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)
Kierse boiled with rage at the sight of his smug smile. She wasn’t the same girl she’d been when she’d gotten out. She’d been sixteen and still both enamored and terrified of him. She’d had enough gall to try her hand at killing him, but she knew now that she should have put a bullet between his eyes just to be safe. And she fucking intended to this time.
She reared forward and slammed her head against his nose. The crunch as his nose broke and blood spurted was extremely satisfying.
“You fucking bitch!” he cried, reeling back and reaching for his face.
All that remained after her fury was her magic. Not the place she’d gone while trying to reach Lorcan, but the center of her wisp powers. They were weakened from the iron, but still vibrant enough from the heist to latch onto. The guards rushed to Jason, who yelled and sent Maya off for medical help. The other goon fretted over him, and Jason pushed him away. He never could stand looking weak.
She smiled. Let that energy rush to her fingertips. The burst of power came to her like an emotional avalanche. He thought he was just going to get away with it. He was going to leave like he hadn’t destroyed her life.
No. The answer was all she needed.
She pushed like she had never pushed, sending herself into slow motion with such force that time stood still. The drop of blood stalled at the bottom of Jason’s chin. His goon’s outstretched hand froze. The clock refused to tick.
Between one second and the next, Kierse shifted forward, her body a blur as she went from tied to the chair with iron to standing on her own two feet. Magic suffused her bones and whipped her hair around her face and sang a sweet tune. The scent of Irish wildflowers blooming in the spring burst across the room. Golden magic mingled with blue down her limbs.
She dropped her slow motion. Time ticked forward.
Kierse had phased from one place to the next.
Chapter Sixty-Six
Jason’s jaw dropped in horror as he jerked backward. “You…can’t do that.”
“It seems that I can.”
The power was a torrent through her. She didn’t know how long she could hold onto it. Not long.
“The iron…”
“I’m only half Fae,” she snarled. “Half of anything is a whole of nothing.”
“That’s not what I meant,” he said carefully. The mean and ugly persona he’d been spitting at her when he’d had her cornered disappeared in the wake of her power. She watched him try to bring back the charming guy he’d always used to win people over. “You don’t want to use those powers too much or the Fae Killer is going to find you. That’s what I saved you from, right?”
Kierse’s eyes narrowed. “The Fae Killer is still out there? Aren’t all the other Fae dead?”
“He’s still out there,” he assured her.
“Do you know who he is?”
Jason’s lip quirked up. “I do. And I think you do, too.” He straightened up to make himself look more important. “If you kill me, you’ll never find out.”
“Fuck you, Jason,” she said, taking a step forward. The force of holding her powers in her hand was like trying to lift a car over her head. “Your death belongs to me.”
Jason’s eyes darted to his followers. “Don’t just stand there! Stop her.”
Then like the coward he was, he fled the room. She rushed after him, but his followers came out of their stupor all at once. There were only three of them, but they had guns. As they fumbled for them, Kierse had only one chance.
She’d never used her magic in this way before. She didn’t even know if wisps could do what she had just done. Phasing wasn’t exactly part of the repertoire, but if she could do that, then she could do more. She had enough energy to push herself to the brink. Anything to stop Jason.
Her absorption had always been passive. But over the weeks she’d learned how to turn it on and off, how to use it as an amplifier in her triskel, how to feed the power she absorbed to others. This time she only had herself. She needed to be her own amplifier and her own power source.
Grasping her power tightly in her fist, she turned her palm out toward the Sansara cultists and unleashed her energy. Like a fire hose, it rushed out of her skin and hit the first guy hard in the chest. He wrenched backward into the other two guards.
One had already gotten her gun up and aimed for Kierse’s chest. She punched another bout of magic toward the woman. It hit her the same moment that the bullet punched through Kierse’s shoulder.
They both screamed. Kierse dropped her magic and clutched her shoulder. Blood poured from the wound. At least the bullet had gone straight through. If it had lodged in, she would have been extra fucked. But her strength wouldn’t hold up long without a healer.