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)
“Kingston,” he admitted.
“Well, that makes sense. He was her mentor.”
“Rosetta said that Kingston paid her to help with her mental gaps, but they were getting nowhere. That was suspicious on its own. Kingston, who is known to have persuasion abilities, could make someone forget what happened.”
“But we don’t know that he did.”
“The footage shows Kingston showing up in Vegas at the same time every month. Persuasion powers degrade month over month.”
Kierse swallowed. “So you think that she would start to remember and then he would top her off?”
“Yes.”
“Then why send her to Rosetta at all?”
“Rosetta is working for him,” Graves said through gritted teeth. “I had Laz double back after we left. He broke into her shop and found information of detailed payments and instructions. She wasn’t helping her. She was keeping her confused.”
Kierse closed her eyes and breathed out heavily. “Why would he do all that?”
“Their acquaintance began roughly a hundred years ago,” Graves continued as if he could finally speak all of the puzzle pieces into place. “The first Fae killings were also a hundred years ago, and they ramped up until they were extinct, culminating in you and your mother. Then and only then did Dallas move to Las Vegas and start her work there.”
Kierse pushed back from him, walking around the table and trying to steady herself. “So she helped the Fae Killer kill off my entire species and then retired to the desert where she had memory loss that coincided with Kingston’s appearances in her life.”
“And when Laz and Schwartz found her, she was dead within the week.”
She pressed her hands to her temples. “So what are you saying?”
“I’m not saying anything,” Graves said, reaching for papers at his side. “Dallas Llewellyn is.”
He pushed the papers into her hands. They were notes from the app on her computer, and some parts had been highlighted. Kierse read aloud, “He came again a day later. I wasn’t happy to see him. I think I’m losing my mind. I know that he’s visiting me, because we’re friends, but I can’t help but remember him with a gun and blood on his hands.”
Kierse looked at Graves with wide eyes. “Is this?”
“Laz cross-referenced it, and it’s the day Kingston showed up.”
She flipped the pages before landing on another one. “I killed so many of them. I have to tell him that what we did was wrong. Their blood is on my hands this time. Not just his. I was the one who could find them even if he was the one who finished them off. I messaged Kingston to tell him that the memories are coming back. He said he would come visit, and we’d sort it out.”
Graves nodded. “He was there the same day. And her next entry isn’t for months later.”
Kierse found another highlighted part. “I have to hide or he’ll wipe my memory again. But I needed to put it somewhere before I forget again. It’s Kingston.” Kierse fumbled over the next line. “He’s the Fae Killer.”
The words punched through her. She sank into the chair opposite him, the stack of books hiding her from view as she processed those words.
“Graves,” she whispered. She looked up over the stack. “How can this be true?”
“I’ve been considering it for a while,” he admitted, the initial fear having already left him. No wonder he’d been dissociating when she’d walked in.
“We went to his house!” she said, jumping to her feet. “I could have been killed.”
“Why do you think I never wanted to leave you alone with him?”
“Were you testing him?” she demanded.
“No.” Then quieter. “Yes.”
“Graves!”
“But he never gave any hint. He’s never given any hint. I’ve had hundreds of years to know that he’s every bit as much of a monster as I am,” Graves said. “But I can live in this imperfect world. He hates that there are things out there that can hurt us, that can kill us. He abhors change. He abhors anything that isn’t a warlock honestly, but I don’t know why he would kill the Fae. Except…”
“Except?”
“He almost died a hundred years ago,” Graves said softly. “By Lorcan’s wife, in fact.”
“What?” Kierse asked.
“He was in his country estate when Saoirse stumbled upon his house and asked for aid because she was wounded. He wrote to me to ask about her. I told him that she was harmless. He wrote again saying that in giving her help, she had absorbed his magic and ran for her life.”
“What did he do to her that made her react that way?”
Graves ran a frustrated hand back through his hair. “I never got the full story from him, but I confronted him after Saoirse’s death.” Graves shook his head. “He’d already heard the news and had a full alibi. He had me set out the ancient rites for her death with him.”