Total pages in book: 120
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 112089 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 560(@200wpm)___ 448(@250wpm)___ 374(@300wpm)
He flinched when magic flared next to him. He rolled away, only to see Broken Sue rise and roar, beating his chest.
“Holy shi—! No! Oh, God, no. Please. Please!”
“What were your orders?” Nessa was suddenly right in his face, blocking out the others. Behind her back, she motioned for Edgar to come closer. “What were your orders?”
Edgar loped the short distance and squatted down, his canines ghastly. The man started to scream again.
“Get it away.” The man flung out his hands, frayed rope dropping away. “Get that grotesque thing away!”
“Well, that is a confidence buster,” Edgar murmured.
“What were your orders?” Nessa said again, louder.
Sebastian opened the door, and in a moment, Cyra jogged in with a large smile. I barely heard Sebastian ask Hollace, “Do you do anything in your human form other than look pretty and fight fiercely?”
“Nope,” Hollace replied. “I used to be okay with that.”
“Fire.” Nessa half turned to glance at Cyra. “Burn half his clothes off. Obviously, don’t kill him or hurt him too badly, because we’re not allowed to, but really give him hell.”
“Okay!” Cyra set to work as Nessa got in the guy’s face again. “Tell me your orders, and all of this stops. We’ll let you go. I give you my word.”
Cyra shot a stream of white fire into his leg. His scream turned high-pitched. She didn’t seem to have understood the assignment.
I grimaced, quickly getting to work healing him.
“Call them off. Call them off!” the man yelled. He started to crawl away from Nessa, but the chair legs were still attached to him, making it difficult. She let him go a little distance before prompting Edgar to go after him.
Cyra got there first.
She pounced onto his back while cackling, burning his clothes with her touch. He turned to the side to try to throw her off, and Niamh raced up his body and bit down on his crotch.
“I promised him his balls,” Nessa yelled at her. “Cyra, that’s— No. Don’t do— Crap. This went tits-up really quickly.”
Ulric jogged closer, grabbed the man by his hair, tilted his head back, and asked the question again. “Just tell us so we can get you out of here,” Ulric said afterward. “That’s a phoenix burning your clothes. Trust me when I say you don’t want her to get free rein. This is nothing.”
A rumbling roar echoed outside of the cube room. The ground shook a little, and I could feel the basajaun coming closer. Someone must’ve stayed behind at Ivy House and given him a ride. Or else Austin sent someone back for him after I’d mentioned he was coming. However it had happened, he was here now.
His roar built through the walls.
“You want to get out of here, bro, trust me,” Ulric said urgently, feeding the man’s fear. He shook his head a lot, inviting the mage to notice his brightly colored hair. That had seemed to freak out Edgar when he was under our spell and hiding in the shrubbery. Ulric had actually been trying to help that time. He hadn’t been successful. “Tell us what we need to know.”
Ulric moved to the side, showing the man Mr. Tom, waiting by the door in his disguise. Then Broken Sue in his gorilla form, on all fours with his mouth gaping. Saliva dripped from his large teeth. Then Austin, watching the scene stoically now, power rippling out all around him. Niamh skittered by again, pausing to scratch the man. His clothes burned along his back.
He started to hyperventilate and clutched at his chest.
“Crap-sticks,” Nessa said. “We might accidentally give him a heart attack.” She motioned Cyra off him. “Give him a little space.”
The basajaun burst into the room, squeezing to get through the door. His hair bristled all over his body, and his roar drowned out all other noise.
“No, no. Oh my God.” The man froze in fear…and then the words started pouring out. “I was supposed to sedate her and rendezvous with a jet at LAX. They were going to fly her to headquarters to question her about that meetup at Elliot Graves’s place.”
“What do they want to know, specifically?” Nessa asked, taking Ulric’s spot.
His whole body shook with fear. “I don’t know.”
“Guess!”
His mouth opened and closed a few times before words came out. His eyes were glued to the basajaun in blind terror.
“Word is, Momar wants to kill Graves before Graves builds momentum. First, he needs information on where to find him. A few people were at that meetup. He’s got the location of one of the mages and is closing in on the other. She was the third and final piece, I think.”
“What do you know about her?” When he didn’t immediately answer, Nessa shook him. The basajaun stepped closer, growling low.
“Please don’t let that thing get me,” the man said, squeezing his eyes shut. “Oh, God, please—”