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)
“At least it did awaken,” she said. “So, you see, now we have all the pieces to finish the job tomorrow. I want to do this. No, I need to do this.” She swallowed hard, letting him see her vulnerability and earnestness. “I’ll go in either way, but we’re better off together. You know that we are.”
Life flickered back into Graves’s eyes at those words. She could see a new plan lighting there.
“We are better together.” And the words he uttered were like music to her ears. Soft and seductive. He came to his feet. “A new bargain?”
“We don’t need a bargain to seal this anymore. We do this together. Get in, get the spear, kill King Louis, and get us all out of there.”
He nodded. “Done.”
Chapter Fifty-Two
With their mission restored, Kierse felt lighter than she ever had with Graves. Maybe with anyone.
“I truly thought you had left for good,” he told her.
“You shut down as soon as you found out about Nate. I told you I would come back. I swore we would talk about this.”
He ran a hand through his hair, and when he looked at her next, she saw that he was thrown off. That she had surprised him when he was not usually surprised. He truly had thought that she was never coming back. Even when she had been yelling at him and telling him she would be back, he’d immediately thought that she was like everyone else in his life. That she would abandon him. Right after she had finally let her guard down around him.
But of course, he had no idea how important that was. She’d never told him her past. She had been as closed off as he was. So closed off he’d thought that she’d leave and never look back. That was written all over his beautiful face. All because she couldn’t share her own pain. As he couldn’t share his.
“I will try to explain. I never talk about my history,” he began. “You see, I was born a monster.” He clenched his hands into fists. “On the day I was born, I killed my mother. Not a natural death from childbirth; a death from my being born.”
“What’s the difference?” she asked.
He met her gaze, wholly empty. “Giving birth to a warlock kills the mother. They can’t survive the magic or the loss of it.”
“Oh,” she whispered. Then the realization lit in her mind. “That’s why you assumed I was a warlock. Because my mother died as well.”
“Yes. See, my mother was Irish and fled her people to be with my father, who they would never have approved of. She was the light of his life. He would have done anything for her. But when she died, my father blamed me for her death.”
He glanced away at that admission. She wanted to tell him he was worth so much more than what had been done to him. She hoped he already knew.
“On the same day, King Henry VII of England died,” he added. “He blamed me for that, too.”
“That’s absurd.”
He nodded as if he knew it to be so and it didn’t change the years of hurt. “It was. He died of tuberculosis. Something that I found out much later. It was just a lucky coincidence. Something for my father to beat into me for the six years that I lived with him.” His jaw clenched. “Years later, I went back to my little hovel in a town that no longer exists to repay him for those years of kindness, but he was already dead.” Graves’s brows furrowed. “It was for the better. I didn’t need his blood on my hands, but I’d never forgive him. You see, he sold me.”
“Sold you,” she said gently.
“Yes. Like a cow.”
She’d seen and heard of terrible things in her days. Her heart ached for a child purposely sold by a parent. Kierse had just been left to fend for herself. She couldn’t imagine the pain of knowing his father had done it on purpose.
“A merchant came through our village right after my sixth birthday. He gave my father a pittance and took me away. I lived and traveled with the man for several years before I managed to escape.” His eyes went distant. “They weren’t easy times. It took another couple of years to find a way to get on a boat that would take me to Ireland and my mother’s people. Because I thought surely they would accept me, even if I was only half Irish.”
“And did they?” she whispered.
“They did. For a time.” He met her gaze, distant and hurting. “But that’s a different story.” He let her see the man that was underneath all the bravado. As she had done for him. “So you see, it was from my father that I first learned nothing is permanent. The longest I stayed anywhere was in Kingston’s company. But even then, two master warlocks don’t suffer each other long. We moved in and out of each other’s lives. No one who gets close to me lasts. They all end up leaving.” He reached out slowly and took her hand into his. “I assumed that you were the latest in a long line of disappointment.”