could hear people moving around inside as if scrambling to pick up illegal contraband before the police burst in. Not that they cared about this sort of place.
Graves knocked again more forcefully.
After another minute of waiting, the door cracked open. A metal chain held it mostly closed, and a round man answered the door. He was a few inches shorter than Kierse with brown skin and eyes and a shiny, bald head. “Do you have an appointment?”
“We’re here to see Rosetta Davis,” Kierse said with a winning smile.
“Appointment?”
“No,” she said. “But we were told to visit her for healing.”