Total pages in book: 91
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 87608 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 438(@200wpm)___ 350(@250wpm)___ 292(@300wpm)
He nodded. “I know. That was Sola, and Rulaine, my mistress, was certain he was powerful enough to defeat either a mage, or if the reports were wrong, a bruane.”
“What’s a bruane?” Lorne asked me.
“It means like a…” I looked at the faun for help, gesturing at him to jump in. “A witch with no hereditary line, right?”
“Yes,” he said, smiling at me before looking at Lorne. “A witch whose practice leads to them finding and growing their own power is a bruane, a fire-seed or birthed-from-within witch. It takes much scholarship and practice.”
“Okay,” Lorne said, shifting around so he was sitting with his long muscular legs stretched out, leaning back, palms flat on the floor.
The faun, or technically, now Declan, leaned off the wall and crossed his legs just as I was as he continued to address Lorne. “A born witch, from a line of witches, is a rodin witch, or what’s referred to as bloodstained.”
“Got it. Bruane and rodin, one made through hard work and perseverance and the other born with power.”
“Yes. Excellent,” Declan complimented him.
“Thanks.”
Declan turned to me. “You were thought to be a very formidable mage, but apparently Rulaine got that wrong as you’re not one of those at all.”
“How do you know that?” Lorne asked him.
“He removed my glamour…that’s not possible for a mage. It’s not doable for a bruane or a rodin either,” he answered Lorne but then turned to me, “so…what are you?”
I smiled at him.
“Was there ever a mage?”
“Yes. My grandfather.”
“And was he powerful?”
“He was,” I assured him.
“Well, when Sola didn’t return, we were certain that you, the mage Rulaine thinks you are, had dispatched him.”
“And so then this Rulaine, she decided to get to me another way.”
“Yes.”
“And what happens to you when she finds out you failed?”
“I’m certain she’ll kill me,” he said sadly, looking down at his lovely polished loafers.
“Does she know what you look like?”
His head snapped up. “No. I was supposed to report tonight and show her my newly chosen form. She left me here a fortnight ago.”
“Do you know who killed the girl?”
“Yes. Rulaine did. She meant to kill four, to place a dead girl, with her heart torn out, in all the corners so that when you called to them, there would be only death to answer.”
I nodded.
He leaned forward. “Even a rodin couldn’t have defeated Sola. A hereditary witch is not that much stronger than a made witch. All you have is your bloodline aiding your magic.”
“You’re right,” I concurred. “You’re very knowledgeable. What’s your true name?”
He shook his head. “It’s the name of the barn I was born in; it was never mine alone. I prefer Declan.”
“All right. Then Declan it is,” I said and stood up. “Come stand here by me.”
He moved immediately, bouncing up off the floor and to my side.
“From now on, you’ll be Declan Grant, and your glamour will be permanent.”
He gasped. “You can do that?”
I grunted.
His mouth dropped open as he stared at me, and his words came out in the barest whisper. “You’re a branded witch.”
“I am.”
I stepped back and knelt, starting at his feet, tracing around him, then standing on my toes so I could reach up—I was only five eight, after all—and outline him in light that flowed around him like I was drawing with glow-in-the-dark paint. “I say unto you, what was false is now truth. So mote it be.”
He jolted, and then his body went rigid and he cried out sharply. The light glowed and got bright before falling away like fireflies landing in the grass. He touched his face, his chest, everywhere at once, then looked at me before closing his eyes and furrowing his brows.
“Yep,” I told him.
He opened one eye and looked at Lorne.
“What is happening right now?” Lorne asked me.
“He wants to know if he still looks like Declan Grant.”
“Yeah, man,” Lorne said, “you look just like the douche I thought you were this afternoon.”
Declan glanced at me. “What is a douche?”
“He didn’t like you,” I translated.
“Whyever not?” He sounded affronted as he surveyed Lorne.
“Because you were hitting on Xander, and I… I don’t want people hitting on Xander.”
“Oh, well, how charming,” he said, smiling at Lorne. “I find that terribly romantic.”
Lorne asked me, “If he has sex with a woman and has a kid, will that kid…”
“Be human? Yes.”
“Really?” Declan was breathless. “Oh…that’s amazing.”
“So if you like women and want to have children, you can, and if you like men and want to have children and want a surrogate, you can do that too with the same outcome. Human babies every time.”
He grabbed my hand and held it in both of his. “I am forever in your debt, Xander Corey, and if there’s anything I can do for you, you must tell me.”
I held his hand back. “Tell me where this Rulaine is?”