Total pages in book: 50
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47894 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 239(@200wpm)___ 192(@250wpm)___ 160(@300wpm)
Lorne ignored him. “Lady Ilara, this is my husband, Xander Corey, and, Xan, this is Giles’s companion, Lady Ilara.”
She didn’t address him or even acknowledge he’d spoken to her, instead narrowing her eyes as she sneered at me. “You’re the witch,” she said disgustedly. “Giles thought you were dead. He threw you into the deep snow after cutting your throat and left you there.”
“Well, I suspect Corvus loves me more than he knows,” I said, studying her. “Tell me, lady, what kind of witch are you?”
“Witch?” she asked, noticeably offended from her sharp tone and the furrowing of her brows. “I am no witch.”
“Why lie? I can feel the magic on you.”
“Blasphemy,” she screamed, striding toward me, only to have Giles grab her arm, yanking her close beside him.
“She has no magic. She’s a mundane,” Giles assured me, “just like your man. I would know if she had any power.”
“Yes,” Ilara retorted. “This is why Giles has vowed to imbue me with magic so I will be a hedge-rider as well.”
I scoffed. “You’re both lying. You are a witch, and he could no more make you a hedge-rider than he could turn me into one. I feel bad you believed such lies from him, and I’m sorry she’s been lying to you,” I said to Giles. “How you can’t see the magic on her is beyond me. But perhaps that’s how that wraith placed a curse on you, as short-lived as it was, because you didn’t see the danger until it was too late. Are you unable to discern magic in others?”
“He won’t change into a werewolf anymore?” Lorne asked me.
I shook my head. “Any curse dies with the originator, unless it’s a blood curse.”
“Like Eleanor and her earrings.”
“Correct.”
“So when Argos killed that wraith, no more curse on Giles.”
“Yep.”
A loud noise from our bathroom startled us, like a wall had collapsed.
“What was that?” Giles yelled at Lorne, clearly rattled.
“We’re having some redecorating done,” Lorne said cheerfully, enjoying his coffee, and I was betting even more so, the normalcy of having me there and the cottage caring for him. “Would you like to see my shower? It’s a beauty.”
Giles visibly recoiled.
“Nothing can be changed without permission,” Ilara said, darting into our bedroom, needing to see for herself.
“Wait,” I said, pointing after her, looking at Lorne. “I thought you said she couldn’t go in there? No passing the threshold.”
“Yeah. Weird. What is that about?”
“Changes?” I suggested, smiling. “Like maybe it’s not necessary to keep her out of there because everything’s about to be different?”
“That makes sense.”
“Your presence will not alter my house,” Giles shouted at me.
“It will, though, and let’s face it, it’s already begun. And believe me when I tell you, the cottage likes me a bit, but it is in love with Lorne.”
“If it so loves him, why has it allowed me to imprison him, to keep him weak from lack of food, to slowly drain his life force as my house ages him?”
I shook my head. “I suspect your beloved Ilara has bespelled your mirrors and your vision, because the only one being drained is you.”
“Oh, you’re right,” Lorne agreed, getting closer to Giles, studying him. “What the hell, man? I thought you were maybe twenty-four, twenty-five when I first saw you. What happened?”
“You’re trying to trick me.” He was adamant. “I look at myself all day long, every day, in every mirror in this mansion, and see myself plainly.”
I didn’t doubt that. He was a very vain man. “Maybe come check the one in my bathroom,” Lorne suggested.
“No. Any you lead me to would be bespelled by your witch to scare me.”
“I use my magic solely for good, to help,” I conveyed to him, “and would never hurt you purposely, unlike you, who tried to pull me through the mirror at Lorne’s brother’s house.”
“I was close. I nearly had you.”
I nodded. “It doesn’t matter. We would have ended up right here regardless, and because of Lorne, this cottage will change.”
“It’s a mansion, not a cottage, and it cannot ever—”
“It can, for him. And you’re wondering why it allowed him to be imprisoned, but it knows that outside, on Corvus, it’s not safe right now. And let’s be honest, even with all your magic, all Ilara’s, you still couldn’t breach his bedroom door and enter his room at night. And yes, having a daemon with him helped, but it’s the cottage that—”
“That cat is a daemon?” he roared.
“Which you knew, and should have retained, as he was the one who was certain you were the real Giles Corey, instead of the wraith.”
“Wraith?” he said under his breath.
“Honestly, I don’t know what he was. You’re the one who said he was a wraith, but perhaps you lied. I may never know, but whoever or whatever he was, Argos judged him as the true danger between the two of you, so that’s all I needed to know.”