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)
My fears came spiraling out, nearly choking me. If it was bad news, I didn’t think I was ready to hear what he might say. I wasn’t ready for the incredible danger that would be Momar and maybe the Mages Guild. Or other mages. The unknown made me wary, but the volatility of the magical world freaked me out. Maybe it was all in my head, but maybe it was even worse than I imagined.
Before he could, though, his eyes squinted and glazed over a little. His head tilted. “You drugged me, didn’t you?”
His question hadn’t been accusatory. He was just information-gathering.
“Wow. You’re good,” I said, letting the previous matter drop. I breathed a sigh of relief I definitely shouldn’t feel. “Mr. Tom said it would take about twenty minutes to kick in.”
“Am I going to die?”
I spat out an unexpected laugh at his nonchalant tone. “No. You’re going to sleep. Mr. Tom did it to me once, and then I woke up with the answer to a problem that had been plaguing me. I figured you needed a little help shutting off. I definitely thought you’d need help sleeping once I told you that we need to make an appearance at the bar tonight. We have to present a unified front and show that you’re very much a part of this territory.”
Sebastian sagged, then started shaking with silent laughter. “Ah, Jessie, you are a real treat. At once soft and hard, loving but ruthless. You might as well walk me to my room.”
I stepped forward immediately and hooked an arm around his.
“Do you know,” he said as we made our way through the narrow stone passageway and into the secret tunnels, “there are only two people in the whole world whom I’d trust enough to not react if they drugged me?”
“That right? I’m guessing one is Nessa.”
“Yes. I trust her with my life. If she thought it best to end that life, I’d trust it was the right call.”
“Dark.”
“We live dark lives.”
“The other person you trust, at a guess…is Mr. Tom?”
“No.” He started laughing as we found a narrow set of stairs within the hidden passageway. “It is not Mr. Tom. It is certainly not Edgar, though his natural vampiric drug would act too quickly for me to do anything about it.”
“It must be Mr. Tom, because he’s the one who did up your coffee. I had him do it exactly like the one he prepared for me back when I needed to sleep. We were about to be attacked, and I had to work out the particulars of a spell you’d done.”
“Oh yeah? You had to be forced to sleep to knock that out? Huh.” He shrugged. “Well, then, I guess there are three people, but one of them is only to be trusted when you administer the agent.”
“And why do I rank so highly?”
He sighed. “I don’t know, honestly. But you do. You always have. Even before you took Ivy House’s magic, I wanted to know you. And once I did get that privilege, I didn’t want to stop knowing you. Mark my words, you’ll be a powerhouse in the magical world. But I’ll always feel blessed to have known you when you were just a Jane doing nothing more than chasing her stars.”
My eyes stung. I could tell he really felt this way. It wasn’t the sleep deprivation or the sleeping agent talking. I knew he loved the house, too, and my weird crew. He’d actually bought a place just outside of town—a large house with extensive grounds—but he chose to stay here most of the time. He wouldn’t take a spot in the circle, but he was every bit a part of our team.
“One thing, though,” he said as I led him into his room. His speech started to slur. “You shouldn’t be surprised by how quickly I knew you’d drugged me. We’re going to need to do some poison training. You’ll need to know when something is amiss immediately so you have more time to combat it. The amount of times I’ve been poisoned…would probably shock you.”
“I think your entire life outside of this town is going to shock me.”
“Probably. I hope you don’t think less of me.”
“Just as long as you don’t think less of me when the gargoyle takes over and I’m as dark as Tamara Ivy.”
He sat on the edge of the bed. “Trust me, Jessie. Tamara Ivy had nothing on me. She wasn’t inherently bad. Or dark. She was just young and inexperienced in love and fell for the wrong man—a small, insecure man who couldn’t handle her strength and power. She had a lot of power, but she died before she could truly discover herself and her place in the world. When she died, she wasn’t someone to fear. She was, instead, someone to use. Don’t let yourself be used, Jessie Ironheart, and you won’t falter.”