Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 132582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 132582 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 663(@200wpm)___ 530(@250wpm)___ 442(@300wpm)
“Maeve, this is Willow Austin,” Caz announces, “and she’s the reason I’ve called you here.”
The woman continues staring at me, her mouth slightly ajar.
“By the stunned expression on your face, I’d say you know exactly who she is,” Caz goes on.
“No—I…I mean, yes, but…how? How is this happening again?” Maeve finally closes her mouth, pressing her red lips together and looking from me to Caz.
“Um…I’m sorry. Is anyone going to tell me what’s going on?” I ask.
I glance at Rowan, and his eyes are wide as he shrugs hard, his shoulders practically touching his ears.
“Mum, why don’t you have a seat?” Killian suggests, rising from his chair.
“Yes. I’ll do that.” Maeve walks across the room, sitting in Killian’s chair. He rubs her arm, and she gives his hand a quick, affectionate pat. She pauses on the pat, stiffening as she studies his knuckles. “What happened to your hand?”
“Had to kick a Rippie fucker out,” Killian says, pulling his hand away.
“Language, Killian!” Maeve snaps, releasing his hand and then shaking her head. “Back to the issue at hand. Caz, where did she come from?”
“She landed in my forest, Maeve.” Caz folds his fingers on the desk. “She doesn’t know how she got there, or how she ended up in my territory, but she was there. Cerberus found her. Fortunately, I got there before he could rip her to shreds.”
Oh, fuck him! I frown at Caz.
He stares back at me, one eyebrow cocked. Fucking me should be the last thing on your to-do list right now.
My jaw drops, and I start to say something, but Maeve shifts in her chair and clears her throat. She’s staring at me again. I shift uncomfortably.
“You’ll have to pardon my gawking, darling. It’s just—well, the last time I saw you, you looked different. Your hair was…not like this. It was shorter. Curlier.”
“What do you mean? My hair has always been like this,” I tell her.
“Right…to you it has. But the last time I saw you… my word, that was nearly ninety years ago.”
“Ninety?” I ask, confused. “Do you mean nineteen?”
“No, ninety.”
I frown. “Uh…okay.” I’m nowhere near ninety so it couldn’t have been me. “I’m sorry to ask, but how old are you exactly?”
“One-hundred and fifty-eight,” she replies casually.
I blink several times, trying to process the number that just came out of her mouth. She doesn’t look any older than fifty—if that.
“Okay. This…um. This is all really weird and confusing. Do you think you can tell me how to get back home, please?”
A woman rushes into the office with a crystal glass in her hand. The liquid in her glass sloshes over the rim, spilling over her tan knuckles. “Late, sorry!” she chirps. “I needed this very badly before coming back here to deal with you lot!”
“Juniper, if you’re going to drink, just stay at the damn bar,” Caz grumbles.
“Oh, shut up, Caz. I had a long day, all right? Do you know I was in the village today and some woman tried to fight me? She was out of her bloody mind! I calmed her down, but she kept calling me a bitch, because apparently, I’ve been sleeping with her husband.” She takes a swallow of her drink. “You should’ve seen that greasy fucker! Like I’d ever waste my time having an affair with a man like him!” Juniper sips her drink again, and her eyes bounce from Caz to me. “Ohhh…who’s this?” She grins.
“Just sit and be quiet,” Caz orders.
Juniper frowns and makes a face at him before slinking her way across the office and sitting on a black bench against the wall.
“Anyway, Willow, I suppose getting back would be the same way you got here,” Maeve informs me.
“I don’t even know how I got here. It’s not like I was planning to come to this place.”
“What’s the last thing you remember before arriving?” she asks.
“She was smoking and was high on something called weed,” Caz drawls, rolling his eyes.
“Weed?” Rowan and Killian ask at the same time. “What the fuck is that?” Killian asks.
“Is it like quish? The shit that made Newton lie in the middle of the street and get trampled by a fucking horse like an idiot?” Rowan laughs.
“Language!” Maeve snaps again, rolling her eyes.
“It’s a narcotic,” I explain. “It…makes me feel good. Probably like whatever you just smoked, Caz,” I say, gesturing to the half- cig on his ashtray.
“That’s not called weed. It’s bloom,” Caz says. “And it doesn’t make me high, or whatever you call it. It just calms me down.”
“Well, that’s exactly what weed does for me. It calms me down and clears my head.”
“Bloom is the finest you can find,” Caz goes on. “I’m sure your weed holds no comparison.”
“How the hell would you know? You don’t even know what it is,” I argue.
“She was doing drugs,” Killian interrupts, cutting his eyes at Caz. “Can we really trust a junkie?”