Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Finally, Graves nodded. “I believe that you believe that.”
Which was not the same as saying he believed she wasn’t in danger.
Still, she let it drop. She didn’t want to discuss Lorcan any more than he did. Lorcan was a thorn in her side that had released a drop of blood but hadn’t yet ripped her open.
“As for my work,” Graves said, transitioning smoothly. “You didn’t want me in your head at all. Now we’re not just skimming for memories of your parents.” He grinned devilishly. “Or during sex.”
“No, that part I do not mind at all,” she said with a choked laugh.
“This is deeper work. I’d be remiss to not warn you that it may be trickier.”
“Why?”
“You don’t have any memory of Cillian. As far as we know, you only met him once. While we have his magic signature and the knowledge that he put the spell on you, you don’t remember anything else about him. It’s very little to go on. It might take a few tries to get to the night that it happened.”
“Okay,” she said, breathing out harshly. “But we will get there.”
“Yes, we will.” Graves ran a hand through his hair. “Also, I heard from Mafi.”
Kierse’s head jerked up. “About the psychiatrist?”
“She’s back in the city.”
She relaxed back down, her mind spinning. This whole thing with therapy and doctors still freaked her out. She couldn’t explain it, except that it had been so hard and expensive to pay for doctors for so much of her life. She wasn’t sure how to trust or open up to a paid professional. It was hard enough doing it with people she cared about. To think of Graves in her mind digging for answers.
“If you want to see her,” Graves added. “Mafi said we could come in whenever we wanted.”
“I’ll think about it.”
He acknowledged her and then went straight to business. “What are you going to focus on?”
Kierse bit her lip. “My parents. The night they left your house.”
“That’s as good a place as any. We can try to skip forward until they reach him.”
“Should I think about the smell at Sansara, too?”
“Let’s try this first. We don’t know exactly where we’re going, and too many points of entry could drag us to the wrong person or time.” He slid his gloves off. “Whenever you’re ready.”
She slowed her breathing. She could do this. She flipped that switch on her absorption, feeling it give as smoothly now as her slow motion. She turned it to off and let Graves’s magic settle into her skin.
She was leaving the library, a yawn escaping her little mouth as she walked between her parents to the elevator. She stumbled from exhaustion, and her dad picked her up. She laid her little head on his shoulder and fell asleep as if the night had been peaceful and she was safe and loved.
A tear leaked from the corner of Kierse’s eye as the memory faded to dreams.
“Should we stop?” Graves asked, pulling back.
“No.” She replaced his hand on her arm. “We need to keep going.”
“I’ll guide from here,” he said, his voice taking on a smooth, melodic tone.
How many times had he done this before? How often had he stolen information from someone’s mind by guiding them? Enough. Enough, and it didn’t matter, because they needed the information. She needed the information.
“You just woke up after leaving the library. What do you see?”
Kierse distantly felt his magic entangle with her consciousness, encouraging her to show him what he wanted to know. She also felt an immediate instinct to fight his touch and cast him out, but she pushed that down and concentrated on what he wanted.
Her dad was putting her to bed on the couch, tucking a blanket around her shoulders. Her eyes fluttered open, and she yawned. “Did I fall asleep?”
“It’s okay,” he said, pressing a kiss to her forehead. “It’s late.”
He ran a hand through her hair, and she closed her eyes again. But she was restless, once more opening them to look up at him.
“Is Mum going to be okay?”
“Don’t worry about your mum. She’s a strong one.”
“But if they’re after us…a spell isn’t going to hide her, too.”
“No,” he told her truthfully. “We’ll figure something out.”
It was the first time she realized that her father was lying to her.
She fell back asleep, but Graves’s voice was in her ears, already guiding her to a different memory. “You went to see the Druid, Cillian Ryan. Your parents took you to see him.”
Her mind whirled, sorting, processing, coming up blank. It was like a computer search engine looking for a name and finding nothing. But there shouldn’t have been nothing.
Her absorption switched back on, and Graves leaned back. He passed her a chocolate cookie. “Eat something. Switching your powers on and off will drain your magic.”