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 rubbed my back, chuckling. “Succinct answer.”
“Those mages were shaken up.”
“A powerful mage barged into their home and tried to kill someone at their party. As far as they were concerned, at any rate.”
“Right, but…” I watched the waves for a moment. “Any powerful mage would have been able to waltz right in. Those wards would never have kept out a mage like Sebastian. If they were really serious, they’d have hidden some bear traps or something. Put in better locks, bought an alarm, I don’t know.” I pushed away a little, my mind still whirling. I hadn’t entirely processed everything because it still wasn’t making a lot of sense. “I’d thought attacks were more commonplace in the mage world. Arthur and his buddies said it themselves—if they got in the way of another mage, that mage would take them out. But none of them did anything. They just stared and then fell to pieces afterward. It took us half an hour to get Bert to stop screaming, for heaven’s sake.”
“It seems to me there must be levels. The people who would bother with Arthur and his lot are more on their level. Someone with a lot more power, like Sebastian, would have no use for Arthur’s spells. They’d be way beneath his expertise. He mentioned that.”
“He said a lot of things, and then tried to kill me.”
“He didn’t really try.”
“Oh no, he definitely did. He didn’t pull any punches with those spells he shot at me.”
“He knew you could handle them.”
“Maybe so, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t try to kill me. Why didn’t he tell me he was going to do that?” I sighed. “Besides the obvious.”
Tristan had explained what Nessa had told him—that the whole situation had been engineered to boost my reputation. Though she hadn’t mentioned why I’d been kept in the dark, Tristan surmised that they’d needed my reactions to be genuine. They clearly thought I was a bad actor, something Niamh had agreed with once we filled her in.
“I just don’t like this whole thing,” I finally admitted. “I don’t like his sneaking around. It makes me nervous. What if he stays in character for too long and forgets our friendship?”
Austin squeezed me close. “He won’t. And if he does, we at least know they have some sort of plan. They have an end game. Niamh, Tristan, and I are working on figuring out exactly what that end game is and how they might achieve it. It seems Nessa has been very good at eluding Tristan and Niamh, but now Niamh is starting to…blossom, is all I can call it. She’s making connections and burrowing into the dark web better and better all the time. She calls it shaking off the dust. Tristan says she’s becoming as good with the networks as she is getting information at the pubs. I have no doubt they’ll close the distance, and soon we’ll have a better idea of what’s going on.”
“It’s just…why are we having to stalk allies?” I looked up at him worriedly. “Why don’t they trust us enough to bring us in on these plans?”
He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. “Tristan thinks Nessa is walking a dark, narrow path. He has a strange sixth sense where she is concerned. He doesn’t think she’s comfortable with that path, but likely feels she has no choice. She always presented herself as the ray of sunshine in our crew, right? Well, now she has to be the bringer of death or pain. Maybe she just doesn’t want us to see it.”
“She knows very well that most of my crew would be desperate to see it, and often want to take over the situation. No, it has to be something else.” I chewed my lip. “I have a bad feeling about this, Austin. I think I need to step in. They are part of our crew, and therefore I am responsible for them. I won’t just leave them out in the wilds on their own, regardless of if they think that is better for them. If Niamh and Tristan can track them down, then someone else surely can, too. It’s not safe. They need to come back into the fold. We’re better together. We’ve proven that many times over.”
“I know, baby.” He rubbed my back. “We’re working on it, don’t worry. In the meantime, we’re giving them space to flex. We’re giving them time to get their footing while we get ours. It’ll all work out, I know it.”
We started walking, but worry now pinched my gut. There was nothing I could do at the moment, though. I had to trust in my team to find them. Once they did, I’d make a decision then.
“I missed an opportunity for an ally, too,” I said, sidestepping a nearly intact sand dollar. “There is no way those people are going to have anything to do with me with the threat of Elliot Graves hanging over their heads. No one in their extended circle will, either.”