Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Or, at least, the gang does.
The holidays are upon them and the ex has invited Jessie to meet his new fiancée. It's off to L.A. where Jessie will face her past and the wounds she didn't realize still lingered.
Niamh, too, meets a blast from her past. This one, though, is ten times more dangerous. Re-connecting is a risk not even Tristan is sure they should take.
All the while, Nessa and Sebastian are not far away, ready to unleash a surprise the crew could never expect.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
ONE
Sebastian
“I’m impatient to get into his files.” Sebastian waited behind Nessa as she used her instruments to cut through a chain-link fence on the outskirts of Malachi’s extensive property.
“It’s a wonder how he got so high up in the Mages’ Guild hierarchy, considering his sloppiness in the shadow markets.” She finished the circle of fencing and carefully pulled it away to create an opening.
“He wanted people to know who he was.” Sebastian took the wire from her and set it aside as she analyzed what lay beyond. “He must’ve. In the past we barely found a trace of him, remember? He wants people to know he’s doing high-level work for Momar. That he’s helping him with his endeavors.”
“Not smart.”
“Why? Who’s going to oppose him? Who’s going to go after him?”
She turned back with a quirked eyebrow, highlighted by the bright moon overhead. Sebastian felt a smile curl his lips.
“Who’s afraid of the big bad wolf?” she asked with a glint in her eye.
“Elliot Graves is a has-been.” He nearly laughed as she crawled through the hole. “A ‘would-be’ that never was. He reached his stride and then disappeared. There is no coming back from that. Not now that Momar and the Guild have essentially joined forces. Resistance is futile. Submit or be destroyed. Did I miss anything?”
“Yes, actually. Momar’s silent partner, who has all the power.” Nessa turned once she was through the hole and pointed at a couple of wires running along the fence. “One above.” She moved her finger down to point near the bottom. “One below. Don’t touch either or the whole world will light up. He went mundane with the perimeter security. Too lazy to do spells, maybe.”
“Got it.” He handed through his pack before crawling in after it. When he was halfway across, she hissed and grabbed his head, forcing it down a little. She was better at this stuff than he was.
Once he was on the other side, they gathered their packs and looked out through the trees at the massive house sprawling just over a berm in the distance.
“The Guild is nothing but Momar’s puppet,” Nessa whispered, scanning the grounds. “They think they have joined forces with him, but in reality they have rolled over so he can do as he pleases. He has all the power. Those magical twins from the attack on Kingsley’s territory and their legion of magical workers are working together in a way the Guild mages can’t comprehend.”
“Seems like Momar learned a thing or two from shifter unity and teamwork.”
“He hates them, but he’s not stupid. He recognizes their power now, and he’s trying to create something to combat it. He would’ve won if not for gargoyles’ selflessness.”
“The one thing we have at our disposal that he never will. Mages might be working together right now, but that battle showed selflessness is definitely not in their wheelhouse.”
She didn’t comment, and he knew what she was thinking. Sebastian and Nessa would have to use—and abuse—Jessie and her crew’s selflessness if they wanted to end this thing.
Nessa did not like acknowledging the reality of the situation. Sebastian didn’t either, but he was pragmatic. His visions, as sporadic and distorted as they were, didn’t lie. They needed to walk this path to the end. As terrible and heartbreaking as that might turn out to be, the alternative would probably be many levels of magnitude worse.
“Come on.” Nessa started forward, directly across the grass.
Sebastian quickly used a spell to distort them from view on the camera footage.
“Pretty soon…we’ll need to scramble,” Nessa informed Sebastian. The melancholy he sensed in her tone wasn’t like her. “Here we go,” she said, starting to jog.
Two black phantoms raced through the evening, teeth bared but utterly silent. Dobermans, one from each side, locked in on their prey.
“I should be more scared,” he said as he matched her pace and quickly flung spells. “I should be much more flustered in this situation. I usually am.”
He headed one off before working a little harder to trap the other. The dog hit his magical barrier and snarled, breaking the silence to loudly bark and continuously lunge, trying to break through the four invisible walls that now surrounded it. The other dog found its way around the detour he’d thrown at it and sprinted after them.
Sebastian was ready, blasting the ground near it to put it off its stride and then locking it into a second magical cage. He’d release them after they got into the house, allowing them to roam and quiet down. The dogs tended to ignore anything that went on within the house. Sebastian had organized a few surprise deliveries to ascertain that fact.
Near the house, they slowed, hardly out of breath. In the weeks since the pivotal battle between Momar’s people and the motley crew led by Jessie and her people, they’d worked hard to get in better shape. They’d gone off on their own, so they didn’t have anyone to fly them around anymore.