Total pages in book: 97
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91002 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 303(@300wpm)
Ye ain’t got nothing on me, girl.
“Do you think they’re turning on us because they think we turned on them?” Nessa asked in a small voice.
“I don’t think Jessie is capable of turning on someone. She’d want to save us, not hurt us.”
“Jessie will protect her people at all costs. We’re no longer her people. If she thinks we’re against them now…”
Sabby put his hand on her shoulder. “Even if they did, they can’t find us. We can hide from them as easily as we can hide from Momar.”
Her stomach churned now.
She didn’t want to hide from them. She didn’t want to create enemies of her friends.
But in the end, it was inevitable, wasn’t it? She was helping Sabby drag them into danger yet again. First, they’d pushed Jessie to take the magic, and now they were making her a bigger target. Enemy Number Two, right behind Elliot Graves and the Captain. How could Nessa expect forgiveness for that? How could she expect them not to turn into enemies?
When all was said and done, Sebastian and Nessa had never believed they’d get to keep the Ivy House crew in their lives. What did it matter if their parting happened sooner rather than later? The result would be the same.
“It’ll get easier,” Sebastian said, hugging her.
The tears streaked down her cheeks. “I know,” she lied.
Because it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t ever get easier. She knew that now. She also had no choice in the matter. She’d made a vow to protect Sebastian and his sister years ago, and after Jala died, it was just Sabby she’d made herself responsible for. He was all that had ever counted, repercussions be damned. He’d chosen an end goal, and she’d vowed to help him see it through.
“Okay.” She took a deep breath. “I have a new wrinkle to iron out, thanks to Niamh. Time to get to work.”
FOUR
Jessie
The sun danced across the windowsill as the leaves outside wiggled and spun in the late winter breeze. I lay curled up against Austin’s side, his arms wrapped around me tightly, even in sleep, and his hard chest rising and falling. I stroked my thumb across his pec, letting my mind wander.
It wasn’t often I woke before he did. He’d been going hard these last couple of months, preparing his people to meet the alphas from across the country. We’d be leaving soon on our grand tour, and he was feeling the pressure.
I really should be, too. I was the weakest link in all of this. A rare creature with a bunch of magic she got from a house wasn’t the sort of thing shifters understood or wanted as a leader. Austin had impressed upon me time and again that Kingsley wasn’t a normal sort of alpha. He was a lot more open-minded and patient than most, a rare example of someone who could be taught new tricks. The rest wouldn’t be so open to gargoyles, and definitely not a gargoyle who could do magic like a mage. They wouldn’t care that, technically, I was a sorceress.
In fairness, I didn’t understand the difference between a mage and sorceress, either.
Even though Austin should have been incredibly frustrated that my people still couldn’t walk in an organized line, or stand in one, or even get to a line without tripping and falling over their own feet, he wasn’t. He didn’t seem troubled about my side of things at all. Not even that I couldn’t seem to close down my body language, despite my best efforts.
My heart warmed, and I pulled back so that I could see his face. As I moved, so did he, rolling toward me. His arms shifted, but his touch lingered, never wanting to be far away. He rarely admitted it, but he was still freaked out over nearly losing me during and after the battle at Kingsley’s.
I got it. While I was still sad over Nathanial’s loss, keeping busy was helping. The hard days of training made me feel like I was doing something to prevent losing anyone else. My growing knowledge of spells, sought out in the Ivy House library and all old as dirt, helped further. I might not know how to wow an alpha, but if a mage tried to attack when we were on the road, I had a vastly growing arsenal of horrible ways they would die.
I felt Mr. Tom moving around the kitchen, but our privacy was safe for the moment—he wouldn’t come in our room until Austin was up. He was probably making breakfast and thinking about the best ways to force it on Austin before my handsome alpha went about his day.
My heart swelled as I ran my hand up his muscled arm and over his shoulder before lightly trailing my fingertips along the base of his stubbled jaw. We had a hard road ahead of us. Impressing the shifters, dealing with the mages, connecting with more gargoyles, finding other creatures for our convocation, and eventually presenting ourselves to the most influential family of basajaunak in the extended family…but I wouldn’t trade this life for any other. Peace would be nice, but if the choice was living here with Austin and Mr. Tom and everyone else, and leaving it all behind for a quieter existence, I’d choose this every time. I’d choose them, even with the danger. I’d choose magic and this house and even the gnomes over my old life.