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)
“So he conned you?”
“I wouldn’t think him capable of it if I didn’t have the evidence looking me in the face.” Graves looked stricken at the pile of papers as if his worst fears had materialized. “Kingston is the Fae Killer.”
“Fuck,” Kierse whispered. The horror of it settled over her and at the same moment that she was not the only person who needed this news. “So let’s go.” She turned away from him. “I can sketch a door and we can go kill him right now.”
“He’ll portal away and then he’ll know we’re onto him,” Graves said.
She whipped around. “We’re stronger than him together.”
“He’s a master at portaling even as his lesser power. If he’s threatened, he might be able to use his persuasion on me. We need to think of this very carefully. Kingston isn’t just anyone to fuck with.”
“Then what are we doing? What can we do?”
Graves looked off toward the fireplace. “He’ll be here for the convocation.”
“That’s weeks away!”
“Which gives us time to set a trap. You can’t skip Amberdash’s party anyway. We need to know his plan before the city gets more chaotic, and to do that you need to get the ledger.”
“Fine. I’ll still go to the party, but…” She paused at the tone of his voice. “You have a plan for Kingston?”
“One that’s forming,” he said with a nod. “I hadn’t been able to get past the disbelief, but now…”
“Now we can stop him. We can get my revenge.”
“We’re going to need Walter,” Graves admitted.
She startled at that. “What can Walter do?”
“If I’m right, and I usually am,” he said with no hubris, “he might be able to use his force fields to stop Kingston from portaling.”
Kierse’s eyes rounded. “Holy shit. You think he’s capable of that?”
“Maybe.”
“Does that terrify you?”
Graves shrugged. “A little. Going to keep him on my side this time.” She laughed, but he continued, “You’re going to have to use your portals to help him train.”
“I’ll do it.” She hesitated before asking, “How are you handling this?”
Graves clenched his jaw. “Fine.”
She tilted her head. “It’s Kingston.”
He released a breath and met her eyes. “What else can I do?” His words became more archaic as he talked himself into killing his oldest friend. “He killed the Fae, thus he has earned his death a thousand times over. It does not matter who or what he ever was to me if he had destroyed the population of people who did no harm to him. My own feelings matter not in that scenario. And if I didn’t kill him, could you even look at me?”
“I’ll do the killing,” she said.
He released a long breath. “I would prefer that.”
Which was quite an admission from a man who had never shied away from death.
“Graves,” she said. “I’m going to invite Bram. He deserves to be there, too.”
“I’d expect nothing less,” he said as he dropped his head forward. When he looked back up at Kierse, he was tortured. When he finally spoke, it was with a century of regret. “I should have stopped him. A hundred years ago, I should have stopped him, and then the Fae wouldn’t be gone. You wouldn’t be the last will-o’-the-wisp in existence.”
Kierse stepped around the books and came back to his side, sliding her hands around his middle. “Place the blame at his feet, not yours.”
Eventually, he dropped his arms around her waist and his head to her shoulder. “He’s earned his death.”
“He has, and we’ll do it how we’ve done everything else,” she told him. “Together.”
Chapter Twenty-Six
The limo stopped in the line of cars before the towering Amberdash building. It was glittering glass from ground level to where it disappeared into the dark, stormy clouds above. The rain had not ceased since the night before, and it was a drizzly, depressing evening perfectly poised for a party with her enemies. You couldn’t even see the city going to hell from the world of the glittering elite.
“You remember the plan?”
“We’ve gone over it a million times,” she said. “Step one: break into Amberdash’s office. Step two: steal Amberdash’s ledger. Step three: deliver the goods to Graves at our designated meeting spot before anyone knows I’m gone.”
“I’ll meet you inside,” he promised. “Don’t show an ounce of fear,” Graves said from her side as they crept toward the entrance.
“I know. I have to be both beneath notice and noticeable enough that they fear me. I need to make them know not to fuck with me. I need to exude warlock tonight.” She shot him a look over her shoulder. “What would Graves do?”
“I wouldn’t ask yourself that,” he said with a dry lilt to his voice.
“If it keeps me safe…”
“Focus on the mission. You’re a thief. I’ll be inside as soon as I can. Don’t get caught.” He tucked a loose hair behind her perfectly rounded ears, lingering on the points that were no longer visible. “There aren’t enough exits for you.”