Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Myrddin took it from me. He burned it as I stood there.
When you’re good enough, you’ll have a real one.
I hadn’t even been worthy of a grimoire. He didn’t think I was smart enough to have one. Why would he hold me above others? Why make me Profane?
“I’ve been wanting to talk to you,” a soft voice said.
I started and turned, my heart racing. “Who are you?”
If this was a trap, I likely was about to die.
A woman stepped from behind the thick red curtain that separated the room from whatever connected to it. She was roughly five-five with flowing golden hair and the slightest glow about her. “I am the House Sloane and the House Sloane is me. Think of me as a physical manifestation of the house. Once I was an earthbound witch. I was taken into the House of Sloane many years ago, and I bonded with the house itself.”
There were so many things that were wrong with the Hell plane. “And you wanted to talk?”
“I definitely wanted to meet you.”
Was she under a mistaken impression? “You do realize I’m not Lady Sloane.”
“Oh, goddess, of course I do. Lady Sloane has the heart of a wolf, and something like the brain of one as well. I can’t actually communicate with her. Besides, she’s not the one I wanted to talk to. I felt your presence the instant you appeared on the plane.” She walked up to me, her unlined face frowning as she reached up and touched the collar that bound my magic. “Even in spite of this, I felt you. The power you must have when you’re not chained up like a dog.”
“Can you help me get it off?” She had some serious power, too. If she could break the binding spell, I could waltz right out of here. I could use my powers to transport Dean with me, and Myrddin could save his son.
She appeared to examine it for a moment. “I’ll have to think about it. It’s well done, and it’s perfectly Earth magic. Not a hint of Hell influence. That makes it harder for me. Though I was born to an Earth plane coven, my powers now are exclusively touched by this plane.”
So she was of no use to me. “All right, if you weren’t planning on rescuing me, why did you bring me here?”
“Can’t the physical manifestation of a mansion get lonely sometimes? You’re the only one who can feel me. Oh, I can influence the others, but you I can truly communicate with.” She wore a flowy purple gown that skimmed her delicate figure. She was slender and petite, and I wondered if she weighed a hundred pounds. Most of her weight would be hair.
I was deeply disappointed she wasn’t offering me anything of interest. She’d spent the entire day shoving me at Casey and then splitting me off from Casey and bringing me up here, and for what?
“You won’t be lonely soon because there is a vampire downstairs who will find his way up here.” If only Casey had been so concerned about me twelve years before. If only he’d been willing to fight to get me out.
She didn’t seem worried. “I doubt it. Even if he did, the door is closed. He won’t be able to find you.”
I turned and sure enough, the door had vanished, and I was now alone in a sacred witch’s space with a house. “What do you want from me? Companionship?”
“Is that so much to ask?”
“I don’t think I’m good company these days.” It was time to figure out what was happening here and how I got my ass out of it. “Besides, he might not be able to find the door, but I assure you he’ll start chopping the walls apart if he doesn’t find me soon.”
She frowned my way. “Well, that would be rude of him. Fine. I did want to do you a favor. I know what you’re looking for, and you can skip the night market. They wouldn’t tell you anything anyway. They’re far too scared of her to give away her secrets.”
Now I was interested. “Who?”
“The demoness who’s trying to kill Lady Sloane before she can give birth to her son,” the woman said gravely.
“I thought the murder cat was a mistake.”
“No, you didn’t.” She seemed to study me for a moment. “You knew it was about her because she brings chaos wherever she goes.”
I didn’t really like the sound of that. There were reasons Kelsey got caught in trouble. “She’s a Hunter. It’s her nature. She was put on the Earth plane to protect it. That means putting herself in shitty positions over and over again.”
Kelsey didn’t get to say “nah, I’ll sit this one out,” when trouble happened. She couldn’t skip an apocalypse.
“That isn’t how you’ve thought about her before. At night when you dream, you send them out,” she explained. “What you see when you dream, well, I can sense the echoes of your screams.”