Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
I shouldn’t have stayed away for so long, even though the general feeling of impending doom was starting to hang heavy over me again.
My vacation was over. It was time to get to work.
With a cup of coffee in each hand, I made my way through the secret tunnels and into the very heart of the house, where Ivy House’s crystals throbbed with magic. When Sebastian first came to this territory, he’d been tickled with the fear he felt around the shifters. That tune had clearly changed. I wondered if the novelty had worn off and now it was just that primal terror a large and powerful predator could bring out in people.
Sebastian had two camping stoves set up, each of them with a pot on top, currently bubbling away. He leaned over a book stand with a large volume splayed open on top of it. A portable table behind him held a plethora of ingredients for potion making.
“Except there won’t be time to actually apply it,” Sebastian was murmuring. “By the time the attack comes, it’s too late for most things. Even if I do manage to ingest the potion, it’d take a bit to work. I’d be dead by then.”
“Hey,” I said.
He jumped and turned, eyes wide. Upon seeing me, he released a ragged sigh and sagged.
Dark circles shadowed his eyes, and his hair stood on end in places where he must’ve dragged his fingers through it. His pale blue eyes looked a little haunted and a lot exhausted. It made me feel much better about what I was preparing to do.
“Hi, Jessie.” He noticed the extra mug in my hand and reached for it with a thankful smile.
“Have you slept at all?”
He gulped a few mouthfuls, then hissed. “Hot,” he wheezed. He shook his head and looked back at the book. “Not since I nearly pissed myself yesterday when your boyfriend attacked me.”
“But you didn’t piss yourself, so I call it a win.” I gave him a soft smile before walking by him and peeking into the open book. “Wow. Advanced.”
“Yes. You aren’t there yet. Maybe I’m not there yet. I can’t seem to figure out a solution for surviving an attack by an alpha shifter.”
“But you did survive.”
“Yes. Because he chose not to kill me. My shield wouldn’t have stopped him.”
So he knew.
He looked at me for a beat, realizing I knew. He nodded.
“That was the strongest shield I had,” he continued, standing at my side, looking over the book. “Granted, yes, I was already tired. But I’ll be tired in battle. I need to come up with something that will protect me. I just can’t think of anything that will work quickly enough, or for long enough. You never know when an attack might come. If it’s at the end of the battle, like yesterday, any potion would’ve waned and not been useful.”
“You didn’t fire a kill shot at him. You fired more of a warning shot. If you had fired a kill shot, he might not have gotten through your defenses. Maybe instead of finding a potion, or whatever it is you’re thinking, you need to work on your reaction times. You need to practice fighting in close combat, like I do.”
“That notion scares me. It’s not really the mage way.”
“It is definitely not the Jane way, and yet…”
He nodded slowly. “The other thing is…” He scrubbed his free hand through his hair. “What if there’s more than one shifter? What if I’m surrounded? A kill shot wouldn’t get me out of it. Not against the number of shifters out in that field yesterday.”
“Except you—we—won’t be against shifters. We’ll be on the side of the shifters.”
He gave me a long, dry look. “Jessie, all due respect, but you’re much too honest and kindhearted for the life you now lead. Austin—” His expression slipped into anxiety. “Can I call him Austin with just you, or would you prefer I call him alpha? I know better than to use anything but alpha in town, but—”
“Austin is fine. Wow. He really shook you up, huh?”
This time, he rubbed his hand down his face and gulped the rest of his coffee. “More than shook me, yeah. Your mate is terrifying. The amount of power in that shifter… I mean, other than you, I’m the most powerful mage in the world. He would’ve, like…”
He made claws with his hands and moved them through the air like a rabid animal.
“He would’ve scratched through my shield. Kill shot? Sure. I could’ve tried. If I’d kept my composure and landed it, I might have even slowed him down. But a kill shot is only deadly if you have more power than the other person’s defenses.” He dropped his hands limply to his sides. “Jessie, I don’t think I do. I don’t think I have more power than that polar bear. I didn’t even know a shifter could possess so much power against actual magic.”