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 hope you’re not leading up to asking me out, because after two murder attempts, I think I’ve got the hint to stay away. I only like good boys.”
“The mage?” His eyes darkened and his tone dripped with deadly promises if she didn’t answer.
Why did that make her smile?
“He’s a brother in everything but blood.”
“And the gorilla?”
“A FILF.”
“What?”
“A friend I’d like to fuck. Just a friend, though. He has some serious trauma in his recent past that he’s trying to work through. I’m giving him space to do that.”
“And your trauma? Are you trying to work through that, or just ignore it?”
She stared at him, hard. Then reached for her shirt.
“Oops, there goes your good humor. I’ll be your FILF, if you’d like.” His smile increased his handsomeness, and he knew it.
“We aren’t friends, firstly. Friends don’t accost and threaten friends. Second, nah, I’ll just flag down a random hot dude at the bar, thanks. Shirt, please. It might be salvageable.”
“It isn’t. Bloodstains. Why haven’t you and the weird mage officially joined the Ivy House crew? From what I’ve seen, you’d be accepted in a minute.”
She lowered her hand. His question had taken her by surprise. “Because when this is all over,” she said, no traces of humor left, “and the long game is completed, we probably won’t be welcome here. We made a pact to do whatever is necessary to take down the Mages’ Guild, and that path might require loose morals. They don’t need our kind of nightmare tainting their lives, not during peacetime.”
He looked at her for a long time, and she opened herself to it. She let him see the parts of her only Sebastian and his sister had ever truly seen. Or their enemies had seen. The horrors she’d experienced started when she was too young, and they’d just grown and grown until that was all she knew anymore. He’d already guessed at them; he might as well see the truth of it. There was no point in trying to hide—he’d made that plain. If he asked, she would’ve exposed her whole sordid history, every dark deed and vicious repercussion. Something about him said he’d understand like no one else in her life. But he didn’t ask. Maybe he didn’t need to.
Instead he nodded and said, almost too quietly for her to hear, “I doubt you’re worse than that puca.”
“Well.” She reached once more for her shirt, being plain stubborn at this point. “That’s my night done, I think.”
He held the shirt up to punctuate his next words. “I owe you one for this recent…faux pas. The throat grab and threat, not the shirt. Though, in my defense, I couldn’t have known your cairn leader would protect me from her staff. Mine certainly wouldn’t have.”
“Is that what we’re calling it? Faux pas?”
“If I pitched you off the roof, then yes, that’s what we’re calling it. How can I help? What can I do to gain your forgiveness? Make you beg?”
She rolled her eyes and turned toward the house, giving up on the shirt. She knew very well it was ruined, and if his goal was blackmail, he would be hard-pressed to make the allegations stick. The shifter would heal from the injuries she’d dealt by morning, and she’d ensure he didn’t rat her out.
But then her reality tumbled into her mind. And she turned around slowly.
She knew her expression was as serious as a heart attack. “What game are we playing here? Because if I ask a favor of you, it wouldn’t be on my own behalf.”
He sobered as well, seeing that the mood had changed. “I owe you. I meant that. It’ll stay between you and me.”
She very much doubted she could trust him, but she was also desperate.
“Stall the cairns from leaving. By…a week. I only need a week.”
He leaned back onto his heels, assessing her. “Why?”
She shook her head and backed up a step.
He took a step forward, his gaze delving into her. “Why?” he pressed, a little softer. A little more dangerously. Her body tingled.
She ignored it. Shoved it away. She needed to focus now. She needed that cold logic.
She assessed him and knew instantly that there was only one way forward on this.
She spilled the truth. All of it. He was somehow so dialed in with her that he’d know it if she lied, and she needed his help.
After she’d finished, Tristan studied her as he tended to do when his mind was working, maybe assessing threats. Maybe trying to figure out whether she was telling the truth.
“Okay,” he said. “I’ll stall. What about the battle?”
“What about the battle?”
“Is this one for keeps? Kill or be killed?”
She furrowed her brow. “Kill or the territory will be killed, followed by Austin’s brother’s territory. The people we hired think we’re the bad guys. There is no way to call them off. Not anymore. I don’t know if you’ve forgotten, but real battles are typically dangerous.”