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)
“You’re worried about her being jittery, but the sudden urge to crap herself is okay?” Tristan asked incredulously.
Mr. Tom scoffed and waved his hand. “I meant chocolate. Austin Steele’s pulses of power have me addled. Would you like a chocolate, miss?”
“No, I’m fine, thanks.” I slipped on my heels.
“It’s customary for alphas to go barefoot to meetings like this,” Broken Sue said. “In case there’s a heated debate leading into a challenge, the alpha will want to change as quickly as possible.” He half turned to Aurora. “Unless things have changed?”
“Susan is correct,” Aurora said, and I snickered at the name. “Alphas of this caliber rarely challenge in a professional setting like this, especially since my dad knows them very well, but it’s a custom and a precaution.”
“Austin told me all that.” I stopped by the window with my hands clasped behind my back, looking out but not seeing anything. Spells were whizzing through my mind. “I don’t need to shift to be deadly—I just need my hands. I can smear an attacker across a wall.” I turned back to show how serious and a little horrified I was by that. “I can literally smear a person across a wall. It sounds so gross.”
“Then why did you learn how?” Tristan asked with a lopsided smile. He tended to enjoy gruesome things. A big lover of Halloween, that guy. It was a wonder he didn’t make friends with the dolls and gnomes.
I turned back to the window. “Honestly, each spell was more horrifying than the last, and I couldn’t stop myself. It was like watching a car accident. I wanted to turn away, I didn’t want to see the carnage, and yet my eyes were glued. I learned half the spell book before the nightmares started getting bad. I haven’t returned to it. Yet.”
I didn’t see their reactions. They were probably talking among themselves without words.
“I can slice off a head.” I cut my hand through the air. “Just slice it right off. It’s supposed to be a clean slice, too. It takes a lot of power, so I’d really only have the one go with it. If I miss, it’d probably be curtains because I wouldn’t have the energy to keep fighting.”
“Why would you use all your energy on one person?” Broken Sue asked.
Tristan’s answer was haunted: “In case you’re up against a revenant.”
I nodded, my back still to them. “Or a vampire in its prime. Or countless other magical species that I wish I didn’t know about—the book gave some examples. I tried the spell on a big tree, and it cut about a quarter of the way. The original basandere had to carry me back to Ivy House. After she nearly stomped on me, that is, thinking I was an enemy. It drains me that much.”
“What kind of species did it name?” Tristan asked, his voice guarded.
“You were probably listed.” Aurora’s tone held humor. She didn’t care what Tristan was any more than the rest of us did.
“Watch yourself, monster,” Broken Sue teased Tristan. “If you step out of line, she can kill you without batting an eye.”
Tristan huffed. “She’s already almost killed me, and that was by accident. If she wants me dead, I’ll first ask Mr. Tom to make my favorite coffee drink, and then I’ll say goodnight.”
I scoffed, then turned in confusion when no one else scoffed with me. Broken Sue was nodding, like that made perfect sense, and Aurora didn’t show any sign of tension—evidently, she believed them.
“What’s this now?” Mr. Tom said. At least someone had sense. “You have a favorite coffee drink?” he demanded of Tristan. “And here I am making all these other things. What is it?”
Never mind.
Austin emerged from the bedroom in a black twill suit with a black silk shirt underneath. His leather dress boots were polished to a high shine, and gold-and-diamond cuff links, matching his watch, gave the black on black a stunning bling.
“Boots?” Aurora lifted an eyebrow. “Those are even harder to get off than regular shoes.”
He was making a statement, then.
“I’m already painted as reckless and volatile.” Austin adjusted a cuff link, dapper as all hell and so incredibly handsome. “Unpredictable. I’m wearing boots in good faith. They’ll know I intend to mind my manners.”
“Does my dad know?” Aurora asked.
“No. I’d intended to follow custom, but Jess’s reasoning made me think harder about it. This is the right message. I should’ve planned this all along.”
Aurora’s slightly narrowed gaze swung to me. She was thinking that through. A lot of her shifter customs were being challenged in the convocation. Instead of resisting, she was analyzing and, in many cases, opening her mind to different perceptions. She was an intelligent and driven young woman. Even though I was new to the family and probably didn’t have the right to be, I was so incredibly proud of her.