Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
“Noted.”
“Did you at least bring me something worthwhile?”
Kierse dropped the rent money down on the table, and Colette grinned. “Paid in full.”
“Good girl.”
The madame sloshed the brandy around in her glass. She’d had Gen when she was twenty and had still risen to be one of the most prominent madams in the city, taking over for her predecessor and growing the brothel house to its new form of glory.
“Anything else?”
“Tell my darling daughter, Genesis, that I’m going to need her in the tent tomorrow afternoon again, will you?”
“I’ll tell her. Good night, Colette.”
She strode out of the parlor and headed toward the magnificent staircase. The wide-open stairs were shiny with polish, bedecked with elaborate banisters. It was a remnant of a bygone era. Back before this four-story home was used as a brothel and instead for some wealthy socialites. Back when this part of the city had been used by someone other than the dregs of society.
Kierse gritted her teeth and climbed to the attic. Thankfully, no one disturbed her as she ascended the stairs that led to her refuge. The lights were dim as she entered, casting everything in different shades of midnight.
Gen was sprawled across her bed. Ethan had changed out of his gear and was curled up behind her, slowly working small braids into her rich copper hair. Kierse loved seeing them like this, without a care in the world. Gen, who had grown up in this brothel, always with the expectation that one day she would have to join it. And Ethan, who had been taken in by the church in his hometown of Hartford, Connecticut, and moved up the ranks before finally coming to Manhattan. Only to be abused and barely escape.
And Kierse—well, she loved an exit strategy, because Gen had been hers. Jason had found out she was trying to leave the guild. In his fit of rage, he’d beaten her to within an inch of her life and left her for dead. The one exit she’d never gotten to successfully take. And then Gen had found her and given her a home.
The world outside of this room was a horrifying place, but for just this moment, they had peace.
“Rough night?” Gen asked.
“I’m sure Ethan already told you,” Kierse said as she padded across the creaky wooden floors.
She moved past the training facility at the center of the room and around the tattered orange sofa and colorful patterned chair that Gen had masterfully reupholstered herself. She was careful not to upend the small, round table, which held Gen’s tarot-reading paraphernalia, and avoided the dozen plants that Ethan was currently nursing to health. He was infatuated with the stuff, and Colette might have pitched a fit if he didn’t grow the herbs that Gen used to make her medicinal tonics.
“Colette wants you in the festival tent tomorrow.”
Gen huffed. “Fine. But tell me about tonight. Ethan said that things went poorly. There was a monster.”
“Yeah. You could say that.” Kierse took a deep breath, flopping back on the adjacent bed. This was going to be fun. “It was a monster but not any that I’ve ever known before.”
Gen made a sound of protest. She pushed Ethan off of her, tying her red hair into a knot on the top of her head. Normally so serene and calm, her face now showed a flicker of concern. She hated making Gen worry, but it was kind of an occupational hazard.
Ethan came to his feet between the beds. “I did tell you that.”
“You did,” Gen said. “I just didn’t believe you.”
She trailed off when she noticed Kierse’s stillness. Gen had been slowly losing her vision due to early onset macular degeneration since she was seven. Most of her central vision was gone in both eyes, but she could still see out of her peripheral. The one time Colette had paid the ridiculous fee for a doctor to look at her, they’d diagnosed her with a rare illness, told her there was no cure or treatment, and sent her packing.
“What is it?” Ethan asked.
This was her world, her sanctuary. The only place she ever completely let her guard down. Gen was their beacon home. Together, the three of them had carved out this slice of the world for themselves. They’d needed Gen. They’d needed this home where a madame’s daughter, an altar boy, and a thief could live free of expectations. And she was about to ruin it all.
“Two things: one, he offered me a job, and two, he has magic.”
“Magic?” Gen said at the same time Ethan asked, “What job?”
“Yes, magic,” Kierse said.
“And you believe him?” Ethan asked. Her eyes shifted to him. He was the youngest of the trio, long and lithe and beautiful. He could have raked in more money at the brothel than any of the workers on the floor below them if he’d wanted to. Even the ragged scar on one side of his face couldn’t mar how stunning, striking, and alluring he was.