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)
“Yeah, well my brothers needed a lot of it,” Evan said under her breath. “I had to learn.”
Relda opened the big cabinet and then stopped. “It’s not here.”
I had a big suspicion what she was talking about. “The belladonna?”
Relda looked toward me. “It was here just last night. I did an inventory.” She went a deathly pale. “You must think… I didn’t kill Alvis. I could…”
And then she fainted.
Yeah, I scared pretty much everyone. I looked to Jade, who was on her knees beside her mentor. “I’m going to need a list of everyone who can get in and out of your place.”
“Uh, everyone down here.” Jade reached for something, opening a vial. “We don’t have locks or anything. Or security systems. Not inside the nest. Sorry, she actually faints a lot. I don’t think she’s eating enough. She’s always on a cleanse.”
I backed away. “I’ll talk to her later. Please let her know I’m going to need to know everyone who would possibly know how to use the belladonna, and do not tell me everyone in the Under.”
Jade gave me a weak smile. “I’m pretty sure Rose and her kid don’t know. Or Chris. He’s never been interested in the craft for some reason. Some of the primals.”
So she could rule out mostly no one.
Fuck my life.
“Make me a list. I’ll need to interview people tomorrow.” Because tonight I had shit to do.
At least I’d figured out where the poison had come from.
Jade waved the vial under Relda’s nose, and the witch started to come out of her stupor.
“Oh, Jade, my dear.” She shook her head and started to sit up. “I had the worst dream. The Nex Appa…”
She caught sight of me. Her eyes widened, and she fainted dead away again.
Evan grinned, and I noticed she still had the backpack in hand, still protected The Path. “Does this happen a lot around you?”
“Relda, stop being such a drama llama.” Jade was starting in with her vial again.
It was time to go. “Kind of comes with the job. Come on. We’ve still got things to do.”
“Bye, Jade,” Evan said.
We turned to go.
“Hey, Nex Apparatus.” Jade was still cradling her mentor, but her attention was on me. “I want to talk to you before you leave. I was serious. I want to fight in this war. I want to join the king and his witches and take down that fucking wizard who killed my mother.”
I nodded.
And hated myself because I would let her come. I would let her fight. I would turn girls into soldiers because it was their world to fight for, too.
Fuck that. I didn’t hate myself. I didn’t choose this world. Myrddin did.
And he would pay.
Chapter Seven
I stepped into our assigned apartment and breathed in the heavenly smell of whatever Eddie was cooking and wished that Trent and Fen weren’t out scaring people on the bayou.
Evan set the backpack down on the big table in the middle of the living area. “So now we try to figure out who got into Relda’s cabinet?”
“I’ll have Fenrir and Trent take a smell when they get back.” Luckily the witches wouldn’t die with the dawn the way the vampires would. Talking to the primals would have to wait until tomorrow night since they were all in some mourning ritual now that I’d taken the samples I needed from Alvis’s apartment. Most of the nest was busy with the rituals and rites that went with a couple-thousand-year-old vamp exploding, so my investigation was on pause. “Unless someone is covering their tracks with a spell. It’s the only thing I can think of that would fool Trent’s senses.”
“There are a lot of ways to cover a scent, but what Fen was describing seemed more magical,” Evan agreed. “There are herbs that I could use, but it would have the scent of the herb. Fen told me it was like nothing was there.”
“Can he still do that?” I hadn’t asked before, and the question struck me. “When Fen was a kid, Trent couldn’t smell him. It unnerved him.”
Evan shook her head. “Nah. He hit puberty and now pretty much everyone can smell him from a mile away. He scares the crap out of other wolves just by walking into a room. I’ve watched big-ass alphas avert their eyes when they catch his scent.”
He’d gone through puberty. He’d grown up. I’d promised him I would be his mom and he’d grown up without me.
“Kelsey, it wasn’t your fault,” Evan said quietly. “He knows that.”
“Am I being so obvious?” I had to take a deep breath and shove that emotion down because Trent wasn’t here to soothe me and sometimes I get violent when I get emotional.
Although this didn’t feel like anger. Or fear.
This felt like unimaginable loss.
Somewhere in this nest a group was mourning their friend.