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)
“Niamh isn’t in charge here,” Declan said. “Now get the feck inside.”
Kierse shrugged. Perhaps this would get her to where she was going faster, anyway.
She stepped inside the cool interior, which opened into a long hallway. As she walked in front of Declan, gun still at her back, she glanced into the rooms that opened off the hallway. They almost looked like barracks, as if the Druids were sleeping like little soldiers in a sardine tin. Kierse wondered if Ethan was one of them in these little rooms.
She rubbed her hand over her chest at the thought. It was probably just stress. She couldn’t endure two heists, magic drain, and the goblin market without some tension. Add Graves and jet lag and it was a recipe for disaster. Yet…
She shook her head, uncertain.
“Through here,” Declan growled.
Declan reached around her to open a door connecting this building to another. She walked from barracks to office space. The Druid property must have been larger than even she had envisioned. If all of these buildings connected, one after the other, then it could be the entire block. Or multiple blocks.
They crossed the offices to an elevator bank that was vaguely familiar. Was this the back way to Equinox? Would this take them up to Lorcan?
The elevator dinged open.
Declan took a step forward and then froze. Standing in their path was none other than Niamh in a caramel crop top, high-waisted olive pants, and a gray blazer. Her burgundy hair was up in a high ponytail. She looked almost business professional compared to her femme fatale style in Dublin.
“Declan,” she crooned.
“Niamh,” he grunted. “Just bringing Lorcan a trespasser.”
“Great!” she said cheerfully. “I’ll take it from here.”
“I…”
“After all, she’s really a guest. My guest, actually.” She pressed a button to stall the elevator. “I don’t like when people hold my friends at gunpoint.”
“Friends.” Declan chewed on that word as if it was a piece of gristle.
“Yeah, Declan. Friends.” Niamh shot him a bemused smile. “I’ve been gone too long and this place has gone to hell.”
“You can stay gone,” he mumbled.
Niamh straightened at that. “Excuse me?” Niamh was by no means a short person, and as she came to her full height and looked eye to eye with Declan, she seemed twice as formidable. Kierse could make out a golden glow flickering at the edges of her. As if her magic took insult to Declan’s defiance.
“Nothing.”
“If you’re upset by my return because you’ve been knocked down a peg, Declan,” Niamh said threateningly, “then you know how to correct it.”
Declan’s eyes blazed. “Is that a challenge?”
Niamh crossed her arms. “If you think it is. I’m fine seeing you in the ring.”
“Feck off.” Declan must have known that Niamh could wipe the floor with him, because he promptly stomped away.
Niamh kept her eyes on him until he disappeared behind a door.
“What just happened?” Kierse asked as she got in the elevator.
“Something that he can’t back up.” Niamh winked. “That’s why he didn’t accept. But I should probably tell Lorcan about it anyway.”
“If you think that’s best.”
“I think he’s been dying to see you,” Niamh admitted. “Let’s not insult him.”
“No, let’s.”
Niamh laughed and pressed the elevator button to take them upstairs.
When the doors opened, it was to an immaculate, open-air office that blended together the historic charm of the old brick building and a functional workspace. The hardwood flooring looked original, as did the large, arched windows along one wall with fluttering cream curtains. A light oak desk sat heavy at the center of the space, polished to gleam against the crimson rug. Behind the desk were shelves laden with books. A robin fluttered in a cage next to the desk.
And sitting behind the desk, his dark hair hanging loose in his eyes as he typed away at a computer, was the head Druid himself.
Lorcan glanced up at their entrance. His blue eyes were the cerulean of a clear spring afternoon. They flicked to Niamh and dismissed her as soon as they landed on Kierse. It was like feeling the sun peek out from behind a cloud to alight on her face.
“Little songbird,” he purred.
She’d forgotten his magnetism. Even when she had been playing him in a web of her own creation, she hadn’t been able to completely pull away from the vortex he’d swirled her into. He’d been charming and genuine. A smile that lit up his eyes like he hadn’t known torment. A hero hiding in the cloaks of a villain. Especially dangerous because he didn’t care who got in the crossfire and believed the ends justified the means.
She’d seen him for who and what he was, not what he wanted others to believe, but she’d had to work at it. Even when he’d sent people to kill her, kidnapped her, and held her friends at gunpoint, the edges were blurry. And with Colette’s words ringing in her ears about using her wiles to get information from him…the lines were twice as blurry.