Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
I’d never given him a real tour of the place. Some of the wealth randomly stored in nooks and crannies boggled the mind. I said as much.
“I’ll need to see everything you have.” His fingers flowed over the keyboard. “I need an itemized list of everything that can be worn or otherwise shown off.”
“Why?” Mr. Tom asked, still perched by the door after the latest food delivery. “Are you planning to resurrect your thieving ways and rob us blind?”
Sebastian didn’t even look up at the slight. Instead, he grinned. “Ivy House would kill me before I made it to the front door.”
“That gift is not about the worth of the bracelet,” Nathanial said, bending closer to look. “Gimerel has a production cairn with a mine rich in rubies and sapphires. Another of their production cairns handcrafts exquisite jewelry. Their work is heavily sought after. This is a perfect marriage of both, and a display of the cairn’s wealth and status. The Gimerel leader was very proud of that bracelet. Almost immediately after he first showed it off, another large cairn raided Gimerel to try to get it. They failed, and since then, all three of the other most prestigious cairns have tried to take it. A couple of the lesser cairns even joined forces to attempt a raid. In all that time, Gimerel protected their prize. No one could get close. That bracelet is a testimony to their battle strength. I greatly hoped that one day I’d have enough status for an invitation to see it.”
I blinked at it, then lowered my eyebrows. “And he’s just giving it to me? I don’t get to try my hand at a raid? That’s lame. I bet we could have taken it.”
Ulric and Jasper started to laugh. “She’s definitely a gargoyle,” Ulric said.
“Be that as it may,” Nathanial said, his eyes glued to the bracelet, “giving you that is a huge honor. It’s the pride of their cairn.”
“He’s showing off,” Nessa said, now leaning back as Sebastian continued to tap on the keyboard. “He’s showing you how big his dick is. It isn’t a present for you—it is a display of how powerful he is. It’s a testimony to what he’s worth.”
“It’s a challenge, is what it is,” Niamh said.
“Yeah, agree.” Nessa nodded. “He’s just shown you the bar. You’ll have to top it for him to give you the time of day.”
“That was always going to be the case,” Patty said. “Always. That’s what we’re up against.”
“It’s also a gorgeous piece of jewelry,” Ulric said. “Even if she didn’t know the full history, she has an authentic piece of jewelry, worth a pretty penny, that displays the talents of his cairn. You have to hand it to the guy, it’s the perfect gift.”
“No argument there,” Nessa said. “He’s good.”
“We’ll have our hands full with him,” Austin said. He’d been mostly quiet up until this point, which added weight to the sentiment.
Silence filtered through the room for a moment. I handed the bracelet to Nathanial, who handled it like the priceless relic he clearly considered it to be. The other gargoyles came closer and bent to look, their eyes full of reverence.
“Right,” I said to break the silence. “What’s next?”
I grabbed a glass of water while checking on the basajaunak. They were meandering around the wood, probably checking out the basandere’s new home. Edgar, Cyra, and Hollace were heading home from the other direction, moving fast. In the car, obviously. I wondered if Edgar had felt the basajaunak and was now rushing back to protect his flowers. He’d want to go over the rules with the new additions.
“Yes, let’s move this along.” Patty gazed at the bracelet a little longer––Nathanial had passed it to her—before gingerly setting it on the coffee table. “Should we…pop that into a safe, perhaps? Secure it in some way?”
“No one is going to steal that trinket,” Mr. Tom said, lifting his chin. “Ivy House has many more authentic pieces of jewelry worth much more, I assure you. They were bathed in the blood of empires, ripped from—”
“Okay, okay, settle down.” I put out a hand to placate Mr. Tom as I stood. “Let’s respect the gifts of today, shall we?”
“If we must.” Mr. Tom’s wings rustled.
“I mean, not to toot my own horn,” Sebastian said, standing, “but the red diamond I gave Jessie when in my caves is almost priceless. It is the rarest type of diamond in the world. The story of how I came to be in possession of it, as well as its previous history, would make that bracelet look like child’s play.”
“I would very much like to hear that story,” Patty said, getting up. “If that cairn secures an invite, it’ll be something to share, for sure.”
“Patty is going to be my best friend when those gargoyles come,” Nessa said, batting her eyes at the older woman. “Oh, the fun we will have, Patty.”