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)
“Or perhaps I have just been waiting for the right moment.”
“Don’t do this,” she warned him.
“I would if that was what you wanted,” he said.
Kierse changed tactics and focused her powers, narrowing in on Lorcan. She could absorb the wish powder. She had done it for Ethan and saved his life. She could do it again if she had to. If there wasn’t so much magic that it would incapacitate her.
But when she zeroed in on Lorcan, the golden glow and scent of lilies was all over him. She coughed at the noxious fumes that reminded her of her near misses with death.
No, he had way too much in his system. How had Imani done this without them knowing?
“You must know how I feel about you,” Lorcan said like a confession.
A hand went to her jaw, tilting her face up to his. She felt frozen once more, as if she was suspended in place like a marionette and she had no idea who was holding the strings.
“Lorcan,” she said, her heart beating furiously in her ears. “Do not do anything you will later regret.”
“I could never regret this,” he told her, dragging her closer.
He was going to kiss her. Oh God. She could see it there in his perfect summer eyes. That he had wanted to do it before, and today he would act on it because the powder lowered his inhibitions. And trapped in his gaze, she didn’t feel like she could stop it.
A hand slammed down on Lorcan’s shoulder, jerking him back from Kierse and breaking his hold on her.
“Touch her again and I’ll fucking kill you.”
Graves’s voice was like dragging Lorcan’s face across gravel. His body was tense, prepared—he’d come ready to make good on his threat, if necessary. Kierse came back out of the fog like coming up from underwater.
“You know that you cannot keep us apart,” Lorcan said with a laugh.
“Funny,” Graves said drily. “I can still taste her on my tongue.”
“She is my chuisle mo chroí,” Lorcan snarled, half ready to lunge at him.
Kierse tried to wedge between them. She was not ready for cosmic god magic to start shooting around at this goddamn party.
“What the fuck does that mean?” Kierse demanded.
Lorcan’s eyes met hers, and again she felt that press against her chest, almost like she was going to be sick. “Do you not know?”
“Pulse of my heart.” She whispered the words Graves had told her all those months ago. She hadn’t taken them literally. She had assumed they were some Irish pet name.
“You are my soulmate.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
The word didn’t compute. Soulmate.
It sounded like a joke. A punchline that wasn’t particularly funny.
Except neither man looked like they were joking or like they were at all surprised. They looked like they believed this was a fact. A fact that both of them had already known. They’d probably known it since Lorcan had called her the Irish “pet name” last winter.
She understood why Graves would withhold that information. In fact, she remembered when she had come home from Brooklyn and he’d pushed her about Lorcan. Had he been fishing to see if Lorcan had divulged this piece of information?
He had not. And now he was dangling the word on a hook like it meant something to her. Like he meant something to her.
She took a step back. This was Imani’s insidious magic warping their minds. They were fighting over her like she was a prize to be won. There was no fight here. Not one she wanted to be a part of. They were already enemies enough.
“I don’t know what that means,” she said finally. Lorcan opened his mouth as if he were eager to explain. “I don’t want to know.”
His mouth snapped shut. Graves looked smug.
“You two can fight this out without me. I want no part in this dick-measuring contest. We have more important things to deal with.” Like where the hell Imani had gone.
Kierse tuned out the two men arguing over her protest and zeroed in on the goddess stalking toward the auction items.
Fuck. The cauldron.
Was that Imani’s motive? Was she seeking revenge for what Kierse and Graves had done? Would she retaliate by stealing from Graves the thing that he wanted most?
“Graves, the cauldron,” she said, trying to shake him out of it. But the magic had its hooks too deep in him. She pushed him again. “Find the fucking antidote and come back to me.”
His eyes cleared for a second as the word “antidote” came out of his mouth.
Imani’s power tightened its clutches and he was gone again. But at least he was fighting. She just couldn’t wait for him to figure it out. Not when Imani was loose and the cauldron was within her grasp.
Kierse left them to duke it out, following in Imani’s wake. “Laz, did you get out?”