Total pages in book: 121
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 113319 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 567(@200wpm)___ 453(@250wpm)___ 378(@300wpm)
Tell Austin not to worry about how we snuck in. No other mage would be able to do it, regardless of their magical prowess. I knew Nessa and I would need to go our separate ways eventually, and I baked in a few magical tunnels that would get us past Austin’s defenses. Even with fore-planning, though, originating from inside of the territory, we nearly got caught. So you guys are good.
I hope your visit went well!
And I sincerely hope you enjoy your presents.
Merry Christmas.
Best,
Sabby xoxo
I stared for a long moment and then read it again.
“What’d you find?” Austin asked, leaning into the room.
“An empty cell and a note. You?”
“A cell burned to high heaven, empty, no note. No holes dug through the walls or anything that would explain how they got out. The mages’ dinner was eaten, so they were here to receive that, but they were gone before breakfast. The guards didn’t see anyone coming or going. Cameras were put on a loop sometime last night and we can’t get a time stamp. They were thorough.”
I passed off the note to him and then looked around, not able to help a little smirk. “I’m not sure whether to be mad or impressed.”
He breathed out slowly through his nose. “I guess at least it was them. Can you find these magical tunnels and…stop them or close them or…disable them?” He handed back the note.
“I…don’t know. I can ask Ivy House. Maybe she’ll lead me to a book? If that doesn’t bring up a plan of action, though…” I looked at him seriously. “I can’t compete with Sebastian, Austin. He isn’t just powerful and incredibly experienced—he’s a magical genius. A magical entrepreneur. A one-on-one fight I can handle. I have confidence there. But Elliot Graves doesn’t do one-on-one battles. Not usually. He doesn’t have to. And when it comes to sneaky mage magic, he’s so far ahead of me…” I put my hands up. There really wasn’t much else I could say.
“Maybe try—”
Austin paused as Tristan leaned into the room. “Anything?”
I held out the note.
“It’s a good idea to ask Ivy House,” Austin said as Tristan walked in and took it. “She must know the best spell books, at least?”
I nodded, hoping I could get her to cooperate.
“In the meantime…” He put his hands on his hips, staring out at nothing. “I have to figure out how to catch a magical mouse. I don’t like people waltzing in here, helping themselves to whatever they want, and scurrying back out again. I don’t care who they are.”
“Agreed, sir,” Tristan said. “I’m going to get with Niamh. We need a better setup. Nessa is running circles around us right now, but we have access to bigger and badder players. It’s time we got serious about recruiting them. We need to take advantage of shadow worlds that we both have experience in. Though maybe we should come up with some parameters regarding the types of creatures we’re willing to work with…”
Shivers covered my skin. This was starting to get serious, dangerous in a way that might not just mean life and death. If there were worse things out there than straightforward magic, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know about them. We’d only been home a day, and we were already back in full gear. I supposed it was for the best. Work today so we could live tomorrow. Literally. Get stagnant and we’d get killed.
“But what I really want to know is…” I took the note back and looked at it again. “What presents?”
We closed up shop. There was no point in sticking around, given there were no longer any mages to interrogate. I couldn’t regret it too much. I hadn’t been looking forward to prying information out of them.
As we headed home, Tristan and Broken Sue following in the car behind us, my mind continued down the same track as earlier.
“Seriously. What Christmas presents? Do you think they sent them to the rental we were in and we left before we got them? Or maybe they were stolen off the front porch? That’s a huge problem in the city.”
Once we got home, I had my answer.
A white box truck sat outside of Ivy House. Niamh was in her rocking chair in front of her house with what looked like a rock in hand, watching it until we got close. Tristan and Broken Sue were still behind us, and the rest of the team would be coming along shortly.
Austin parked at the curb out front, with Tristan pulling in behind him. We immediately moved in to check the truck.
“What is this?” I muttered to myself as I reached the sidewalk next to the box truck, sussing it out with magic. “All clear.”
Austin peered into the cab. “Empty. And clean. No wear and tear.”
On the back there was a little pink sign. Merry Christmas.