Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
She understood why a cult had sprung up around it. She understood why Jason wanted to take its power for his own. She understood everything standing in its presence.
“Miraculous,” Graves admitted softly. “How could he drain this power?”
“He combined with it,” Kierse realized. “That’s why it’s lemon and pine everywhere. The tree and his magic merged.”
Maya nodded. “You understand, then. That Jason and the tree live together. Symbiotic in their joining. To kill him would be to kill the tree. One does not live without the other any longer.”
Kierse ground her teeth together. “You’re asking us to spare him? Him? After all that he’s done.”
“I’m asking you to spare the tree.” Maya’s hand went toward Sansara. “The tree is requesting it as well. Touch their trunk and tell me that you don’t understand then.”
Kierse did. She stepped across the moss and grass and put her hand to the tough bark. For a moment, she felt nothing special, and then she connected. It was like being electrocuted. Every nerve ending in her body snapped to life. She felt each individual hair on her head. Her body radiated with energy. Not just her own but Sansara.
And her own tree.
She released her hand with a breath. “So much power.”
Maya nodded. “Then you understand.”
“I do.”
It would be a travesty to kill a tree of this magnitude. And yet Jason still sat at the highest spot on her kill list.
Chapter Forty
They returned to Maya’s office via the stairs before anyone else could see them. The room was used for meditation and chanting to bring connection to the tree. Kierse guessed that it fed the tree magic enough to continue to grow as it was.
“Well, it’s been nice staying with you, Maya,” George said, offering his hand.
Maya took it with a smile. “You, too, George. You come back and see me, all right?”
Graves cleared his throat. “Let’s not do that.”
Maya blinked. “I wasn’t sure you’d notice.”
Kierse could see the magic of her words sweep around George and circle him up. It must have been what she had been doing with all the new recruits. What she’d tried to do with Kierse.
“I noticed,” Graves said. “Dispel it.”
“Uh…” Maya glanced down. “I actually don’t know how to do that.”
“You can’t release your own spells? Aren’t you a Druid?”
She narrowed her eyes at him. “I wasn’t raised by Druids, and Jason doesn’t succumb to their bullshit anymore. He taught me enough to control it. When would I normally need to release it?”
“You need control or it can kill you.”
“Well, you didn’t train me, either,” she said, lifting her chin. Then she glanced at George. “You only have to come back if you want to.”
George nodded, still unaware of the magic that wrapped around him. Graves looked displeased. It wasn’t a sure-fire way to release the magic. Only a new command.
“Could you teach me?” Kierse blurted out.
Maya’s eyes widened. “Teach you?” She gestured to Graves. “With the ‘Warlock of New York’ at your side?”
“Wren,” he hissed.
Sansara had given Maya love and purpose where Jason was incapable of anything but selfishness. Maya wasn’t a villain any more than the rest of them were. And if what had happened in the Goblin Market Times Square was any clue, things could get bad quickly again. This place was needed.
“I have persuasion but haven’t been able to access it. It’s similar enough to what you do, I think,” Kierse said. She looked to Graves. “You think so, too. I know that look.”
He grunted and slid his hands into his pockets. “It’s similar.”
“I’ve never taught anyone else.”
“Well, how do you do it?” Kierse asked.
Maya laughed. “I ask questions and people answer them. My magic seems to slip around them and they want to answer. The more questions I ask, the more they want to do what I tell them to do.”
“Hmm,” Graves said. “The questions get under their defenses. And then you can get into their mind.”
Maya turned back to her desk, leaning against it. “Before I joined Sansara, I would just want something, and if I asked for it, people gave it to me. But when I connected to the tree, I used my magic to bring in more followers. And it works best on humans.”
“Humans aren’t taught to shield,” Graves said.
Maya waved him off. “I’d recommend connecting with your tree. Focus on the thing that you want and then make that person give it to you. It doesn’t have to be questions like mine if that isn’t how yours works. But that’s how mine always worked best. If I said, ‘I want that,’ no one listened, but if I said, ‘Can I have that?’ it was different.”
“So intent,” Graves said.
“Is it always intent?” Kierse asked.
Graves shot her a look like yes.
“Do you mind being a guinea pig, George?” Maya asked.
“I don’t think I’ve had much of a choice before this point,” he said snarkily.