Total pages in book: 154
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 145721 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 729(@200wpm)___ 583(@250wpm)___ 486(@300wpm)
She dropped onto the Met steps and stared up at the famed statue of Coraline LeMort as she ate her breakfast. Coraline stood on a pedestal with her shoulders pushed back and chin in the air. Her eyes were clear as day, looking toward a future she never was able to see but had visualized as she fought for monster unity even before humans knew about their existence. Kierse had always wondered what Coraline would have thought of her death starting the Monster War. Would she be disappointed? Or just unsurprised?
She’d never know, of course, because they’d killed her—and everything had changed.
The beautiful Met steps could fool anyone into thinking that the world was back to how it had been before the war. That Coraline’s death hadn’t been in vain. But Kierse had a map of the city in her mind, and it didn’t just show buildings—it showed territories. The human gangs that had survived the war by banding together. Roulettes on the Lower East buttressed against their biggest competition, the Jackals in Nolita. There were half a dozen other gangs spanning the city. And then there were bigger players: the Gents in the East Village, the Italian mafia in Little Italy, and the Druids in Brooklyn.
Worse yet was monster territory, which had mostly been shored up since the war but was sometimes still disputed and could be catastrophic for humans. The largest vampire clan on the Upper East and Nate’s competing wolf pack on the West Village, to name a few. Not to mention the disputed territories like Times Square.
But at least those entities abided by the Monster Treaty. There were other monsters who didn’t believe that they should be subjected to the humans they fed off of. Some factions were vocal, some just silently continued as if the Treaty had never been signed, and the worst of them had organized—the Men of Valor.
Kierse had heard whispers of the Men of Valor for years before they took Torra. The only positive thing she could say about the bloodthirsty and deranged organization was that despite the word “men” in the title, they didn’t limit their members solely to that gender. Just . . . terrible monsters who wanted to kill all humans. Delightful.
She swallowed as she stared up at Coraline LeMort and wondered if this all would have been different. If she had survived and the war had never started, would Kierse still have her girlfriend?
She tossed her bag into a trash can, still reminiscing about Torra, as she strode into Central Park. As snow gently fell, she moved down the leaf-strewn walkways and passed the green-roofed Boathouse until she came upon Bethesda Fountain. The angel at the center of the famous fountain looked down upon her subjects. Kierse had always imagined her judging them for their humanity.
Kierse wouldn’t blame her. The only person Kierse really held responsible for Torra’s fate was herself. Just over a year ago, the Men of Valor had snatched her up for a debt that Kierse had never even known Torra had. One day, she was home, and the next, she was gone without a trace. Kierse should have been there that day. But they’d had a huge fight the night before. She’d said some horrible things. Torra had told her to leave, and she’d left. Then she never saw her again.
She dropped down onto a snow-crusted step in front of the Lake, sinking into her melancholy as she watched the mer bathe from a distance. Few dared the waters now, and Kierse wasn’t stupid enough to do so, either. The mer could walk on two feet when it pleased them, which was how they had ended up in the Lake, but no one wanted to be in their path when they did. They lured sailors to their deaths, had voices like songbirds, and teeth like sharks.
One was staring at her now. “Hello, pretty.”
Kierse smiled, not drawn in by the mer’s sweet voice. The mer was pure innocence, if you could look past the fact that she likely wanted to drown Kierse at the bottom of the Lake and leave her there for a snack.
“Not today,” she told the mer, who splashed water at her in a huff and swam away.
Kierse considered her plight as she headed through Bethesda Terrace and across the Mall, slowly veering west toward Graves’s brownstone.
Monsters had taken everything from her. And now even her sanctuary wasn’t safe.
Graves wasn’t a safe option, either. Not that she had ever considered him one. But he was the one who was going to fix what she’d broken, and he’d never even see her coming.
Chapter Eleven
Kierse stood outside of Graves’s mansion. Every entrance and exit was mapped out in her mind. The best places of shadow as the sun moved across the property. The movements of those who came in and out . . . except, apparently, the owner. She had done her homework, and still he’d caught her. Standing here now felt like she had given up a piece of her battle strategy to become someone else’s pawn. But she was no one’s pawn.