Total pages in book: 49
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 47052 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 235(@200wpm)___ 188(@250wpm)___ 157(@300wpm)
No one had ever spied him outside these walls again, but her coven hadn’t sensed his death until a few decades later. So what had he been up to in the intervening years? Some whispered that he’d gone rogue, turning balls-out evil.
BOOM.
She felt the thunder in her stomach, along with clenching nerves. Steeling herself, she adjusted her cross-body satchel with her few spell pouches inside. She’d had scant time to prepare for tonight and hadn’t been able to ask her sisters for help.
They’d never suspected she would set off by herself for this particular mission, but by now, they would know she’d given them the slip.
One of the last mistakes I’ll ever make?
Drawing her from that unsettling thought, Rök said, “You assume I’m not on the clock as well?” After letting his gaze roam over her from her boots to her bright-red hair, he leaned against the entry wall and crossed his brawny arms over his chest. A lesser witch would have gawked. His sculpted seven-foot-tall body was as seductive as the most gripping enchantment. “Who hired you to come here?”
“Spill info on my client?” When she gave him an indulgent smile, his attention clocked her curving lips, making her cheeks heat. “What kind of merc would I be?” In truth, no one had hired her. She was here to risk her life, on this, the most problematic of nights, to break a curse.
So who had hired Rök? Did his presence mean other mercs would show?
“You up for pooling intel on this place?” His accent was British-adjacent, peppered with American slang. When they’d talked for hours on their date, she’d learned he’d been raised in Rothkalina, the rage demon kingdom, but his parents had bounced around until Rök’s first Accession when they’d both died in battle.
“Not a chance. I know everything I need to know.” Her research indicated that a pressurized boundary spell surrounded the structure. When the veil between worlds was thinnest—during a full moon on Halloween night—the castle door would swing open once the moon rose.
Getting out would prove more precarious. After all, none of the explorers had returned from the last expedition into the interior. . . .
The Halloween timing was unfortunate since her own curse burgeoned out of control on this night. Any moment now, the monsters she unwillingly created once a year would wake.
The idea of this demon seeing them made her cheeks heat again. “In fact, you should leave and spare yourself a defeat. Tell me, Rök, what will it take to get you gone?” His lids went heavy as they always did whenever she said his name. Such a player, such an act. Had she once fallen for his charm? Almost. “Half of my bounty?” My nonexistent bounty.
“We’re in a may-the-best-demon-win situation here, and I intend to claim everything that’s coming to me,” he said, a hint of warning in his tone.
“I’ve always held my own with you whenever the two of us have faced off. I can handle whatever you bring into the mix.”
Her words seemed to please him. “True. You give as good as you get.”
Why did she feel as if he was speaking about something else entirely? “What’s going on here? You’re being weird.”
He shrugged. “Strange day.”
Rain began to fall. He glanced out over the grounds, then back at her, his irises changing color—often a sign of high emotion in immortals. When his blue eyes turned gray like spotlit smoke, she almost convinced herself he was replaying their kiss. But a male like him, who went through so many paramours, probably didn’t remember it.
Drops swelled into a deluge. Water poured along the edge of the nearby overhang, creating a lightning-lit curtain. On this covered portico, she and Rök might as well have been alone together in a cocoon. Their breaths sounded loud, their heartbeats syncing. . . .
Poppy barely noticed when the wind picked up, dispersing the heavy downpour. She and the demon stood staring at each other, wordless, until a lightning bolt detonated nearby.
Inner shake. “Strange day, demon? Then you should go home now and enjoy the draw.”
He blinked, as if he’d lost the thread of their conversation. “Maybe I came here hoping to see you.”
“Uh-huh. I wish I could lie as easily as demons seem to,” she said, though she’d never sensed him lying to her, not once in all their interactions.
“Can you not tell I’m attracted to you?”
Yes, but . . . “You’re more attracted to the chase. I’m the only single female you haven’t been able to seduce, which makes me an anomaly in the Lore: the lay that got away.”
“Hmm.” That sound rumbled from his broad chest, telling her nothing, sending her thoughts tripping about like a horror-movie damsel. He levered himself away from the wall and strode over beside her.
Sensation crackled along her skin from his mere nearness. His heady scent was a mix of mist and embers.