Total pages in book: 129
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 121324 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 607(@200wpm)___ 485(@250wpm)___ 404(@300wpm)
“Do not worry,” the Ancient said to him, “I will not blurt out your precious secrets. But she should be made aware that she made a mistake.”
“Jeez, there’s no need to get all uptight about an itty bitty seal,” Wynter told her. “I’m sure you wore one back in the day when you two regularly played hide the sausage.” Her brows rose as the Ancient’s face darkened. “Oh, you didn’t. Huh. Well, this is awkward.”
Cain felt his mouth quirk. His witch was well aware that he’d never imprinted his seal on any other woman, and she was delighting in rubbing it in the Ancient’s face. He couldn’t blame her, considering said Ancient took every opportunity to poke at her.
Ishtar shot them both another look of scorn and stalked out of the room, almost ramming her body into that of Maxim, who had waited just outside the door. The aide quickly sidestepped her, shaking his head, and then pulled the door closed to give Cain and Wynter privacy.
“I figured she wouldn’t take the whole seal thing well, so I’m not surprised she came here and bitched at you.” Wynter leaned into him a little more. “I still want to punch her right in the boob for it, though. Only I get to bitch at you.”
Cain snorted. “Is that so?”
“Yup.”
“Hmm, I get to mess with your head. You get to bitch at me. Seems fair.”
“More than. I expected a little more ranting from her. Maybe even some finger pointing and stuff. Admittedly, I would have found it entertaining. It was disappointing that the worst she did was call me foolish. You know, she’s the second person today who did that.”
“Who was the other?”
“Ah, funny story.”
Cain felt his mood increasingly blacken as she told him of her strange encounter with Saul. And he found nothing “funny” about it. Swearing beneath his breath, he shoved his fingers into his hair.
“We couldn’t cover all the reflective surfaces in the cottage to prevent him from spying or contacting me again,” added Wynter. “But we covered as many as we could to make it less easy for him, particularly the mirrors.”
“You also provoked him. On purpose.”
“It wouldn’t have mattered if I hadn’t. The result would have been the same—he wants to ensure I suffer an agonizing death.” She glanced around. “You might want to cover some of the mirrors and other reflective surfaces around the Keep, too.”
“Right now, the only thing I want to do is to fuck a promise right out of you.”
Her brow furrowed. “What promise?”
“That you won’t antagonize Saul again. You can’t underestimate him, Wynter. Don’t mistake his willingness to flee for a lack of courage or power. Don’t think he hides out of fear. He’s a sneaky little bastard who’ll do whatever it takes while he works to get what he wants—cheat, lie, flee, hide, kill. Poking at his ego will sting him, sure, but it won’t provoke him into making a fatal error. He’s been alive too long to fall for such a trick.”
“Don’t be so sure. Even immortals can do dumb shit. In fact, they do it often. Mostly because they have no need to be cautious when very little can end their lives. But I get what you’re saying, and I hear you loud and clear.”
Cain grunted. “Good. Then you can vow not to antagonize him again.”
Wynter slid onto his desk and parted her legs in invitation. “I’d much rather you did as you said and just fucked the promise right out of me. It sounded pretty interesting.”
He growled. “Awkward little witch.”
She fisted his shirt. “Shut up and do me.”
Lightly breezing his finger over the body of a blue racer snake that was curled around a tree branch, Azazel sighed on hearing of Saul’s latest stunt. “That Aeon sure likes to taunt Wynter, doesn’t he?”
Cain draped his arm over the back of the wrought-iron bench on which he sat. “It’s a two-way street these days. She hopes to goad him into making a fatal mistake. His aim appears to be to frighten her—hence the constant insinuations that she’s unsafe with me.”
“In all actuality, she wouldn’t be entirely safe with you if she was a mere toy to you as he believes.”
“As he believed. Past tense. He saw her seal when he appeared in the bathroom mirror at her cottage. He now knows she’s far more to me than a toy. But I suspect he won’t switch tactics; he’ll continue trying to frighten her. After all, she would be much easier for him to grab if he could scare her into leaving me, leaving Devil’s Cradle.” As if Cain would allow that to happen in any case. He would chain her to his bed if need be.
Feeling something touch his foot, he briefly peered down at the serpent slinking along the ground there. There were a plentiful amount of snakes in his garden, and most were highly venomous. They could be found just about everywhere—the trees, the long grass, the wall ruins, the bog-like pond, the skull rockery.