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)
“Why?” Graves asked before Kierse could object further.
“What do you mean, why? That’s an artifact of my people’s history, too, right?”
“So, you want to use the cauldron?”
“No,” Gen said slowly. She lifted her chin and met Graves’s imperious look. “I don’t need to be healed. I am a healer.”
Graves’s brow cleared in understanding. “Ah, you want to learn from it.”
“If I can…”
“I can’t promise it will teach you anything,” he said.
“You’re actually considering this,” Kierse said.
It was unfathomable. Not because Gen wasn’t competent. She was and always had been. She had an inner strength that many people underestimated. She was the backbone of their trio. Kierse had seen how well she could use her new magical abilities, but she still couldn’t help but want to protect her. It wasn’t that she was an innocent, not with her upbringing, but she was pure in so many ways. Untouched by the horrors of the world. Even Anne Boleyn loved her. She was the best of them.
“I will consider all options,” Graves said. “But we do need an extra pair of hands now that Schwartz is out. You and I are stealing the cauldron. Laz is already in the hotel putting together the warding system from Walter. Nate is controlling our exit. George is the getaway car. Edgar has to be there for loading and unloading and Schwartz will be covering him. Isolde is baking. Walter is running security. Do you have someone else in mind?”
“No,” Kierse said. She knew the plan. They’d gone over it a hundred times, tweaking until they were sure they’d considered every possible angle. This new wrench certainly didn’t help anything.
“I can do it,” Gen told her.
“I know you can,” Kierse told her. “I hate risking you.”
“You don’t have to worry about me.”
Kierse grasped her hand. “We worry about each other. It’s how we survive.”
“Gen should be fine to manually switch off the system. I can walk her through it,” Walter said.
“In two days?” Kierse asked with a sigh.
“I. Can. Do. It,” Gen repeated.
“There’s another issue,” Walter said.
“What now?” Graves grumbled.
“Kierse was going to be the distraction for the Curator while you switched out the boxes,” Walter said. “But the window just closed.”
“What does that mean?” Kierse asked.
“I ran some numbers and estimate it at four minutes and thirty-four seconds on average.” Walter looked at their blank faces. “That’s how long you’ll have to get the cauldron out.”
Kierse and Gen exchanged confused looks, but Graves got to the conclusion first.
“Kierse has to steal it,” Graves said slowly.
“Yes,” Walter said. “The Curator will need to be elsewhere. And we’ll need the more talented thief to make the switch.”
“And a bigger diversion,” Graves said.
“Schwartz might be needed after all.”
“Are you saying that I won’t be able to talk to the Curator?”
“It’s that or the cauldron,” Graves said.
Kierse stilled under those words. She hadn’t had any more success with her memories than she’d had before the psychiatrist. She’d thought that speaking to the Curator might be a way around her mental blocks. She could learn straight from the source about the night he’d put the spell on her. That chance, or the cauldron that Graves had been after forever—she didn’t want to make that choice. And yet she felt as if it had already been made for her. She wouldn’t meet the Curator. She’d have to find the memories the old-fashioned way.
“Fuck,” she said, pacing toward the closed window at the back of the brownstone.
“Gen, you’re in. Walter will fill you in on the system,” Graves said. “I’ll call the rest of the team in for a meeting.” She heard the door open and close behind them and the soft tread of Graves’s shoes as he approached her. “This doesn’t have to be the only way you meet him.”
“Yes, because after we steal one of his most prized possessions, I can just schedule a meeting.” She shot him a look.
“When you’re long lived, you have more than one opportunity to go after the things you want.”
She hung her head. Getting the cauldron was the priority, but she didn’t know if she would have another shot at getting to meet the Curator.
“We have to try again,” she said on a sigh of frustration.
“To get past the block? Are you sure you’re ready for that?”
“What other choice do I have?”
“You just recovered your stores,” he said. “And you need them all for the heist.”
“Then I can go out and steal to replenish them.”
He studied her. “All right. I do think that it’s better for you to face this fear and try to break through the barrier than to walk into the heist wanting to meet the guy.”
“I wouldn’t jeopardize the mission.”
He raised an eyebrow. “Oh, really?”
She laughed. “I never plan to go off script.”
“The script just happens to be in rewrites whenever you’re on screen?”