Total pages in book: 53
Estimated words: 50512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 50512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 253(@200wpm)___ 202(@250wpm)___ 168(@300wpm)
“We walk past the wards then,” Dagon offers, taking the first steps toward the exit.
Then we’re all moving at once, some faster than the others. Storming toward the properties boundaries until we clear the wards and can wend.
Images fill my mind, my worst fears manifesting to haunt me. Samuel getting his hands on Aurora, finishing what he started when he took her all those months ago. She’d put up a fight this time, I knew she would. She’s stronger than she even realizes, her power one of her biggest assets, but she’s been afraid to test it against living beings. Rightly so, I’ve never blamed her. Her power has a duality nature, and I know better than anyone that power like that can’t be rushed.
She should’ve waited. She should’ve listened to me.
I should’ve listened to her. Maybe if I would’ve…she wouldn’t have felt the need to do this on her own.
Fuck, I’ve failed her.
We make it past the wards, and my heart feels hollow as we all start to wend. I just hope to fuck we’re not too late.
CHAPTER 18
Aurora
The Slatesmark Opera house looks eerily still, bathed in moonlight, as we approach. Avianna had told me all about Edgemont’s historical landmark and how it rested at the very center of all the connecting territories. The space beneath the opera house has tunnels so neighboring supernaturals could get to the designated meeting area where Conclave is held.
“I suppose it’s only natural Samuel would pick somewhere so political to meet,” I whisper despite there being no sign of anyone beyond us girls.
“He’s never hidden his desire for the throne,” Avianna says, anger coloring her eyes. Samuel had held her against her will too and almost forced her into a marriage before torturing her. She had as much reason as me to want to put him in the ground.
“We should fan out,” Cassandra says as we quietly enter the opera house.
On any other occasion, I’d be gawking at the beauty of this place. The red cushioned seats, the Victorian chandeliers, the crown molding framing brocade walls…but this wasn’t a fun night out with the girls to see a play.
This was war. Or what I hoped would be an end to one.
Adrenaline pulses like a drumbeat as we follow the plan—Cassandra, Avianna, Jocelyn, and Annika would hide themselves while I remained on the stage, clearly visible for whenever Samuel shows up. I’d used the number he’d given to Saint in Italy, the one Saint disregarded as useful after Ransom couldn’t trace it. The girls and I arrived at the opera house much earlier than the time I told Samuel I could sneak out to meet. He’d sounded all too eager to come and collect me.
Icy shivers drip down my spine as I climb the stage, the smell of wood polish and dust filling my nostrils. I’d felt so confident about our plan as we headed this way, but hearing Samuel’s voice, the bravado and ownership in it, made my skin crawl. Maybe we should’ve told the hunters and assassins about our plans, at least after we’d already set them into motion, but as much as I’d love to have their protection, I knew their very presence would keep Samuel away.
Samuel will be looking for signs and scents of the males. He won’t ever suspect it’s the females he needs to worry about.
And he should worry, because we have enough power between us to take him down. I just hope to hell he comes alone. Hope to hell I was convincing enough on the phone.
Saint will not be happy with me for this. Especially if we end up having to kill Samuel as opposed to capture him. He may never speak to me again. I’ll have to deal with that when it comes. I have to take my chance to end this. If it saves Saint, then it will all be worth it.
“Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” Samuel’s voice is loud in the vast space. I flinch where I stand on the stage. He walks slowly down the center aisle of seats before climbing the stage stairs, stopping a few feet away from me.
His crisp blue suit frames his body in a too-elegant way. It’s all wrong. He looks approachable, charming even. There’s no trace of the monster I know he is. That’s what makes him so dangerous. And it’s not fair that he looks like Saint, though his hair is just a bit longer. But there’s something about his eyes I’ll never forgot, something that is so not like Saint it makes them easily distinguishable to me.
“I was certain I’d scent my brother and the other hunters, maybe even a few assassins or the king himself when I came here.” He shrugs. “But there’s none.”
Relief ripples inside me, but I do my best to cling to the too-timid mask I wear. It’s a little too easy to conjure the young woman I was when he captured and forcibly turned me. Tortured me. Those scars will mark my soul for an eternity now. It takes half a thought to hide behind their effects, to curl inward, to appear weak.