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)
His lips quirked at the flippancy. “They’re always drawn for me.”
“I know that feeling.”
“Emilie was my first love. I thought she was the entire world. I wanted to believe that the soulmate was wrong, but it was an honor back then. We decided together to petition for a marriage.”
Kierse could hear the heartbreak in his voice. The girl he’d loved and no one would take them seriously.
“We thought it would change their minds. It did not.”
“I’m sorry,” she told him truthfully.
His expression was flat as he added, “No one would have done it anyway. I wasn’t really one of them.”
Kierse frowned. She didn’t feel the writhing pit of jealousy she thought she would at hearing Graves discuss his first love. She’d rescued Torra months earlier and had once wanted that to be her entire world. This was centuries before she had even been born. She couldn’t be upset about a life that he’d lived before her.
All she felt instead was understanding and sympathy. That so many people had hurt Graves, rejected him, and created the monster they thought they were protecting themselves from.
“It was a long time ago. What should have been clear to me but wasn’t until it was too late was that Emilie could never be mine.” His eyes were hard and flat at the words. “Now I’m wondering if I have once again convinced myself of the impossible.”
Kierse’s heart was stuttering at those words. “Which is what?”
“That you could be mine.”
Their eyes met across the small distance. She watched him bare his soul to her. With open fear in every interaction, and still he was trying.
Kierse reached out then and took his hand in hers. His eyes widened at her as she opened herself to him. Not at the confused feelings for Lorcan that were distorted by whatever connection was between them, but deeper, to the core of what she felt for him. For Graves.
“There is no organization forcing anyone to be together. A few hundred years have passed since that time. There is no Fae Council. The Druids don’t control me. Nothing and no one controls you. The only people who get to choose anything are the two people in this room. All right?”
“I much prefer that,” he said, sliding his hand up her arm and around to her back, pulling her into him.
“Good.”
His lips brushed hers as he said, “Just know, you are my choice. Every time.”
Chapter Fifty-Four
A few days later, Kierse was fully recharged and hunched over the decoy box. The heist was only a matter of days away, and she was running out of time and down to the last digit of this combination. She could feel the thread like it would come apart for her at any second. The anticipation was killing her.
Then with a little hiss, it popped open.
“I did it!” Kierse gasped.
Gen startled awake. “I wasn’t sleeping.”
Kierse laughed. “You so were but look!”
Walter lifted his head a fraction above his computer. “Did what?”
Gen straightened. Anne Boleyn hissed at her side. Gen stroked her back and leaned forward.
“Oh!” she gasped. “You got it open.”
“Nice,” Walter said, returning to his work.
“What’s inside?” Gen asked.
“Let’s find out.”
Kierse gingerly opened it all the way up to reveal…an empty box.
She deflated. She’d known it was a decoy—she hadn’t been able to feel the cauldron inside the box—but a part of her had still hoped for something. The only thing she could sense was a lingering scent of lemon and pine. The Curator’s magical signature.
“Well, that was anticlimactic,” Gen said with a laugh.
“All that work for an empty box.”
“Yeah, but you proved to yourself that you could do it.”
“A for effort,” Kierse grumbled. “Now, I just have to reset it. At least that won’t be the same as dismantling it.”
Walter glanced up. He’d taken up essentially permanent residence in the seat opposite them. The computer systems ever-expanding across the table. “We have a problem.”
“What kind of problem?”
“A big one.”
Kierse sighed. “Should I get Graves?”
“I’ve already alerted him. He should be here soon.”
“Is this better or worse than Schwartz being kicked off the security team?” Gen asked.
“Worse.”
Graves threw the door to the library open. “A manual switch on the cauldron system and you just found out?”
“It looks like it was added recently,” Walter said with a shrug. “We’re going to need someone inside security to dismantle it if we want to get Kierse inside.”
“And we fucking lost Schwartz,” Graves grumbled.
Gen raised her hand slowly.
Graves shook his head. “You don’t have to raise your hand.”
“No. I was volunteering.”
“For what?” Kierse asked.
“To turn off the security system,” Gen said.
“Do you know anything about security systems?” Graves asked.
“Well, no, but everyone else has a job to play tomorrow.”
“No,” Kierse said automatically.
Gen sighed. “You don’t get to make the decision.”
“You’re not part of this.”
Gen whipped around to face Kierse. “I sat through every meeting. I live here. I am every bit a part of this as you are. I have magic, and I can handle myself. I want to do this.”