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)
He stood, muttering to himself as he went to find her.
“She wants to send us letters so she can write longer notes. That makes sense. We can set up a box or something, filtered through…some sort of system to hide the final destination.” He smiled at the last line. “She needs help finding the perfect gift for us.”
His heart squelched as he entered the short hallway, hearing Nessa in the living room.
“Your friendship has been the gift of a lifetime,” he murmured, wishing he could say it to Jessie’s face. He ran his thumb along the edge of the phone. “Your trust is more of a gift than I deserve…”
Closer now, he saw that Nessa was bending over the desk, tears running down her face, laughing so hard her face was red.
“What’s…” He chuckled with her, caught up in the tide of laughter. “What’s going on?”
She pointed at the two computer screens. Each screen showed four feeds from different surveillance cameras.
He leaned in closer as she banged on the desk. The images were frozen, and it took him a moment to recognize the gaudy décor.
“Arthur Godrick’s house,” he said, seeing Jessie standing in the entryway, dressed in the poufy gown they’d sent to her. “What’s so funny?”
They’d watched the scene as it was happening, needing to get the timing just right. He hadn’t paid attention to the details at the time, however. Apparently that was a good thing, given how much Nessa was laughing.
“What is it?” he asked, still chuckling, pulling up a chair to sit beside her.
“Lemme…start…it over.” She tried to collect herself but gave in to another series of guffaws. “Okay, okay. Here we go.”
They watched Jessie walk into the house, staring at the doorframe like she was trying to see the engineering. Austin had already entered, large and menacing and terrifying. The mage by the door, acting as a butler, looked like he was literally about to crap himself. He’d slunk as far as possible from the big alpha.
“This is the part where she starts to analyze the spell—” Nessa started.
“It needs more punch,” they heard from the distance, as the mics were in a different place than the surveillance cameras. They had been short on time and needed to make do. “It’s not grabby enough. Even with less power, I could devise something to slip past this.”
“She is just spitting in their faces and has no idea how utterly rude it is.” Nessa started chuckling again.
“Yeah…” Sebastian said slowly. “I never really taught her etiquette. I always welcomed her observations because it helped me formulate ideas. I can see how…I might’ve dropped the ball on that one.”
“It’s perfect,” Nessa said. “The fact that she has no terminology and is explaining his shortcomings like she is talking to a toddler is absolutely perfect.”
Sebastian grimaced. He wasn’t sure about that. Trigger the wrong ego and things could get ugly fast.
Nessa’s chuckles turned into laughs as Jessie kept going, nonchalantly saying, “But it’s fine. If they try to attack him, our people will kill you all.”
“She’s talking like Elliot Graves,” Nessa said. “Except she has zero swagger. She’s just being truthful.”
“It’s terrifying because you can tell her people agree with her. It is entirely clear that it is not an act.”
“Exactly.” Nessa breathed out slowly. “Listen. She’s detailing how easy it would be to get people in.” She fast-forwarded a little.
Jessie’s voice came through the tiny speaker. “And locks don’t matter for people who have soundproofing spells and can break a window without being noticed…”
Sebastian didn’t remember hearing any of this. Then again, at the time, he’d been focused on how his entry would go. Now that he was watching it…he didn’t have words.
“I have a lot of magical spells for breaking and entering now. Anyway, no biggie. I was just getting the lay of the land.”
The mage stared at her, and for good reason. That was a blatant threat in the mage world. Talking about breaking and entering with another mage was like running a finger across their jugular while making heavy eye contact. It held meaning.
She had no idea what she was saying.
“I think I might’ve missed some serious chunks in training,” Sebastian said softly. “This is bad, Nessa.”
“I think the opposite. Here, let me get to the funny part.”
“I’m not so sure I’ll think it is funny…”
Edgar popped his head into the visual and then looked around like his neck was a swivel. He walked in like some sort of ghoul, his hands held out in front of him, strangely swaying for no discernible reason.
“Well, hello…”
Nessa started laughing again, pointing at the screen. “He bleached his teeth. You know, and I know, that he was trying to look presentable, but instead he is basically saying, ‘I’m a vampire, here are my fangs, I might kill you later.’” She laughed harder. “Can you imagine being that mage? Was he wearing a diaper? Because otherwise he probably needed new pants after that.”