Total pages in book: 194
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 187021 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 935(@200wpm)___ 748(@250wpm)___ 623(@300wpm)
The moment strung taut like a rope between them. All those months ago, they had formed a triskel and used magic that connected her, Ethan, and Gen. It had saved her life. She could feel that the thread hadn’t disappeared, just stretched across an ocean. Now she was before him and the ache of missing him threatened to overwhelm her.
But in his moment of distraction, his opponent grasped his arm, executed an intricate spin, and swept his legs out from under him. He grunted as his back hit the practice mat.
Kierse covered her laugh with her hand.
Then Ethan hopped up, vaulting out of the circle and crashing into her arms.
“What are you doing here?” he gasped.
“I came to see you as soon as I could.”
Lorcan cleared his throat. “Ethan.”
“Sorry, sir,” Ethan said, immediately stepping back and bowing to Lorcan.
He turned back to the rest of the class. “Excellent job, Alba. You are an asset to Owen.”
“Sir,” Owen, the Druid teacher, said with a head bow.
Lorcan tipped his head at Kierse and then moved to the rest of the acolyte circle, directing the next pair to begin.
“Kierse,” Ethan gasped, pulling her in for a tight hug once more.
When he held her, she felt like she was finally back in New York. If she had Gen here, too, then everything would be back the way it was always meant to be.
“Look at you,” she said. “I almost didn’t recognize you. You’re huge!”
He laughed and ran a hand across his head. “Yeah. Turns out training day and night does that.” His gaze drifted to Lorcan with worry. “He told you about acolytes, right? I’m not breaking any sacred vows?”
“He told me,” she said. “But why didn’t you?”
“I wanted to. I just…” He shrugged, his eyes pleading. Same Ethan. “I didn’t want to hurt anyone.”
“Well, I don’t think it’s me you hurt the most by disappearing.”
Ethan chewed on his lip. “Have you…spoken to Corey?”
“I saw him before I came here,” she admitted.
“You did? How’s he doing?” he gasped.
“Not great,” she said, pushing his shoulder. “Gen and I had to hear from Nate that you broke up.”
“A break,” Ethan said quickly. “Not a breakup.”
“And then you disappeared for five months. What’s the difference?”
“My isolation ends in a month. I can be out in public again after that. I don’t…” he said hesitantly. “Do you think he’ll see me?”
Kierse had a feeling that Corey would see him immediately if he could, but she didn’t know how that reunion would go. “Probably. I guess you’ll know in a month.”
“Yeah. I don’t know,” he said, looking over her shoulder in the direction of Manhattan with distant eyes, as if he could will himself to the Lower East Side to see his maybe-ex-boyfriend. He refocused on her. “Why are you back? Is Gen with you?”
“She’s in the city, but I didn’t want to risk her in enemy territory.”
“The Druids aren’t your enemy,” he said automatically.
“Like a good little soldier,” she teased.
He didn’t laugh, though. His eyes went flat. “I’m serious. They’re the good guys, Kierse. We were wrong about them.”
For the first time, looking around at the Druids, the Order, and their very dangerous leader, she wondered how much she should even tell Ethan. Was he compromised? She hated to even consider it. She never would have second-guessed him before.
“Let’s put a pin in that conversation for another time. You think the best of everyone.”
“And you think the worst.”
“Which of us was correct last winter?” she argued.
He frowned. “That’s not…” he sputtered. “Graves…”
“Let’s not bring him into this.”
“Are you working with him again?”
“Yes,” she said flatly.
“Kierse,” he said warningly. “I’ve learned some shit about him since I got here.”
“Oh, I bet you have.”
He grasped her arm and pulled her further from the circle of acolytes. “Don’t make a joke about this or try to deflect like you always do. Graves is a monster. He cannot be trusted.”
Kierse looked down at where he gripped her arm and then back up at her friend. She had worried about him going to Lorcan. She hadn’t expected this.
“Are you saying that you don’t trust me?” she asked carefully.
“If you’re working with him again, maybe I can’t.”
Fire ignited in her stomach. The fucking indoctrination that the Druids had put him through. Five months with nothing but an echo chamber had taken her sweet friend and made him this. He had always been a zealot—first for the church, then their friendship, and now the Druids—and it shouldn’t have surprised her. But that didn’t keep it from hurting.
She jerked her arm back. “You do not want to be my enemy.”
Ethan straightened. “Well, I guess I should get back.”
“Ethan…”
“I have more training,” he said. “Good little soldier shit.”
She sighed. “Wait…”
He held his hand up and jogged away, leaving her there on uneven footing.
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Kierse didn’t know how it had gone so wrong. One moment they were laughing and hugging and the next ripped apart by a distance she couldn’t even explain. Maybe it was a mistake coming here without Gen. She had always been the peacemaker, the healer. Kierse couldn’t see a way to bridge the divide.