Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
She yanked on her jacket and bag, probing her curse. “It’s not just them. I feel them all stirring.” She and Rök would have to deal with this shocking revelation later. “It’s bad. Worse than ever before.” To punctuate her statement, the angry shriek of a horse sounded from somewhere in the castle.
Rök donned his shirt. “That what I think it is?”
Nod. “The Headless Horseman.”
FOURTEEN
“We don’t have any way to dispose of the skeletons here.” Rök belted his sword, not that it’d inflict lasting damage against these foes. “We’ve got to run. Rain check?”
She glared. “Undecided.”
Fantastic. He’d said too much. He’d let his thwarted need and the memory of all those crazed nights away from her goad his temper.
When skeletons emerged from the shadows, scythes raised, he said, “Witch, we are leaving,” and grabbed her hand. With another glare, she allowed it. They hurried to the exit, and he opened the door.
A flood of black flew at them.
“Down!” He snagged her and hit the ground, shielding her from a swarm of vampire bats. “Those yours?”
Above their screeches, she said, “Mine. It wouldn’t be—”
“Halloween without them. Yeah, yeah.”
The flying rats blotted the air, wings flapping, bodies colliding. But once the skeletons drew closer, the swarm vanished as if it’d never been.
Pulling her to her feet, Rök led her through the doorway and down the creaking steps. “Let’s lose them—” Wood crumbled beneath his boots.
“Rök!” She snatched him back, and they watched the rotted step fall. All the ones below it looked unstable. Rusted nails squeaked under their weight.
Rattle rattle rattle . . . sliiice.
“We’ve still got to head down. Stay close to the side.” Hastening as much as they dared, they made it down one rickety flight.
Above them skeletons plowed into each other and plummeted through that missing step. Bones rained over Rök and Poppy. A skull bounced atop her shoulder, still snapping at her!
Rök swatted it away, then caught a scythe right over Poppy’s head. He flung it back at their pursuers as he led her down . . . down . . . down . . . a never-ending stairway. “Hate this place!”
When they’d gained a small lead, Poppy asked, “How did you stay away from me?”
He glanced back at her as they charged on. “We doing this now?”
“Might not get another chance. Let me guess, you buried yourself in other women to forget about your mate. Racking up the swimbos!” Her eyes glowed from more than a power outlay.
In any other circumstance, he would’ve relished her jealousy. “I haven’t been with anyone since before our date.”
“Celibate for years? Tell me another whopper, smoke and mirrors.”
“I let every summoner know I thought I was mated, which was as awkward as you can imagine.”
In a stunned tone, she said, “I believe you. Should I be astounded or insulted that you’re the only Lorean who avoided his fated female?”
“You didn’t want to be near me! Not exactly encouraging.”
“Other males get crazed, and you just held back. I hear about these guys all the time.”
“I hear about them too! But I know you. You wouldn’t have put up with that shit for a nanosecond. Am I a crazed smoke demon who’s obsessed with you? Yeah. Did you need to see that? No.”
“You’re . . . obsessed with me?”
With weary acceptance, he said, “The definition of it.”
“Oh, gods, that’s why you keep booking deadly jobs. For a distraction! How long would you have waited?”
“You were dating that warlock, remember. I thought you needed to be with him to unlock your powers. No male wants to be the reason his mate doesn’t thrive. I wanted what’s best for you. Even if that’s not me.”
Her expression softened at his words, yet then her eyes widened. “Lea got to you!”
He raised his chin a notch. Unwilling concession.
“When?” Poppy demanded, planning to throttle her oldest sister.
“Lea’s my sister by fate. I don’t want to throw her under the bus.”
“She had no right to interfere with my life!”
“Doesn’t she have a point though? One of the reasons I stayed away is because I thought you wanted a relationship like your parents have.”
The storybook Wiccans. “I tried it their way.”
And while Poppy had been burying her feelings for this demon, Rök had been risking his life on jobs. Suffering. Trying to do right by her.
Rattle rattle rattle . . . sliiice. Another contingent of skeletons charged up the steps to meet them. He kicked the closest one in the sternum, sending it stumbling back to knock the others down. “Come on!” He pulled Poppy into his arms to wend around bones, dodging the chomping skulls around his boots.
When he’d cleared the worst, he kept her in his arms—and she kept questioning him. “Why come here tonight?” Despite the danger, she wanted answers. “What changed?”
“Your breaking up with the warlock was like a crack in the dam for me. I realized that where you’re concerned, maybe I’ve grown greedy and selfish and as far from decent as a demon can be. If I’m to be denied, it should be because you say no. Not because I do.”