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)
“The Stone of Fal,” Kierse said. “You’re here for it. Give it to me.”
“To you? Perhaps I would.” Then his eyes flicked to Graves. “Come with me and you can have it.”
She scoffed. “Fine. We’ll take it off your corpse.”
An empty threat, to be fair, since killing him would obviously harm her as well…if it were even possible. But damn, it felt good to say.
“He doesn’t have it,” Graves said. “He’s bluffing.”
“Am I?” Lorcan asked, drawing a round stone from next to the chaise and tossing it in the air. He caught it with ease. “This?”
Kierse inhaled sharply. There it was. The answer to her problems right there for the taking.
The Stone of Fal was the last of the four objects from the Tuatha de Danann that they had been stealing over the last year. Each of the four objects were created by Celtic gods and gave abilities to help their users win wars. Spear of Lugh for battle, Sword of Truth, Cauldron of Dagda for healing and provisions, and the Stone of Fal to proclaim the true leader.
For a moment, none of them moved. As if they all held their breath for the impending fight. The stone in the hands of Lorcan would be a catastrophe. But he wouldn’t go down without a death battle to keep it from Graves.
“Since when do you care about the stone?” Kierse shot out before Graves could launch himself at him.
Lorcan raised an eyebrow as he tossed the stone into the air and caught it again. “What do you mean? These are the artifacts of my people.” His brow turned soft as he looked to Kierse. “Our people.”
She flinched. “There’s no our here.”
He shrugged, unconcerned. “Perhaps not, but there always was in the past. The Fae and the Druids have been linked for hundreds of years. You cannot deny that.”
No, she could feel the pulse of their connected magic right now.
“Our sacred Irish artifacts being collected by a Brit should worry you.” Lorcan narrowed his eyes at Graves.
“I don’t have to justify my ancestry to you,” Graves said evenly.
“His mother was a High Priestess, as you well know,” Kierse snarled. “Don’t try to make him other just because you cast him out of Ireland.”
“He killed my sister. As far as I’m concerned, he got off easy.”
“Of that I don’t disagree.” Graves took another menacing step forward. “I’m still not going to let you walk out of this vault with the stone.”
“If you want it,” Lorcan said, slowly coming to his feet, holding the stone out in his palm, “come and take it.”
The tension in the room rose as he used the stone as a lure, much like Kierse’s new magic. Not that she wanted him to know about any of her new abilities. The last thing she wanted was for him to find a way to lock those down, too.
Graves shot him a deeply disinterested look before turning to Kierse. “He seems awfully cocky, doesn’t he?”
He held his hand out to her, and she put hers in his without thinking. A united front before their mutual enemy. Things might have been up and down with Graves. He’d betrayed her trust about her heritage as Fae, but he’d spent time and effort proving that he could be trusted. Together they had been working more as a unit than ever before.
The only problem in their relationship at present stood before them.
“Isn’t he always this insufferable?” Kierse asked as he drew her into him. “He’s just trying to get under your skin.”
“I bet I could get under his,” he murmured as his head dipped into her neck. A shiver ran down her spine as his lips grazed the bare skin at her collar.
“Fine,” Lorcan barked.
Graves laughed into her neck. “God, you taste good.”
“Two can play at that game,” Lorcan said into her mind.
She jerked away from Graves and glared at Lorcan. “Stay out of my head.”
“Or what?” he all but purred.
“Hypocrite,” she snarled. “You locked down my powers to keep Graves from touching my mind, and now you have the audacity to talk to me like that?”
“I’m not going to damage this beautiful mind.”
Graves took two quick strides and grasped Lorcan by the collar. “Release her.”
“As if you haven’t been there when she asked you to stay out.”
“I will not have this argument with you again.”
“Could you both fucking stop?” Kierse said, holding her head. “Give us the stone so we can get out of this horrible place.”
Lorcan shoved Graves off him and tossed it to Kierse. “There. Take a look.”
Kierse grasped the stone in her hands, bracing for a new voice in her head. Each of the four objects had a remnant of whatever being had created it, and that thing was alive. Her spear obviously insisted she murder anyone in sight. The stone was arguably the most powerful of the lot and surely had some other obnoxious god trying to force her to do something.