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)
“All right,” he said slowly.
He waited as if expecting her to say more. To admit what had just happened with Lorcan. But she didn’t want to say it out loud. She didn’t even want it to be real.
“I’ll be back later,” she said, shuffling toward the library doors. She glanced over her shoulder once to find he still watched her with those all-knowing eyes.
She ducked her chin and left the library and Graves behind.
Kierse ran her hands down her face. What was she going to do about this? She loved Graves, and she couldn’t keep tiptoeing around the problems they were having. But she couldn’t end them, either. They didn’t have the stone. They couldn’t break the bond.
But maybe there was another way.
She’d fought too hard for Graves to let anything get in the way now. All she knew was that she couldn’t let Lorcan win.
Chapter Twelve
New York had been home as long as she had memories, but despite all of her years here, she never felt less like herself in it. She jogged east on 75th Street toward Central Park West and made it down the stairs of the subway, stopping abruptly at the troll who blocked her passage. For years after the monsters had come out of the darkness, trolls manned the subways with new tolls to be paid and pass through like in all the stories. Trolls weren’t very bright, and they’d aligned with the human gangs and monster territories, often staying out of the way.
Then abruptly three months ago, the trolls switched allegiance from the various gangs to the Men of Valor, the anti-human group against the Monster Treaty, which allowed humans and monsters to live in peace. And now they were twice as menacing. It especially frustrated her to pay her enemies every time she wanted to use the subway.
“Pay the toll,” the massive creature said. His small head brushed the ceiling of the subway station.
She considered taking this full-grown one down herself like she did in Paris over the summer, but she’d had more space and leverage. She didn’t particularly want to take her chances here.
Kierse fished out a twenty and passed it to the troll. “Here you go.”
Her hand veered to the gun at the belt. She might have gotten used to a safer city, but she was still cautious. Especially with the Men of Valor brewing up unrest.
The troll squinted down at the twenty with his beady little eyes. He grunted in what must have passed for approval, gesturing his hand to the wall where the Men of Valor logo—spread wings pierced through with an arrow—was spray painted on the wall.
“Men of Valor thank you.”
Then Kierse pushed past the troll, swiped her Metrocard, and entered the subway beyond. She shot Graves a text about this new development of the public logos. It couldn’t be good for what they would encounter at the convocation.
She hit the rush-hour traffic on the subway and had to make room for the crush of people leaving their jobs. Most of them would have taken the bus and refused to brave the subway only a year ago. She wanted to think it was good news that it was busy, but there was a clear divide between humans and monsters inside. Many of the humans congregated together and were on high alert for their surroundings.
Kierse switched from the C to the M line at Washington Square Park and watched the line thin as they crossed Williamsburg Bridge into Brooklyn.
Lorcan territory.
Well, it had been. He’d lived and worked here for over two hundred years. The Druids and High Priestesses had been his people, and he’d kept them and much of Brooklyn safe from the worst of the Monster War. It was only after the forced binding that he’d been cast out as the leader and that role had gone to his second, Niamh, who had rebelled against Lorcan and taken the Oak Throne for herself.
She hopped off of the subway at the Broadway stop, letting her shoulders drop from the tension in the underground, and headed into Druid territory.
Niamh stood outside of the main office building when Kierse ambled up. “Welcome home!”
Kierse let Niamh pull her into a hug. “Good to see you, too.”
Niamh’s Irish accent was as thick as her burgundy hair, which hung in a long sheet down her back. She’d traded out her practical Druid wear for her typical plaid mini skirt and a white crop top. A duster-style cardigan fell to her knee-high boots.
“I’m guessing by the fact that you’re here that Scotland didn’t work out?” Niamh asked.
“That’s an understatement,” Kierse said, following her down the street toward the Williamsburgh Bank building that held the Druid training quarters. “Stone was a fake.”
“Fuck.”
“And Lorcan was there waiting for me.”
Niamh’s eyes rounded. “Double fuck.”
“He’s in my head, Niamh.” It was so much easier to tell her this than the whole of it to Graves. Niamh had known Lorcan the longest and been in a polyamorous relationship with his wife, Saoirse. If anyone could understand Lorcan Flynn, it was Niamh. “He was in my head when we were in Scotland. And earlier today I was kissing Graves, and Lorcan was in my head again.”