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)
“Graves, about the tarot cards…”
He waved it off and headed out of the stacks. “That wasn’t real. Don’t worry about it.”
“It felt pretty real.”
“What’s real is this party that’s fast approaching,” he said, smoothly changing the subject. “I’ve reached out to a few contacts, but it appears to be an exclusive event.”
“Then why did I get one? He knows that I’m not on his side.”
“Because Amberdash wants you,” Graves said. “He’s always wanted you.”
Kierse sighed. “I’m going to ask around to see if anyone else I know got one. In the meantime, we should find another way inside.”
“I’m already on it. We’ll see if some old acquaintances will work with me again.”
Kierse snorted, running her hands back through her hair. “What did you do? Blackmail them?”
“Not exactly,” he said slowly. “But I had them do something they desperately wanted to do, and they were not pleased for it.”
“What did they do?”
His eyes lifted to hers. “Give in to their nature.”
There was heat in them. He had given in to his nature one too many times with her as well. Something she found that she very much liked.
Let the monster off the leash.
Graves pulled her toward him and pressed a kiss to her mouth. “I’ll call if there’s any developments.”
She wanted to dive right into him and let him devour her. But the rubber bands snapped against her chest, reminding her of the widening chasm where Lorcan could get access to her. The pull that said walk straight south and don’t stop until she was directly in front of him. A yearning that came across the bond like he was physically hurting without her.
She shut it down. She shut it down hard. Tried to lock the vault around it and throw away the key. But it was like throwing her weight against a brick wall.
“I’ll see you later,” Kierse said, stepping out of his embrace.
A knowing look crossed Graves’s face before he turned back to his books. “Be safe, my wren.”
…
She was on the subway heading toward Brooklyn when she got off the train an exit early.
The subway was too terrifying right now for her to zone out. She’d had to bypass a handful of humans openly eating goblin fruit from a goblin supplier in one subway car and been confronted with a handful of monsters proudly wearing Men of Valor pins on their clothes. They’d sneered at her as she bypassed them—thinking her human. That was not the sort of circumstances to go blank for twenty blocks.
She had no recollection of what she’d passed or why she would get off on 23rd Street instead of 14th to cross over to the Williamsburg Bridge. That place in her chest was pounding like a GPS beacon blasting ever nearer to her location.
“Lorcan,” she realized with a huff.
That was what had distracted her. What had felt like she needed to get off.
“Get out of my head,” she snarled down the bond.
“I’m not in your head,” he responded.
“I don’t remember the last twenty blocks, and then I got off on fucking 23rd. Why would I get off on 23rd?”
Lorcan was silent a moment. “Because I’m at the Flatiron building.”
Kierse closed her eyes. She didn’t need that information. She didn’t want to pinpoint where he was now.
Lorcan continued, “I promised that I would only reach out if you’re in immediate danger. Or you initiate like right now.”
“If you’re not influencing me, then what is this?”
“That’s just how the bond works.”
Kierse wanted to scream. Because if Lorcan was being honest—a big if—and he hadn’t influenced her to get off the train, then that meant that she had been going to him of her own accord. An even more disturbing thought.
She got on the next train that headed into Brooklyn and tapped her fingers against the Irish tree book for the rest of the ride, too afraid to open it and read its pages and lose her sense of self again.
The stop in Brooklyn was empty—thank the Druids for keeping this part of the city safe even as Manhattan fell apart again—as she headed off the platform and to Niamh’s office. She got chills as she knocked and opened the door. It still felt like Lorcan’s office even though it belonged to Niamh.
“Hey, babe,” Niamh said, looking up from a stack of paperwork. “You don’t look so well.”
Kierse closed the door behind her, sinking into a cushioned chair before the desk. “I got off the train on 23rd.”
“Oh,” Niamh said. “You were drawn to Lorcan?”
“I’m losing my mind,” Kierse said. “I’m losing my mind, and I can’t figure out how to get it back. I have to get around this bond. I have to, Niamh.”
“Okay. Okay. This is going to kill my whole day, but we could try a spell.”
Kierse perked up. “A spell?”
“Yes. There’s a purifying energy spell that might work. I looked into it while you were gone. It’s not going to break the bond or anything, but it could clear the pathways enough for you to get under the lock he has on your magic.