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)
“That makes me feel a little better about myself.” Edgar grinned at the basajaun. “It must be the spell after all. I was nervous he was put off by me specifically—”
“What do you know about her?” Nessa asked again.
“Her location. That she’s some sort of filthy creature. She beds animals, too. Disgusting.”
His lip curled, and I barely kept myself from rushing over, ripping him up, and making a liar out of Nessa, who’d promised to preserve his balls.
“How much power did they say she has?” she went on.
“They think she’s a joke. Word is that Graves is playing games. He was always playing games before he went dark. Taunting. People are saying he used that meetup and some strange magical creature he’d found to taunt Momar and the Guild. The Guild would’ve dealt with her, but they’re letting Momar handle it. He wants that information first.”
“What about the pack? What did they tell you about the pack?”
His confusion was evident. “The pack?”
She shook him just as the basajaun roared.
“Oh no! No, no!” The man started to flail again. “Please. Please!”
“The shifter pack,” Nessa pushed. “The shifters in this town. What do you know about them?”
He waved his hands in front of his face to keep the basajaun out of sight, then just covered his eyes and started swearing softly to himself.
“Back off.” Nessa waved the basajaun farther away. She repeated the question in a gentler tone.
“Nothing! I don’t know anything, I swear. It’s just a shifter pack. They’ve got a couple of strong animals, but what pack doesn’t? It’s nothing. It wasn’t a concern.”
“Is he coming for this pack?”
He started to cry. “I don’t understand the question! Why would he? The pack is nothing. Some upstart situation, I don’t know. This is about Graves, not some filthy shifters. No one cares about them!”
“What else do you know?” Nessa asked him.
But he was done. He curled up again and started screaming.
Nessa straightened with a confused expression. She glanced at Sebastian. “Is there a way to temper that spell? Because this is a little overboard.”
Sebastian put out his hands. “I…” He shook his head in confusion. “I mean, we tried it on Edgar. He went a little panicky and weird but…not too weird. You know, for him. I didn’t think it was this bad.”
“That vampire is old as dirt,” Niamh said after she’d changed back into her human form and grabbed her muumuu. “Magic and spells affect him differently than they would a mage. Less power is probably better.”
“It doesn’t work with less power,” I replied, grimacing at the man.
“We’ve gotten all we’re goin’ta get off this one. He’s lost the plot altogether.”
“We’re definitely not following Jessie’s original orders.” Nessa looked down at the man. “Then again, she is at fault, so I guess we’re absolved of blame, right?”
Ulric started laughing.
“Well…okay.” Sebastian motioned for the basajaun. “Can you help me carry him out? I need to get him into the trees before we let him loose.”
“I got here just in time.” The basajaun bent down and hauled the man up by one ankle. “I would have been sad to miss this.”
That was certainly something I’d expect him to say.
“There.” Sebastian pointed at the basajaun’s hold. “See, Nessa? We don’t even need a hook now.”
“So we don’t. Whaddya know?” She looked around the room. “Even though it ended prematurely, I think we got way more out of him here than we would have with our crew, Sebastian. He’s been schooled to resist painful magic. He might even have a spell against it we couldn’t detect. He’s low level, but they’ve clearly upped their game when it comes to training their people.”
“Yeah, good point. Okay, let’s—”
Austin grabbed Sebastian by the shirt as he was trying to get past and pulled the smaller man in close.
Sebastian screeched and blasted a spell off nearly before I could get a defensive layer up. As it was, the spell shot harmlessly off Austin’s shoulder. Sebastian’s aim was still not great when he was under pressure.
“That mage was here to capture my mate, take her to get questioned and then killed, and you plan to let him loose? Whose side are you on, mage?” Austin asked.
Niamh snickered, heading for the door. To Sebastian, she said, “Told ye so.”
“She didn’t tell me so!” Sebastian hollered, staying very still in Austin’s grasp. “She definitely did not tell me so. She told me”—he affected a very good Irish accent—“it’ll be grand.”
“Didn’t ye hear the sarcasm, like?” she replied, and left the room.
“I didn’t. I swear I didn’t.” He squeezed his eyes shut. “Please don’t kill me.”
THIRTEEN
“It’s fine.” I put a calming hand on Austin’s shoulder and tried like hell to cut off the thrumming magic still vibrating through my person. My gargoyle didn’t seem appeased. Worse, Austin’s display of protectiveness was spreading heat through my body that was hard to ignore.