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 coming home with us. Well…” She wiggled her hand. “First, you have to go back to the shifter meeting with us because we have to tie things up. Oh, and then we have to— You’re going to stay with us now, that’s what I mean. If it has to be a kidnapping, so be it. We’re doing this together from now on. Your choice in the matter has been forfeited.”
He nodded mutely. She was right there, too. “I’m sorry,” he said, dropping his freed hands to his lap. “I’m sorry for all of it.”
She hugged him from the side. “I know.” She knelt in front of him then, her glistening eyes serious. “We’re going to talk all of this out. No more secrets. Nessa won’t say a word without you present, which I’ve let go for now. When we have a moment, I want to hear everything, do you understand? Everything. We can’t stay alive if we only know half the story.”
He nodded again and, as they stood, hugged her tightly. “You can take me to her,” Sebastian said. “She’s keeping secrets for my benefit. It’s time she stops being caught in the middle of all of this. Her well-being has been a casualty. It’s time she starts making her own choices, and time I retire to a magical entrepreneur.”
Jessie chuckled low. “Oh, no, you’re not retiring. Not by a long shot. Elliot Graves is just about to be upgraded.”
TWENTY-FIVE
Nessa
The hotel room was simple, with a king-sized bed, a small desk built into the corner, a few ugly paintings, a couple of uglier lamps, and a hard chair by the wall. Her bathroom was small, with just a shower, sink, and a couple of drawers. Her computer sat on the desk with her phone beside it. It wasn’t much different than the countless other hotels and rentals she’d been staying in, except for one thing.
She braced her hand on the wall.
Ulric and Jasper were sharing the room on the other side. Jessie, Niamh, Edgar—they all had rooms or suites within this block, merely a saunter away. They’d welcomed Nessa and Sebastian back in, even after what the mages had done. After framing them, pushing them into the line of fire, and telling them of Sebastian’s vision. After telling them, point blank, that Nessa and Sebastian had always planned to betray Jessie and Austin, to their possible demise.
Jessie, the dear heart that she was, hadn’t even blinked.
“At least we have a cheat sheet for getting in front of Momar.” She’d looked at Niamh. “We need a lot more information before we make that vision a reality. Austin and I will work on the shifters and gargoyles, but you need to get me meetings with mages. Work with Sebastian, Nessa, and Fred to find the right ones, slip into their messages or whatever, and get me an audience. I can’t have that hole in my arsenal, and we have no idea how long it’ll take Momar to make a move against me. After today, though, we can guarantee he will.”
Yes, they could. And now, Nessa was part of a team rather than a duo. She was included in a family instead of being in the remnants of one.
She didn’t deserve the second chance, she knew that. Sebastian thought the same. But neither of them would voice that reality. Hell, Sebastian hadn’t been able to. He’d finally found the emotion he’d walled up all those years ago. Jessie walking into that interrogation room had shaken something loose in him, and maybe now he could heal.
Maybe, miracle of miracles, she could too.
A soft knock sounded at the door. She pulled her hand away from the wall and readied herself to put on a smile. “Come in!”
When she saw who it was, she didn’t bother. She never fooled him with the fake sunshine. He saw through her pasted-on exterior to the puddle of self-loathing and regret that gurgled beneath. Before, that annoyed her—scared her, even. Now, it was a relief. She still felt raw and vulnerable after the meeting with Jessie this morning.
Tristan’s glowing amber gaze held hers for a moment, and then it traced the air between them.
“You can see my energy,” she surmised. She’d remembered him doing that in Kingsley’s territory. It had taken the books, practice, and seeing it herself to connect the dots.
“Yes.”
“Do you have this magic, too? The ability to alter a person’s will?”
He carried in her suitcase, taken from the rental house. They’d had to return and get their stuff, all of it fitting into the back of a rental truck Mr. Tom had procured. It hadn’t taken long to remove everything they’d been carrying around from place to place.
“No. I can see the effects of your magical energy, that’s it.” He set the suitcase down by the bed before going over to the closet. He grabbed the luggage stand and placed the suitcase on top, but he didn’t unzip her bag, preserving her privacy.