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)
“You’re right. The young basandere I met earlier seemed eager to spread her wings, so to speak. So…” I put up my hands. “What do we do?”
He looked at me. “You know what we should do,” he said softly. “We both do.”
“But, like…do we tell them why we’re leaving? That we intended to deceive them? I can’t imagine that would go over well. Leaving early with no explanation won’t exactly go over well, either.”
“Missus Jessie, if I may.” Edgar pushed his head up even with us, much too close. I hadn’t realized I’d included him in the spell. I wasn’t enthused by the idea that he was becoming the same sort of white noise as Mr. Tom. Edgar wasn’t someone I wanted to entirely lose track of.
I leaned away, harder into Austin.
“Honesty is rarely the best policy,” Edgar said. “If you want them to trust you, you need to be forthright about what is happening.”
I furrowed my brow at him. “I’m not following.”
“I don’t think he meant the ‘rarely’ part of the first sentence,” Austin murmured.
“Ah, yes, I see where I went wrong there.” Edgar half smiled and shook his head as though we were commiserating about something. “Words, right? Words.”
“What—” I rubbed my eyes. “We need Niamh or Mr. Tom to translate.”
“What I think you should do is tell them you sense danger coming,” Edgar went on. “That you thought you’d handled a problem back at home but now you worry it might have followed you here. I’ll let you and Mr. Austin work out the details. He’s an alpha. He always knows the right answer. A partial truth is still true. Mostly.”
I stared at him for a moment. “That’s actually a good idea.”
“Yes,” he replied, slinking back again. “Sometimes I have them often.”
Words, indeed.
“When do we tell them?” Austin asked, and I knew he was actually asking how much time we had left.
I shook my head. I didn’t know. But given that the pulses were coming faster and faster, and I was starting to feel our adversaries’ menace, I doubted we had long. The trek through the woods would likely slow them down, but even so, we were running out of time.
I explained all that to him. “Where can we go? We can’t endanger the town any more than we can this village.”
“We ask them where to go,” he said. “We tell them about the danger coming, apologize for involving them, and ask where we can make a stand against the threat. This natural preserve is huge. There must be a great many places we can do this that will be far enough to keep their youth from following.”
I groaned. “That means more hiking.”
It also meant we’d almost certainly be outnumbered and battling up that theoretical hill.
TWENTY-THREE
The horrible hum within me sauntered on with the night. Music flowed, food was eaten, and I tried to find a time when we were all together so I could quietly broach the subject of leaving without blowing our cover. I needed to ask the basajaun how best to approach the basandere. And also…I was freaked out about admitting our fault in all of this. I knew I had to, and I knew it was the right thing to do, but man, inciting a very violent type of creature wasn’t on my list of most anticipated things to do tonight.
My only consolation was that I knew that even if the mages got near the preserve, they’d be hard-pressed to navigate it in the dark. We had a little time. How little, I couldn’t be sure.
One thing I did do, though, was cut out the Ivy House links. At the crew’s confused or inquiring looks, I snuggled up close to Austin and gave the impression I wanted a little privacy. They were all having such a good time, dancing and eating and even branching out and chatting to the locals, that I didn’t want to spoil their fun before I absolutely had to.
I couldn’t hide my feelings from Austin, though, and he hugged me tightly, knowing what I was waiting for. And why. I also couldn’t seem to cut the gargoyle connection links to Kace and Broken Sue, who glanced over often, wondering what was up.
The water provided for drinking was cool and refreshing, and the homemade alcoholic fruit drink tasted like gasoline. I coughed and sputtered and beat at my chest every time I took a sip. That and needing to stay coherent ensured I didn’t take many.
At close to midnight, the music stopped. I assumed the party was winding down and my death march just beginning. Now or never. I needed to grab the basajaun, round everyone up, have a quick chat, and go admit guilt to a ferocious creature and her people. Hopefully, I would live long enough to meet the mages.