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)
“Not exactly,” she said.
She felt the tug of her magic like a lifeline. It was a brittle trickle compared to what she had. If she’d been able to get that door open a touch wider before Lorcan realized what she was doing. But now that it was open, she was sure she could work her way under it more.
She pushed her wet hair behind her ears and let him see the pointed ends. His eyes lit up when he realized.
“You did it? Your magic is back?” he asked, immediately reaching for her bare wrist.
This was the wrinkle. Her glamours were back. She experimented with brief bouts of slow motion on the way home. She could even sense exactly where the scores were for the few people who were on the subway with her at this hour. But her absorption was finnicky.
“A bit but not all of it.”
He released her when he realized what she meant. “You can’t let your absorption down.”
She shook her head. “Not yet. But I’m working on it.”
“I see,” he said, clearly disappointed. “How did you do it? What happened when the spell was cast?”
She swallowed. “I went to a field of wildflowers in Ireland. The Wicklow Mountains.” Graves’s eyes shuttered closed. “Lorcan was there, and he told me the story of the Sons of Tuireann.”
“Ah,” Graves said, immediately understanding. “You understand why he has not forgiven me in all these years.”
“But he didn’t understand why I, in turn, would not forgive him.”
Graves’s laugh was sardonic. “No, death is unforgivable, but uniting soulmates was always seen as a good thing. Couples were frequently coerced if not flatly forced to join. He wouldn’t see that as the same.”
“But I do,” Kierse argued.
Graves rested his elbow on the arm of the chair as he leaned his chin into his hand. “Do you?”
“Yes,” she snapped. “And I told him as much. Then I got under the magic and told him to fuck off and die.”
“How did you get under the magic?”
She sighed. Her stomach was in knots. She didn’t want to tell him this part. “I lied.”
His brows raised at that. “Elaborate.”
“I let him think that I might forgive him,” she said carefully. “And when he began to believe me, I tried to work under his defenses, but he wasn’t sufficiently distracted.”
Graves met her gaze. “You kissed him.”
“I didn’t want to, but I remembered you said whatever it takes.”
He waved a hand in acquiescence. “I did say that.”
She brought her hands to his face and forced him to look at her. “It was a distraction so that I could get around the magic. There was a lock, and I managed to pick it.”
“Always a thief,” he said as his hands slid around her waist.
Kierse ran her hands up his jaw. “The only thing I want to be stealing is your heart.”
“It already belongs to you.”
“Then make me forget what had to be done,” she whispered.
And then Graves drew her into his lap, tugging her against him and kissing her long and deep. She could have lived in that embrace forever. Just the feel of him against her.
“Have you forgotten now?” he breathed against her lips.
“I think I need some more convincing,” she purred, dragging him against her mouth again, their tongues volleying in the heated space. His heat was an inferno as if he’d done a significant amount of magic tonight. Every inch of him a map of heat licking against her skin.
This was paradise. This was eternity. This was all she ever wanted.
Graves finally pulled away with a sigh. “Better?”
“Much,” she told him. “I’d be happy never to see him again.”
Graves was silent a beat too long. “I know that’s what you want. The bond is just…all consuming.”
He wasn’t wrong. It seemed to eat away at her more every day. And he knew this. He’d seen it happen so many times before. They both needed to find a way to stop the bond.
“I’m still me. I’m still making the decisions,” she told him, meeting his stormy gaze. “Until the time that it consumes me, I’m yours.”
He sighed, dragging her to his lips once more. The kiss was feverish. She leaned her body against him, wanting to bury the last few hours and drown in Graves. Forget everything that happened in that wildflower field and live only here and now in the darkened brownstone of Graves’s life.
But eventually, he pulled back. His breathing erratic. Those turbulent eyes locked on hers.
“I fear I’ve taken out my poor night on you,” he admitted.
“I fear I took mine out on you,” she said, placing another kiss on his lips.
“Walter finally cracked the hard drive we gave him,” he said. Her eyes widened in surprise. “Laz and Schwartz made it through the video footage. They both found concerning things inside.”
Kierse sat back fully on her heels. “What did they find?”