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)
In a balls-preserving move, Desh traced away midbeam, leaving his barstool pulverized.
“Damn it!” Lea glared around the room. Immortals, unfazed by the confrontation, shrugged and got back to business.
Rök traced over to her. “What happened to Poppy?”
Lea sneered at him. “Well, if it isn’t Rök Kours. I’m surprised your summoners allowed you outside of a bedroom.”
He remembered that sneer from the last time they’d talked, when he’d charged over to Poppy’s house straight from that restaurant two years ago.
Lea had intercepted him in the yard and had uncannily seen what he’d suspected—that Poppy was his fated one. . . .
Lea raised her glowing palms, threatening him with battle magic. “Poppy might be yours, but you are not hers. Wiccans don’t have mates. What we have is untapped potential and a need for magical protection. When Poppy takes a warlock for her partner, he will unlock her powers, and our entire coven will be strengthened. You can’t do that for her. You’ll only hobble her for the rest of her life. How selfish are you?”
“I could protect her.” Was he really declaring for Poppy? This was all happening fast. Why wouldn’t this witch let him see her?
The light in Lea’s palms grew brighter, her expression murderous. “Or you could leave her alone and let her develop her own powers in order to protect herself. Let me explain this to you simply, demon. You’re in a quandary. . . .”
Now Rök said, “Two years ago you told me about my quandary, that if Poppy was my mate and I was decent, I would let her go for her own good.” Rök hadn’t at first. But after Poppy had stood him up and started seeing that warlock, he’d realized that she likely agreed with her sister.
So for years he’d suffered because he’d wanted to do the right thing by his female. Chaos had been his partner.
No more. Baring his fangs, he said, “Since then, I’ve accepted two things. Poppy is mine. And I am not decent.” With that, he traced away to search for Desh.
Figuring the storm demon would head to one of his other favorite haunts, Rök teleported to the shadows behind Lafitte’s, a low-key bar. Sure enough, Desh was inside, carousing with the humans despite his huge horns. Even outside of Halloween, he mingled with mortals, claiming cosplay for his appearance.
Rök noted he’d changed his T-shirt to one that read: Big Easy Prosthetics! For every horny occasion!
“I smell a smoke demon!” Desh called. “Where ye been, Rök? How’s Rothkalina these days? I wouldn’t know ’cause I haven’t transported a single client there. Or anywhere for that matter. I don’t even have clients! All too private, see?”
Wasting no time, Rök said, “I don’t often blackmail, but when I do, I do it quickly.” Though Cade always razzed Rök about his spy intrigues, sometimes they worked a trick. “You remember the dirt I uncovered on you?”
Desh swallowed. “What do ye want?”
“For you to trace me to wherever you took Poppy.”
“None doing.” Desh crossed his beefy arms over his chest. “I’m no angel, mind ye, but I can weather some blackmail more than me business can a privacy violation.”
Seeing no other recourse, Rök played the one card all demons would respect.
And Desh bent the rules.
Good thing too. Or Poppy would be dead.
SEVEN
“I heard your oldest sister threatening Desh,” Rök told Poppy, “demanding to know where he’d taken you. But he wouldn’t crack with her. So I decided to come help you out.”
“Help me?” Great Hecate, this demon confused her!
“Yeah, you. Look, I vow to the Lore I’m not on a job.” A vow no immortal could break.
She didn’t know what shocked her more: that he hadn’t come for a cursebreaker or that he was here solely to help her. He already had. She lowered her hands. “I didn’t want to worry Lea, or any of them.”
“She strikes me as the type who can handle anything thrown her way, Red.”
Mind in overdrive, Poppy headed toward the grand staircase, and he followed. “Since our parents returned to Akelarre, she can be as protective as a mother basilisk over her eggs. She always says, ‘We don’t have individual burdens. Ours are group burdens. One of the benefits of sisterhood.’” Poppy sighed. “But I don’t want to be a burden. And Mariketa did say to come here as a ‘lone witch.’ So I lied to my sisters about the location of the castle and told them I’d meet them at the house with new information before we set off. That’s why I’m under-weaponized. If I’d asked them for help with pouches, they would have known I was setting off on my own.” She paused, her brows drawing together. “Desh didn’t give my location to Lea. Why would he give it to you?”
“I had some leverage that overrode even his vaunted secrecy, something unquestionable to a fellow demon. Don’t ask, because I’m not coming off it. Suffice it to say, I’ll be handling your ride out of here.”