Royal Beasts – Monsters of St. Mark’s Read Online J.A. Huss

Categories Genre: Fantasy/Sci-fi, Paranormal, Romance Tags Authors:
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Total pages in book: 151
Estimated words: 147649 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 738(@200wpm)___ 591(@250wpm)___ 492(@300wpm)
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I go back the way I came and just stand there in front of the doors that already have destinations, thinking about all the new, super-powerful magic I now seem to possess.

Not only can I walk through doors to other worlds, or this world, or… anywhere, maybe, I can also give doors away. They even come with rings and spellings. It’s like a magical door kit. Everything you need to travel through worlds.

But wait, there’s more!

I can manifest things—like glowing rubies in walls. I don’t even know what that spell was about. Tomas and Madeline, obviously. But… yeah. I might’ve done something weird there.

And of course, I put a spell on Jacqueline and her kids to keep them away from the devil’s bar in town. Not to mention the whole bloodhorn banishing spell I did to Russ Roth. But both of those were on purpose. There is a big difference between intentionally doing something and accidentally doing something.

It gets worse. What if… and I’m just spitballing here, but what if it’s not an accident? What if someone is controlling me?

“This is bad.”

And… oh, God. I wilt and my shoulders immediately drop into monkey-walk position. There’s even more magic going on here. Because I can imprison people. No, even that’s not right. I can enslave people. Because I can give them a Book of Debt.

What the hell? Also, what the hell is wrong with me? First Callistina and now Nysta? Why did I do that?

You didn’t do that, Pie. The magic did it all on its own.

I don’t want to think about the Bottoms. And even though I made a big deal about letting the monsters and nymphs see their debt books, I have no idea if they even have debt books. And even if they did, I’ve got no plans—like zero plans—that have anything to do with the Bottoms.

I don’t want to go down there again. I don’t want to go to Vinca again. And if Jacqueline wasn’t in Granite Springs, I wouldn’t want to go there either.

I just want to go home.

Which is funny, because I don’t have a home. Pell’s tomb is the closest thing I have to home these days. And I’m actually sitting at home right this moment. And yet… I still feel this pull. This longing. This indescribable desire for a place called ‘home.’

My fingertips tingle and then, a moment later, my palms begin to itch. I look at them, wondering what will come flying out next.

Moths?

Fireflies?

An image of Pell’s statue flashes through my mind and then I’m picturing scarab beetles.

Wow. That’s gross.

There’s a part of me that wishes all this magic would just go away. But then, it’s all kinda cool, right?

Except for the moths. And seriously, scarab beetles are a step too far.

I’m very powerful though. Is there a limit to my power? Or is it some kind of your-wish-is-my-command magic?

I don’t know. I don’t have enough information to know. As much as I hate to admit it, I will need to hit up that library in the Bottoms. Like it or not, there is a trip down there in my immediate future. And then I need to hit up the library in the apothecary too. Because I suddenly get the feeling that there is a lot more to Saint Mark’s Sanctuary than I can even imagine and everything I need to know is probably up there on those shelves.

Then, as if I need another distraction, another question pops into my already muddled brain. What about all these doors with no destinations?

Most of the rings are just floating there in front of them. It’s kind of handy. It means we don’t have to keep track of them or force them into that bag—like that ever worked. But it’s a little bit dangerous too. It’s like leaving your car keys in the car. And these rings aren’t even hidden under the mat. They’re just floating in front of their doors like an invitation.

Perhaps these rings are specific? Perhaps one must be me, or Pell, to use them?

But it’s far more likely that they can be used by anyone.

“Hold on.” I actually say this out loud as I hold a finger up in front of me. Because they do have a lock.

The spelling. You have to have a spell too. It’s like a kill switch.

This makes me feel better about leaving them here with no one to stand guard, but now my mind is all muddied up with ring theory. I need to figure this out before I can leave to talk to Jacqueline, so I run through what I know so far.

One. To use a door, you must have a ring and a spelling.

Two. Once you put a ring on, you don’t seem to be able to take it off. It’s yours. Maybe not forever—doesn’t everything have a loophole?—but it seems to be the general rule that if you claim a ring, you claim a door.


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