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)
Step two: work with Nate and his Dreadlords to consolidate that information into action they could eventually use against the monsters. If and when that anger spilled over, they would be prepared. And Nate was the best option. He was her ally and an ally of humans. She would take him over the alternative.
Step three: steal the spear. Landing a blow against her enemy, those who killed Torra, was the ultimate goal. Anything that kept them from having the advantage was the most important.
And while she had planned all of this to begin with, she hadn’t planned for Graves. Whatever was going on between them since their training session and Imani’s party. He’d told her not to divulge his secrets, but she knew him well enough now to know that if he found out that she’d double-crossed him to work with the Dreadlords, he would go absolutely ballistic.
“We’re allies,” she said.
“Friends,” Nate countered.
“Fine. Friends,” she said as if that word meant nothing to her. Nate was her friend, but all the players in this game made her uncomfortable in some way. They all had power over her if they needed it. Even Nate. Maybe most of all Nate. He knew the most about her, after all.
“We’ll wait Lorcan out, then. If you’re certain he’ll come after you again.”
“He will,” she said with assurance. “He can’t help himself. He thinks that he can play me to get to Graves.”
“The way you’re playing him,” Nate said with a laugh.
“It’s amazing how many people will give up and not look at the truth when they see a pretty smile.” She shot him that same pretty smile, and he snorted.
“So, what the hell happened to you the last couple of days, anyway? You went radio silent.”
“I was doing my job.”
“As long as you’re safe.”
She scoffed. “I wasn’t safe the moment I took this job.”
Nate frowned as if he didn’t like that assessment, but he just said, “This meeting has gone on long enough. We probably need to get you back to his house before he realizes that you’re gone. Anything else on Graves that I should know about?”
Kierse shifted once uncomfortably. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to give information about Graves to Nate and the Dreadlords. She didn’t trust Graves. He didn’t trust her, either. He’d made that abundantly clear from the beginning. But she’d given him her word she wouldn’t spill his secrets, and for some unknown reason, she wanted to keep that promise. At least for now.
When she hesitated, Nate raised an eyebrow. “Don’t tell me you’re going soft on me.”
Kierse rolled her eyes at the werewolf. “I’m hardly going soft.” She stood from the booth. “I’ll contact you when I have more information.”
Nate shot her a shrewd look as if trying to see whether or not she was playing him. “We’re on the same side, Kierse.”
“I know,” she said.
And as much as she wanted that to be true, in this, at least, she was only ever on her own side.
Chapter Thirty-One
The house was eerily silent when she snuck back into her room at the brownstone, and its warmth felt reassuringly safe. She closed the door quietly behind her and padded toward the bed, stripping out of her jacket as she went. She didn’t know what alerted her, but when she looked up, Graves was seated in a chair in her room.
She gasped slightly. He wasn’t supposed to be home yet. Nate would have told her. “Graves,” she whispered. “What are you doing in here?”
He rose slowly to his feet, a menacing figure in every regard. She shivered at the force of his presence as he loomed over her. “You went out.”
“Yes.”
“You evaded the cameras.”
“I thought you put them up as a challenge.”
He took a step toward her, closing the gap easily. “Do you take everything as a challenge?”
She tilted her head up to look into his too-intense eyes. “Isn’t that the fun of life?”
He breathed out sharply. “Surely you can understand why this was a bad idea.”
“I’m not confined to the premises,” she reminded him flippantly.
Graves’s entire body tensed at her tone, and something seemed to shatter within him all at once. “You were still recovering,” he growled low.
Concern was laced into his swirling eyes, and tension flexed in his jaw. And for the first time, she realized that maybe he wasn’t upset with her . . . maybe he was worried about her.
Something in her eased at the gesture. She’d believed he was made of stone. Even when he had saved her life, she hadn’t truly seen him unsettled.
“I’m okay,” she assured him.
“You should not have gone without a clean bill of health.”
“You’re right,” she conceded. Her body relaxed, her voice going with it. “I shouldn’t have gone out. The Druids tracked me. They brought me to Lorcan at Equinox. We had dinner.”