Total pages in book: 133
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125077 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
My heart ached for him. “What had she done? Trent mentioned a word for her. Profane.”
Casey nodded. “Yes. The Profane are Myrddin’s elite witches. There are three of them, and they live in the upper levels of the Council building, from what we can tell. They are the only ones allowed into the penthouse where Myrddin lives with his familiars. It’s possible they’re his concubines.”
My stomach clenched at the thought, and this time my nausea had nothing to do with the baby growing inside me. “She’s sleeping with him?”
“I don’t know, but I wouldn’t be shocked.”
“She said something about what she gave up. Did she give up her soul?”
“Yes, though not wholly, and not in the way you are familiar with.” Casey seemed to go into an almost professorial mode, shutting down the emotions that had played on his face. “Myrddin keeps a piece of Olivia’s soul in a jar somewhere. I’m not sure where, but it’s not the Council building. I know because we have spies who have confirmed it. We believe if we can find those jars, we could potentially turn the Profane back to our side.”
I’d known it was coming, but having it confirmed that Liv had given up a piece of her soul still hit me hard. I needed some kind of a plan, and that meant getting as much information as I could. “Potentially? I would rather deal in certainty, but I would probably take any shot I had.”
“One aspect of the spell is a willingness on the part of the person giving up the soul,” Casey explained. “You need to understand that Liv doesn’t have a thrall stone in her head. She wasn’t coerced. She chose this path. I know that sounds harsh, but it’s the reality of it. I still love her, but I’ve had to step back and realize I’m not sure I can save her.”
“You’re just pissy because she tried to kill you,” I replied with sympathy. “I get it. She apparently tried to trap my son and the royal kids. But I’m not willing to give up on her. I say we catch her and torture her. She’ll either break and become our Liv again or I’ll feel fine because I get to torture her for being an asshole. Either way, we win.”
“Goddess, I’ve missed you. You have no idea how uptight I’ve become without you…or her. Losing Liv and you being missing, it’s been harder than anything I’ve gone through, including death and the turn.” He went still for a moment as though he needed to find some control. “My family before my turn wasn’t the most loving. My parents divorced when I graduated from high school, and they were both done with the family thing by then. They paid for college but made excuses to why I shouldn’t come home for holidays. Even when they were together, they didn’t pay much attention to me. Henri is the closest thing I have to a father. Hell, that’s not even right. He’s more of a father to me than I’ve ever had. You were more of a sister. Henri wouldn’t let… I thought about walking into the light. I mean that in a non-literal sense, of course, given my status as an academic. It’s not that easy for us, but it’s a nicer phrase than walking onto a stake.”
“Casey,” I began, my heart aching at what this world had done to my friends and family.
“It was so fucked up. I watched them stake Justin.” His eyes closed, tears pooling there. They ran down his cheeks when he opened them again. “One minute it was okay, you know. One minute the world made sense, and I was happy. Liv had trouble, but I knew all I had to do was love her enough and I could fix it. And then it was blood and death, and I never saw it coming. I didn’t even know what to do. When they started to come at me, I froze. All I knew was the woman who joked with me when I would buy Liv’s lattes still had Justin’s ashes all over her when she came for me. She said some spell and then I was frozen for real. I still wonder if they think I killed her.”
“Who did?” I asked.
“Lily Tucker. Sarah Day’s sister. She was looking for Sarah, but she found me instead. I’d gone to find Justin to see if he knew where Liv was. I’d already tried her apartment. Isn’t that the stupidest thing? That’s how chaotic it was in that moment. I knew it was still light outside, but I went looking for a vampire to talk to. He was my friend.”
I reached a hand out and vowed to thank Lily Tucker when we all returned to Frelsi. “You’d never been through a war before. Any case we worked on, you knew what you were getting into. That day all you were supposed to do was work on figuring out where I’d gone.”