Total pages in book: 177
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 171450 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 857(@200wpm)___ 686(@250wpm)___ 572(@300wpm)
It would work.
It would work.
Then she turned the handle, and a black metal door shimmered in the empty space. She panted with exertion to hold it open. Sweat beaded on her brow. And she felt black settle into her vision. It was so much magic. So much magic.
“Graves!” she shouted.
A thud sounded, and Jason was thrown across the room, collapsing against the window as it shattered all around him. Graves held his hands toward Jason as he rushed back to them.
His eyes traveled over the door before he hoisted George into his arms and stepped through the portal. Kierse threw herself backward, shoving Maya away from them.
“Please,” Maya shouted. “Let me know if he’s okay.”
Jason was on his feet, rushing for the door. “Don’t let it close, Maya!”
Kierse’s only answer was to let the magic fall and the door with it. She ran headfirst into Vale’s door, collapsing into a heap at the edge of the stoop. Her vision went in and out as she stared up at George’s unconscious figure, wondering if he was going to live or die.
Interlude
Vale
Bang, bang, bang.
“Angelica, can you get that?” Vale yelled.
Angelica huffed, flouncing around in her tiny shorts and tank top. Her nymph pheromones called him straight back to bed. She was gorgeous and incredible in the bedroom. But he was really used to living alone.
She opened the door. “Oh, you’re back,” she said, fluffing her pink-and-purple hair. “Vale! Your friends are back.”
“Out of the way,” Graves snarled, pushing past her.
Vale sighed. Graves twice in one day. What lottery did he win?
“What’s this?” Vale asked, setting down the knife he’d been sharpening and coming to his feet.
Graves had George slung over his shoulder, and Kierse stumbled inside after them. Both looked haggard and run down. There was a hole in George’s chest. A bullet wound.
“Put him here,” Vale said instantly.
He cleared the table with precision, helping Graves lay him out. He hated modern weapons. He was good with them. But bullets were such a cowardly approach. If you wanted to kill someone, look them in the eye and do it with meaning.
“Angelica, get Kierse a drink,” he ordered.
“I can help,” Kierse insisted, wobbling in place.
She looked pale. Like she was the one unconscious and losing blood. He liked her. He thought she was perfect for his old friend. But he didn’t need someone throwing up when she saw what he was about to do. He didn’t want her to see what he was about to do.
“Drink,” Vale ordered.
“He’s done this before,” Graves told her. “So have I.”
“Come on, honey,” Angelica said, wrapping her arm around Kierse. “You look like you need to sit down.”
“Wait, but…”
“It’s okay,” Angelica said. “He’s going to be okay.”
Kierse looked like she was going to fight. She was a fighter, after all, but nymphs were hard to resist on a good day. Angelica could get her to go sit down and recover.
He ripped open George’s shirt and found the entrance wound. Luckily, as he turned him over, he saw the exit wound, too. At least that would make his job easier. He set his hand on either side of George’s wounds and then pressed inward. George screamed in pain as the pressure rocked through him.
His magic wound around him in a quick burst, leaving him feeling gutted as the wound sealed over as if it never was. George passed back out, but he was healed. He’d wake up feeling a little sore but recovered.
“Thanks for getting her out of the room,” Vale said.
“I told her you didn’t have any magic,” Graves said, patting him on the back once.
“Appreciate it.”
This was how he and Graves had first met. Graves with a giant hole in his chest and blood running out of him. Vale had been the one to patch him up, and he’d been owed a favor for a long time. They’d traded those favors over the years, Vale slowly draining Graves’s medieval collection.
Vale liked to pretend that he didn’t have any magic at all. But enough flowed through his veins to keep his friends alive when death should have been at their doorstop.
He liked Graves now. That’s why he worked with him. He’d even thought of leaving the market to work with him, but at the time, this was the safest place for him.
They both sank into chairs. Graves fished out some coins from his pocket and tossed them onto the table. “Thought you’d like these.”
“Sure. Always helpful.”
Graves put his head in his hands. “This fucking week, Vale.”
“Been a rough one?”
“You have no idea.”
Vale stared down one of the most powerful people in this world and realized that he wanted to unburden his soul. It was so unlike him that Vale actually asked, “Want to talk about it?”
“Kierse and Lorcan are bonded.”
“That was months ago.”
“It’s gotten worse,” he said bleakly.