Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 90268 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 451(@200wpm)___ 361(@250wpm)___ 301(@300wpm)
I grabbed the bag, walking back into my bedroom, and kicked the door shut behind me. I brought it over to my desk and took a seat. I tried not to lean my back against the leather chair.
My computer screen was on. The security cameras were active again. Hennessy was outside, feeding the crows. There were hundreds of them flying above her head as if she were Maleficent.
I chuckled, watching her smile and talk to them as she tossed food into the feeder. Their loud caws could be heard for miles, echoing through the woods.
Opening the bag, I grabbed a container of the soup she fed me, along with a meat dish with rice and french fries labeled “lomo.” Another food container was labeled “empanadas and tómales.”
“Jesus, I’m one person,” I muttered to myself.
She really did cook for an army. There was enough food in there for a few days. There were also a couple of Inca Kola that were still cold, making me think she recently dropped this off.
Grabbing my cell phone, I texted Deja to come eat some of this food with me before I grabbed the two bottles labeled “medicine,” each with instructions.
However, it was her note that entertained me the most. It read…
* * *
Get better soon, and I want the bag and containers back.
Chapter
Twenty-Seven
Onyx: Don’t look for someone who will solve all your problems. Look for someone who will face them with you.
My father and I rode home in silence from the Brotherhood meeting. It’d been a few weeks since my punishment, and a lot had changed in that short amount of time. I was being worked to the bone, day in and day out. Between crossbow, fencing, and the Brotherhood, I barely had any time for a single thought.
The council was doing it on purpose, filling my time, another test to prove where my loyalty lay. I hated every second of it. The bit of free time I had, I spent with Hennessy. We’d meet at the greenhouse more often than not, the only place we could truly be alone.
She told me all about her home in Peru. How much she missed her jungle, all her animals, her bedroom, and her friends. There wasn’t much she didn’t fill me in on.
How they mostly lived off their land and its resources, and how they only cooked fresh food and often hunted. How they ate breakfast and dinner together every morning and night. How her house was a community home, with people constantly coming in and out.
She knew so many different languages from her family’s business. She told me all about the tourists and the places she traveled. She was so cultured, so fucking smart too.
Her face lit up every time she talked about her family. She definitely missed them the most. Especially her grandmother. They had a special relationship and connection. She taught her all about the Amazon legends she held so dear. She knew stories upon stories of occults and mythology.
She really was a little witch, living up to her last name. She believed the bracelet her grandmother made for her, which she never took off, warded off evil.
If that were true, she wouldn’t be in my arms.
She believed animals had the power to protect you, and at one point in history, we actually had the ability to talk to them. Saying animals had the capacity to see ghosts, and if you ever touched the eye discharge of a dog or a cat and rubbed it in your eye, you could see them too. There was a bunch of lore she believed in.
Nature was her biggest ally. She believed in spells, magic, and rituals. The knowledge she had about almost everything was fascinating. Although my father and her uncle were best friends, I didn’t know much about him. All I knew was that they grew up together and that he’d always been in love with my aunt. They’d been together for a while, and now they lived in one of our estates.
I didn’t involve myself in my father’s life. He wouldn’t have it any other way.
She was the funniest girl. Her wit, her passion, and the way she looked at life were captivating. I’d never met anyone like her before. The women I was used to were bred not to think for themselves. They came from generational wealth and didn’t know how to work a day in their life. They cared about status and titles.
They were made to be the type of woman who were trophy wives. Deja was so much more than that. She didn’t fit the mold, and they knew that.
I still watched Hennessy. I still stalked her and dreamed about her. I wasn’t just following orders from the council anymore. What started as just another job at making sure she didn’t investigate anything was now something else entirely.