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)
“Thanks for your concern,” she said drily.
She turned away from him just as another familiar face stepped into the party.
“The exiled prince of the vampire elite has returned to the city,” Lorcan mumbled.
“You know Quint?”
He furrowed his brow. “I’m familiar with Alexander Batiste and his father Roland. How do you know him?”
“Family friend,” she quipped.
But there were definitely more people she didn’t know than that she did. Enough familiar faces to know that Amberdash had pulled out all the stops. On any normal day, these monsters would have been at each other’s throats. Kierse could barely keep from barging across the room when she saw Nova stride into the room like the alpha werewolf she was.
Lorcan’s hand gripped her bicep. “Don’t.”
“She killed Nate.”
“You knew she’d be here.”
“I know,” she said with barely contained fury. She hadn’t realized how much buried anger she could dredge up at the sight of her.
“We have bigger problems.”
“Bigger than Nova?” she snapped, following his gaze.
Kierse stilled as that fury that had been raging through her brightened into a bonfire. The first person walking out of the elevator bank was a Black woman with big black glasses and a long black dress. Kierse hadn’t been able to guess her age the last time they’d met inside Sansara, the tree cult that lay within the Goblin Market, but she would guess a few years younger than Kierse now that she saw her out of the cult uniform.
Her name was Maya, and she worked for Jason…who walked in behind her.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kierse ripped out of Lorcan’s hold and stormed toward the pair. She sensed Lorcan in her mind and at her back. There was a refrain about how she was going to get them kicked out. But what anger had started with Nova made her completely shut down at the sight of her old thieving master.
Jason rested both hands on his cane and looked at her with a shit-eating grin. “My Kierse, what a good day to see you again.”
“A good day to die?” she snarled.
She wished that she had a gun on her so that she could put him to ground like he deserved.
“Ah ah,” Jason said, holding up a finger. “Don’t want to get kicked out.”
“Like I fucking care.”
“Jason, this violence,” Maya said.
“I’m not doing anything. It’s all Kierse.” He grinned at Kierse. “You remember my second, Maya?”
“We’ve met,” Kierse snarled.
“Kierse,” Lorcan said, reaching for her arm.
Jason’s gaze shifted between her and Lorcan and back. A look of understanding snapped between them.
“Cillian,” Lorcan snarled.
Jason laughed. “It’s been a long time since I’ve heard that name, but you haven’t changed a bit, have you?”
“Cillian Ryan is dead,” Kierse said, calling him his Druid name. “The Curator is dead. This is who you really are, Jason, a scumbag piece of shit.”
“Ah, don’t be that way, pet,” Jason said with a laugh. “If you’re sucking off all of the Druids now, I can get in line.”
Lorcan jerked her backward and was in Jason’s face in a split second. “Do not speak to her.”
“I can fight my own battles.”
“Ah, but these alpha types can’t help themselves,” Jason said. “And here I thought you had a thing for the darker types, not the do-gooders.”
“Jason,” she snarled, clenching her hands into fists. “I should have killed you the last time we met.”
A voice cleared, and the room went silent as Gregory Amberdash appeared. “You all agreed not to fight. If you want to kill him, do it off the grounds. That’s not my problem.”
Lorcan put himself directly between Kierse and Amberdash as if he couldn’t decide on the greater threat.
Amberdash moved into the room, not quite walking or gliding, but with a horrifying hover. His tall, thin frame was draped in a black suit that could hardly hide the sallow, pale skin or fading light. Wraiths were nearly dead things, destined to feed off the souls of the living. Amberdash had a trail of attendants behind him, all who voluntarily allowed him to feed from them the way vampires drank blood.
“Let me pass,” Amberdash said as he approached Lorcan.
Lorcan ground his teeth but stepped out of his path as Amberdash continued toward Kierse. Jason and Maya scurried away while the attention was diverted.
“Hello, dear,” he said, drawing his cold, white fingers down her cheek. “Such life.”
“Amberdash,” she said, barely suppressing a shudder.
Her eyes focused in on the long, silver, circular amulet lying against his breast. It gave off major energy. She’d never seen anything like it, and staring too long at it made her dizzy.
“That’s the Amulet of Hermeria,” Lorcan said into her mind. “Ancient Greek. Very powerful. Monsters can’t even make transformations with that turned on. Do not use your magic.”
“Thanks for the history lesson,” she snapped back.
She pulled away from Amberdash and the amulet, letting his hand hover between them. “You invited Jason,” she accused.