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)
“Yes, miss,” Mr. Tom said, now entering with more refreshments. I hadn’t noticed him leaving. “Clearly, the house is tired of waiting for you to embrace your gargoyle. She is going to push the issue.”
“Thank you, Mr. Tom, I hadn’t realized that,” I said sarcastically.
FIFTEEN
“Why would you think the mage would return to his bosses without his charge?” Austin asked, wariness still crowding the bonds. “Why wouldn’t he try again?”
“Number one, there’s no way that mage can keep his head on straight long enough to try again.” Sebastian chuckled, and then he started laughing in earnest.
Nessa had to take over. “The basajaun did him in. He’s going to have repeats of tonight for a while, like a bad acid trip.”
“Yes, I can attest to that,” Edgar said, looking out the window. “I’m still not comfortable with crickets. I don’t trust them.”
“I would win the battle to scare information out of an enemy,” the basajaun said. Cyra just shook her head.
“And he’ll go back to his bosses because we’ll help him along,” Sebastian finished. “I don’t want to leave anything to chance. I don’t want him dallying or for someone else to recognize him and take him out for a past grudge of some kind. As I said, a lot of my network is intact. I have someone waiting just beyond the territory line. They’ll pretend to kidnap him, go through the motions of questioning him to make it seem legit, and then botch killing him. They’ll stick him on a plane. He’ll arrive at his headquarters in a coffin, but he’ll arrive alive. It was meant to be a warning that would help spur them to act. Now…it’s just safekeeping. A flourish, maybe, to increase her reputation.”
“Ye have it all planned out,” Niamh said, crumpling her can. “Except we can’t have a team of mages running through this territory. If we scramble even a little, we’ll lose face with Austin’s pack. We can’t let that happen.”
The room fell into silence, and I could feel the wariness leaking through Austin. He agreed with her.
“Luckily,” she said a moment later, “the basajaun can plug that hole for ye. Can’t ya, basajaun?”
He stared at her silently, which was kind of a big deal with him. He did like to talk once asked questions.
“Were you able to convince your family to see Jessie?” she prompted him.
“Ah. Yes. They want to meet her, but that does not mean they will issue their support. You will have to show them you would be a worthy part of the family. And then you would need to meet the elders. But it is a good start. Very rarely will they meet outsiders.”
“There. See?” Niamh put up her hand. “You’ve a trip coming up anyway. Draw them away from here, and then we can combat them as messily as we please.”
“And why would it be better to scramble in front of the basajaunak instead of this territory?” Ulric asked, hand raised. “Don’t we want to impress them?”
“Not to mention we can’t inundate the basajaun’s family with my troubles.” I braced my hands on my hips. “But if they’re targeting me, and the magic ensures they can find me, then we can lead them anywhere we want.”
“Yeah,” Niamh replied. “Anywhere, like the basajaunak’s bunch of trees. And then we can battle the low-level mages and show the basajaunak yer power. Otherwise, the basajaunak just see a bunch of muppets milling around saying odd things. They need a demonstration.”
“Right…” Ulric drew out the word. “And back to the part where we’d be scrambling in front of people we need to impress?”
“Even when the Ivy House crew scrambles, they make a spectacle out of it,” Sebastian said. “We saw it at the meetup. Why wouldn’t you want this territory to see that?”
Austin shook his head minutely. “The pack structure thrives off organization. I’m still filling out the ranks. We aren’t solid in our hierarchy yet. We’re almost there, but I’m hesitant for them to take on mages at this point. Other shifters, mercenaries—even gargoyles—we could handle it. But mages have swept through the shifter communities and wrought horror. Confidence when it comes to mages is currently precarious. I’d rather not poke holes, even small holes, in the territory’s confidence. Not if there’s an alternative.”
“As someone with firsthand knowledge, I agree with that,” Broken Sue said, one hand fisted. “I will not hesitate to fight—no one would—but the past is a hard thing to let go of. Defending my home from invading mages again…threatened with losing everything…again…” His jaw clenched. “If there were an alternative, it would spare those who aren’t yet ready to confront their past.”
“They’ll have to confront their past eventually,” Sebastian said softly. “This isn’t a problem that will go away.”
“As soon as we’re solid as a pack, we’ll be training,” Austin replied. “As I said, we’re almost there. I hadn’t realized we’d be confronted with this type of situation so soon.”