Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
She waited this time to see if he was done talking. When he just smiled at her, she thanked him.
“Thank you for letting me tag along. What should I do with our friends?”
“Leave them. You were never here. If anyone mentions any of this, you don’t know anything about it.”
“I got you. Okay. I will see you soon.” He gave a salute, and then off he ran, almost immediately disappearing into the trees.
She watched her footing and got out of there, too. Back on the sidewalk, heart finally slowing down, she jogged around a corner, then another, getting close to home. She cleaned her knife as she walked, making sure no one was out and about to see her. That done, she sheathed it and reached for her phone.
This time she didn’t have a weapon when a large hand wrapped around her throat. Her body swung with dizzying quickness, and then her back slammed up against a tree trunk and a huge body leaned in.
She recognized the smell immediately—a woody amber scent with a hint of mountain rain. Tristan.
“At least this time there isn’t a roof for you to pitch me off,” she said, her voice raspy and her hands at her sides.
“You’re not going to reach for the knife, little deathwatch angel?”
“No. There’s no point. I tried with a basajaun just now, and he commended me on my fast hands. I figure I’ll just submit and see what happens this time. Eventually maybe you’ll get around to killing me.”
“This would be the time.” He leaned closer; his breath smelled of chocolate and cognac.
“You don’t have any of that chocolate on hand, perchance?” she asked hopefully. “Maybe as a last meal sort of situation?”
“What did you tell your people?”
She assumed he meant about himself. She couldn’t imagine his caring about anything else.
“Everything you told me. As much as I could remember, anyway.”
“And have they figured out the riddle?” He shook her a little, his voice deep and smooth and full of dark promises. “Don’t lie to me. You don’t want to know what I’ll do to you to get answers.”
“I’m sure I can think of a million things you could do, many of which I’ve done myself. I have a flair for creativity.”
It felt so strange saying that out loud. So real. Only Sebastian really knew that side of her. The woman she’d had to become to keep them alive. To keep them safe.
But she felt that this was a man who wouldn’t be shocked. Maybe couldn’t be. Not if he had been to the places Niamh had described.
“No, they haven’t figured out the riddle,” she finally said. “Niamh is perplexed that she hasn’t gotten anything on you at all, actually. I’m relying on her. What are you, half and half? Half gargoyle and half…?”
His fingers tightened on her throat, and she closed her eyes for a moment, willing him to finish it already. He’d make it quick; he had the strength to do so. Then she wouldn’t have to worry about betraying Jessie, or what would happen if the gargoyles left too early, or the tangled mess that lay ahead—because even if they made it through this first attack, they’d need to launch right into the defense of Kingsley.
“What does the heir plan to do with the information once she gets it?” he rasped, his lips close to her ear. “Blackmail my cairn leader? Extort money? Try to send me back from whence I came?”
She felt her brow crease and opened her eyes, finding his glowing orbs dangerously close to her face. His breath washed against her lips, and his body pressed menacingly against her side.
“Jessie called us off,” she told him. “She told us not to pursue this further, but she also knows us, so she said whatever we find should be kept between us. She doesn’t want to know.”
“Lies,” he growled, cutting off her air. “You don’t think I’ve noticed how the phoenix haunts my steps? How the puca knows things about me that no mortal in this realm could possibly know? She tracked me down to the hotel bar the other night, did she tell you? She sat right down next to me, as though we’d been friends forever, and tried to pick me apart, piece by piece.”
She closed her eyes again as a tear escaped and drifted down her cheek. She put her hand against his chest, feeling his heart beating strongly under her palm.
“Not lying,” she mouthed, with no air to push the words out.
His fingers relaxed just slightly, and his brow furrowed in confusion. The image swam from behind her renewed tears.
“Not lying,” she said again, the words forming this time. “Think the worst of me—I deserve it. Don’t think badly of Jessie. She was thrown into this life, but she is pure and light and good. She consented to finding out what you were at first but changed her mind and called us off. She doesn’t know the phoenix is spying. Cyra is doing that as a game, by the way. She thinks it’s fun that you’re so wily.”