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)
“Covenant Medical at your services,” George said.
“Let’s go get you on the witch staff,” Kierse said to Gen.
Gen grinned. “The convocation will never see me coming.”
…
With Gen in place at Covenant and Ethan working his way through interviews to join the ground crew, they had less time together than ever. The rest of Team Holly were in on their parts of the mission. And since they were making no headway on Walter’s new force fields, she was in Brooklyn working on her persuasion.
Persuasion would solve a host of problems with what they had to deal with moving forward. Unfortunately, even with Maya’s impromptu lesson, she didn’t know where to begin.
So she stood before the Ash Door and spoke to her sacred tree. “Sansara said you’d talk to me.”
The tree did not respond.
“I know that you unlocked the door and gave me more magic when I was down. Do you only answer when I’m at a terrible point in my life? Must I be emotionally destroyed for that to work?”
Kierse sank to the floor and crossed her legs. She breathed in and out slowly the way that Niamh taught her for meditation. She wasn’t great at this, but maybe if she slowed her breathing enough, she could reach out and connect with the tree that had literally sprung out of her magic.
She sat there for a long time. Long enough that she lost track of it entirely. A sense of deep peace and calm settled into her bones. Almost like she could have sat there all of eternity. It was likely what the Sansara cultists felt in the presence of the old sacred tree. The way she felt like her bones settled into the earth.
So slowly she reached out past that divide with her magic and her mind and the sense of serenity and leaned in toward the tree. “Do you hear me?”
She waited. She listened.
And nothing.
Damn tree.
“Kierse?” Niamh called, her boots clicking against the tile floor. “Any change?” Kierse blew out a harsh breath and opened her eyes to find Niamh standing over her. “That bad?”
“Not really working,” Kierse admitted, coming to a seat. “I did get into a pretty deep meditation, though.” She sighed heavily. “I really need to figure out my persuasion for the plan to work.”
Niamh sank to her knees before her. “I think Graves’s plan is bonkers by the way. It’ll be craic if he pulls it off, though.”
“He has a way with plans. He’s been doing this a long time.”
“Same,” she said. “If Lorcan Flynn could get out of my way, that would really help my own plans.”
Kierse winced. “He’s interfering.”
“Directly? No. Just…security risks.” She waved her hand. “It’s not for today. Anyway, you can try on me.”
“My persuasion?”
“Sure. I can shield, but you need to practice. See if you can even get the magic going. How did that Sansara girlie say she did it?”
“Questions.”
“Right. Well, Saoirse usually just asked very sweetly. But you’re more bitter than sweet, aren’t you?”
Kierse laughed. “That’s the truth.”
“Well, try it both ways. Question first. Sickly sweet second.”
“And bitter and angry third?” Kierse asked.
Niamh nodded. “Might as well go in order. Try to convince me to do something that I already want to do. Like stand up. This tile floor sucks.”
Kierse settled back into a lotus position. She needed to center herself and reach for the magic. The persuasion would come just like pixie lights and portaling and magical intuition had as well.
“Niamh,” she said with a voice of reason, “could I ask you a question?”
Niamh smiled. “Sure.”
Maya had said that asking some questions would get them into her clutches. Kierse hoped that she was right.
“Could you help me stand up?”
“I think I’ll sit here for a while.”
“Do you want to sit there?”
“Not really.”
“Then why don’t you stand up?”
Niamh grinned and shook her head. “Did you feel anything?”
“No,” Kierse admitted. “I just felt like we were talking.”
“Again or different method?”
“How exactly do I be sweet?”
Niamh cackled, rolling backward on the tile. “If you can’t even imagine it, we should skip it.”
“But what does it mean?”
Niamh righted herself. “Saoirse was an angel. I mean she could be terrifying if she needed to be, but she was an angel either way. She could look into your eyes and tell you to do something for her and you would. People did it without persuasion. But with it, she could have you do anything. She hated it.”
“That sounds like Gen.”
Niamh stilled under that assessment and glanced down at her manicure. “It does, doesn’t it?”
“Speaking of Gen…”
“If we’re not discussing Lorcan, we shouldn’t discuss Genesis, either.”
“Why don’t I try bitter anger? My specialty.”
Niamh giggled. “I can’t wait to see this.”
Kierse reached down into the pit of her stomach. She thought of all that had happened to her. Her parents’ deaths by the Fae Killer, the spell cast on her, the abuse under Jason, the forced bonding, all the times she had almost died, the Monster War. All of it layered on top of her to create this horribly terrible crust.