Total pages in book: 127
Estimated words: 119942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 119942 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 600(@200wpm)___ 480(@250wpm)___ 400(@300wpm)
Since insanity wasn’t exactly rare among their kind and there were plenty of rogue demons out there, Harper still had threats to her safety.
“Have you told her what you are yet?”
“Not yet.” His hesitation was clear in his tone.
“Harper doesn’t scare easily.”
“No, she doesn’t. But my kind aren’t supposed to walk the Earth. You know what they say – what’s born in hell should stay in hell.” Contrary to what humans believed, there were much worse things in hell than Lucifer.
“You’ll have to tell her soon. You’ll also have to tell her the truth about Carla. I wish she didn’t have to hear this shit, I really do. But it’s better if she’s on her guard around Carla, if she doesn’t buy the ‘please let me talk with you’ routine.”
“I can’t talk to Harper about it until I’ve spoken to Jolene and I have all the facts. But I will tell her.” He could never keep a secret like that from her, especially after his assurance that he wouldn’t withhold anything from her that concerned her.
“How do you think Harper will take it?”
“That I don’t know. She always manages to surprise me.”
Figuring that it was likely that Jolene was in her suite, getting ready for the dinner that would start in an hour’s time, Knox and Levi headed straight there.
Jolene, already dressed in a lilac suit, looked surprised to see him. “I was expecting Beck and Martina. Come in.” She peered around him. “No Harper?”
“No,” replied Knox as he closed the door, leaving Levi outside to guard the suite. “I thought it was best that she wasn’t present for this conversation.”
One of Jolene’s brows slid up, making him think of Harper. “Oh? She won’t like you deciding what’s ‘best’ for her.”
“She won’t like learning you’ve lied to her all her life either.”
Jolene narrowed her eyes. Realization appeared to dawn on her quickly, so she obviously knew this could only be about one thing. “I really don’t believe this is any of your business.”
“Harper’s my—”
“Anchor, but that doesn’t entitle you to know everything.”
“It does when I’m her mate.”
Jolene sighed. “I suppose I should have expected that.” Taking a seat on the sofa, Jolene crossed one leg over the other. “She’s one of a kind, isn’t she? Special.”
Yes, she was.
“It’s hard to imagine that this might have been a world without her in it. Suck some of that rage back in before your demon takes control.”
“Why the lies, Jolene?”
“How did you find out?”
“A friend of Dawn recognized Carla and mentioned it to Levi,” replied Knox. “Why didn’t you tell Harper the truth? Or, if you were so set on lying, couldn’t you have told her a kinder one?”
“You think I should have told Harper that her mother sought magick that would end her life and trap her soul just to have vengeance on her father?” Jolene sniffed. “That would be hard for anyone to handle, and it could have made her reject both parents. Yes, I could have told her a kinder lie. But that would have risked Harper one day making the decision to seek out Carla. And at least this way if Harper ever discovered the truth, it wouldn’t be too much of a shock. She already knows Carla’s selfish and cruel.”
“You know another thing I don’t understand? Why you gave Harper to Lucian. You could have raised her yourself. She deserved better than what she got.”
“Do you think I wanted to give her to him? I cried for days. But it wasn’t easy for her being the only Wallis who wasn’t an imp – it made it worse that her parents weren’t around. I needed her to realize that the problem wasn’t her, it was them. If that meant she lived with Lucian to find that out for herself, so be it. And it worked. You can’t deny that.”
No, he couldn’t. It didn’t mean he had to like it.
“Are you going to tell her the truth about Carla?”
“We’re both going to tell her.” Knox opened the door and swept out a hand. Jolene didn’t move. “If it doesn’t come from both of us, the truth will hurt her even more. I won’t have that.” After a long silence, Jolene grabbed her purse and followed him out of the suite.
Once in the elevator, Knox told her, “Tonight, someone put a death spell on Harper’s apartment.”
Jolene’s face hardened and the elevator began to slightly rattle. Quick enough, the rattling stopped. “She’s fine.” It was a ‘she’d better be fine’ statement.
“Of course,” he said. “Shit would be burning down if she wasn’t. That’s twice now that dark practitioners have targeted Harper. So it would seem that the culprit likes to use magick to get what they want, especially when what they want is vengeance. A little like Carla.”
“You think she could have sent the practitioners?”