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)
“It’s annoying how much I love you,” he grumbled, snatching up the fabric. “Whoever thought this would become my life? Being pushed into a purple muumuu by a crazy gargoyle butler.”
Now a smile did work through my low-key panic.
Niamh met me in her muumuu, her eyes bright and her face its normal sort of dewy perfection.
“Glad to see you aren’t in a drunken coma,” I told her. “We’ve got to leave. Let’s get some breakfast to go, if we can, or eat quickly right here. Where’s Cyra; we need—”
Cyra walked up in her muumuu. It seemed Mr. Tom had visited everyone last night.
“Can you get a fire going, Cyra?” I asked as Ulric and Jasper groggily stumbled toward us. Ulric had his muumuu draped over his shoulder, and his hand covered his forehead. Jasper’s eyes were puffy and squinted, and his muumuu was on backward.
“They didn’t fare so well,” Niamh informed us. “I told them to stop, but they wouldn’t listen.”
“The basajaunak joined us after most of you had gone to bed,” Ulric said, bending over and groaning. “They’re actually a lot of fun. They were telling jokes and singing songs and telling stories… I had no idea we’d be up this early.”
Jasper took a halting step forward and gave Niamh an incredulous look. “How do you look like you didn’t drink last night?”
“Never mind that, how is she not dead?” Ulric asked. “She drank the feast vats dry, something that’s never happened, apparently. Then she moved on to their storage vats and, on a dare from a basajaun, drank those, too. She just guzzled the stuff to prove a point. Then she started a fight with a basajaun, wrestled him for a while; he somehow caught on fire—”
“They rolled through the firepit,” Jasper said.
“Oh, yeah, right. Well, he caught on fire, that ended the wrestling, and then she passed out on a bed of clover, cursing Edgar and his lazy eye. We had to carry her here.”
“I was ab-solutely langers, lads.” Niamh started to chuckle. “I haven’t had that much fun in…two hundred or more years. It reminded me of the old days when I’d meet my cousins.”
“Right, but how are you not dying right now?” Jasper asked.
“How did you have time to do all of this?” I asked, healing them as I took stock of everyone’s position. “And why is Hollace on the other side of the camp with Edgar?”
“The mages snuck out,” Cyra said as she added logs to a roaring fire. “The Irish lady was snoring so loudly, we didn’t hear them—”
“Oh, shoot,” Ulric said, crouching down and holding his head. “Sorry about that. We put her over there so it wouldn’t bother the majority of the camp.”
“When you sent that blast of emotion through the bond, it woke us up,” she continued. “That’s when we saw they were gone. Edgar was moving around, so Hollace went to see if he’d followed them.”
I gritted my teeth as the pounding within me persisted. My gargoyle pulsed out magic. Get ready.
“They left?” I asked in a surprisingly level tone. Something uncomfortable tightened my stomach, though. I couldn’t feel Sebastian and Nessa because they weren’t in my Ivy House circle and hadn’t accepted battle bonds like Broken Sue and Kace had.
Cyra shrugged as Nathanial walked up, looking fresh. “That, or they quietly went for a secluded morning walk,” she said.
“Here we are, miss.” Mr. Tom walked into the clearing in his muumuu, his wings fluttering behind him. He held out two steaming wooden mugs as the shifters gathered closer. Like usual these days, I hadn’t even realized he’d been gone. He was one I never checked on, likely because he was always the one checking on me. “This is as close as I could get to coffee. It’s tea, but it’s heavily caffeinated tea, I think. I had a cup to try it. I expect it will clean out my bowels quite soon. You might heal yourself from that if you can. I’m not sure the situation will be pleasant while squatting in the insufferable wildness with a fern tickling your backside. I’m about to find out, sadly. I think I’m too far gone to be helped. It’s all gurgling quite madly in there. Austin, I brought one for you as well.”
Edgar and Hollace were standing close now, stationary. Hollace seemed curious, and Edgar was delighted.
“I’m fine, Mr. Tom.” I held up my hand. “I’ll stick with water.”
“Wise choice, miss,” he replied. “Would anyone else like the equivalent of explosive Ex-Lax? The basajaunak must be very regular.”
I rested my hand on Austin’s forearm to break him out of his befuddled stupor as he stared at Mr. Tom. My crew could rattle even the most solid of people.
“I’m going to go see what Edgar and Hollace have found. The basajaun—Buln’dan. Dang it. Dave is on the other side of the village—”