Total pages in book: 114
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109033 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 545(@200wpm)___ 436(@250wpm)___ 363(@300wpm)
It was packed with lone shoppers, couples, clusters of giggling teen girls, and women pushing strollers. The echoes of voices, ringing of phones, whir of the air conditioning, and scraping of metal against metal mingled with the pop music playing over the store’s speakers.
The strong lighting and white walls were a contrast to the dark faux-wood flooring. Large posters of women in various clothing stood out against the bright paint. Tall mirrors were scattered around. Red SALE signs hung on some racks.
“How did your anchor take the news about you and Luka?” asked Ella.
“He isn’t thrilled about it.” In a telepathic conversation days ago, during which it had become clear that Tobe felt slightly threatened by her having such a deep bond with another male, she’d said, We’ve been over this; no mate could take your place in my life, to which he had petulantly replied, I know, but I don’t have to like that Luka’s made his own place in it, and you can’t make me. But at the end of said conversation . . . “He told me that he sort of gives his blessing, though.”
Amusement bled into the incantor’s eyes. “Sort of?”
Naomi shrugged. “Tobe’s a diva at times.”
“And his nose feels a little pushed out, I’m guessing.”
“A little.”
“That’s only to be expected, really. Demons often react that way to their anchors taking a mate.” Ella nabbed a tester perfume from a rack and sprayed the air. Inhaling through her nose, she hummed. “Nice.” She spritzed her neck and then grabbed an unopened bottle while returning the tester. “How has your family taken the news?”
“My mother’s pleased—she was rooting for us. My stepfather said he’s happy so long as I’m happy.”
“I guess, what with the activities your lair gets up to, your family’s not all that fazed by Luka’s . . . position, shall we say.”
“No, they’re not. Nor is the rest of the lair, so all is good on that front.”
Ella skimmed her fingers over the sleeve of a jacket. “I suppose they also like knowing that if those weird clerics strike again, he’ll be able to help.” She checked the price tag, frowned, and moved on. “Not that you’ll need much help against a bunch of humans ordinarily. But those who can channel divine power and are prepared to work with explosives? That’s a whole other matter.”
Yeah, due to the public nature of the attack, there had been no way to keep it quiet. All Naomi could do was control the narrative. She’d been unable to leave out the detail of the monkhood, since two of them had been caught on CCTV hovering near her and Konstantin’s vehicles outside the entrance to the Underground.
She’d played it off as an idiotic bunch of religious fanatics insisting that she would birth the Antichrist by quoting some “apparent human prophecy that may or may not exist”. Everyone thought it dumb and pitiful, since Satan lived deep in the bowels of hell, so there was no chance of the Antichrist being born here on earth.
Of course, if anyone got curious enough about the prophecy to go searching for it and translated it correctly, they’d realize that there was no use of the word “Antichrist”; that it had instead stated “the progeny of the devil”. Such people might find it a little too coincidental that the prophecy also mentioned a legion, so they might wonder if Lou was in fact her father.
As such, she could only hope that no one tried digging it up. Given how hard it had been for Khloë to find it, though, Naomi didn’t suppose she needed to be too concerned.
Dodging an oddly angled hanger, she refocused on the conversation at hand. “Konstantin checks both our cars for explosives every time we intend to drive anywhere now.”
“The clerics probably won’t make such a move again,” Ella hedged. “It would be too predictable. But it’s better to be safe than sorry.”
Naomi inwardly grimaced, feeling a little shitty about misleading her mate’s anchor. She couldn’t tell her the truth, though. She had initially worried that it would upset Luka to have to lie to Ella, but he’d insisted that no exceptions could be made; that Naomi’s safety took priority.
While it didn’t surprise her that he’d be resolute about keeping her secrets, it did surprise her that he would so easily lie for her—even by omission—to his own psi-mate. What surprised her even more was that he hadn’t again brought up her “dietary quirk”. As if it just wasn’t anything important.
He’d asked about the whole ghost-artistry situation, though. While he had admitted that the risks it presented to her bothered him, he hadn’t tried telling her to give up her job. And when she’d showed him one of her paintings, he’d said, “Exquisite. Like you.”
He so got lucky later on.
Wincing at the loud screech of a metal hanger grinding along a rack, Naomi looked over at Ella. “So, since you clearly feel I pass muster, when do I get to meet Lilibeth?”