Total pages in book: 132
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125083 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 625(@200wpm)___ 500(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Her shoulders relaxed. “All right. Did Lailah say anything else?”
Sliding his hands from Wynter’s face to her neck, he replied, “She’s finally worked out that you’re not an everyday witch. She seems to feel that I should find you a ‘concern.’ A danger to Devil’s Cradle. A ‘dark power’ that I can’t afford to trust.”
“And do you see me that way?”
He hiked up a brow. “Do you truly think I do?”
“No, but … I don’t know, you’re just looking at me differently right now. I’ve had people turn on me before because I don’t fit the mold.”
Same here, baby. “The Aeons don’t like that they don’t fully understand you. Nor do they like that they can’t explain why you can do the things you do. For them, that’s reason enough to want you dead. They have no real tolerance for things that are ‘different.’” He settled his hands on her shoulders and gave them a little squeeze. “I’m not them, Wynter.”
She gave a slow nod, a long breath slipping out of her.
“You warned Lailah that there would be consequences when she exiled you?”
“Yes.”
“She said there was a foreign disturbance in the air that day.”
“So she merely wanted to chat with you?”
Cain lowered his face to hers. “She wanted me to hand you over. I refused. So she then offered me something in exchange for you. I essentially told her to go fuck herself. Which means there’ll be war.”
“And that pleases you, doesn’t it?”
“It does.” He cocked his head. “Just how many things are you hiding from me?”
She licked her lower lip. “Probably not as many as you’re hiding from me.”
Probably not.
“When the Aeons come, I want to be part of the battle.”
Cain almost barked a humorless laugh. “That isn’t going to happen.”
Her spine straightened. “Excuse me?”
“Wynter, I know you’re powerful. I know you can fight with both sword and magick. But you wouldn’t stand a chance against an Aeon.”
“I’m not saying I’d go challenge one. But they won’t come alone. They’ll bring a massive force. I can be part of handling said force.”
“You need to stay down here in the city, where you’ll be safe.”
She did a slow blink. “Please tell me you’re joking. As you now know, my death won’t undo the curse—”
“You say that like it therefore wouldn’t matter if you ceased to exist. It would matter to me, Wynter. It would matter a fuck of a lot.”
“I get it. I wouldn’t want you to die either. But ask you to sit this fight out? No, I wouldn’t do that. Don’t ask it of me. I won’t stay home twiddling my fingers while others battle a bunch of assholes that I brought to their town.”
“You realize that every single one of their army will be ordered to take you? You will be their focus, Wynter. They’ll kill whoever they need to kill just to get to you. And we both know you’d die before you let them take you. Why risk yourself that way?”
Her brow creased. “Why do you sound offended that I would?”
His lips flattening, he pulled her toward him using his grip on her shoulders, closing the small gap between them. “I want you to want to live, Wynter. I want you to value enough what we have that you’d at least want to live so we can see where this goes.”
“So by being part of the battle, you don’t value this? Is that what you’re saying?”
He ground his teeth. “No.”
“It’s no different for me, so don’t twist what I’m saying. You’re uber powerful, sure. But you’ll be up against beings that can actually kill you. Your life will be at risk. I don’t hear you offering to stay home.” She perched her hands on her hips. “Why, in your mind, should you get to face them but I don’t? What did they do to you that makes your grudge so much more important than mine?”
He stared at her, touching his incisor with the tip of his tongue. “I will trust you with the answer to that … if you first tell me one thing honestly.”
She folded her arms. “Go on.”
He had a thousand questions he would love to fire at her, but she’d refuse to answer any that she wouldn’t consider worth the trade of truths. In her position, he’d do same. So he settled on asking, “Who is your father? What is he?”
She blinked. “I don’t actually know who he is. I never met him, and my mother didn’t say much about him.”
“Why not?”
“She was not a fan of his. All she ever said was that he was a witch and that I was better off not knowing him. She promised to tell me more when I was ‘old enough to hear it,’ but she didn’t get that chance. I asked my grandmother and other members of the coven about him. Apparently, he was a one-night stand. When she told him she was pregnant, he wanted nothing to do with us. Davina didn’t want to tell me that when I was so young, she worried it would hurt me.”