Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 128061 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 640(@200wpm)___ 512(@250wpm)___ 427(@300wpm)
The good news is, gargoyle cairns are interested in meeting her. She’s the only living female gargoyle and a connection with her has the opportunity to improve their status. They’d just have to change their way of life to accommodate her, not an easy ask for a gruff, stubborn sort of creature.
She has her back against the wall. She must try and wrangle her crew into some semblance of “normal” to entice even just one major cairn to her side. Something not totally impossible…except for the interference of a cairn’s Lead Enforcer.
He isn’t just a gargoyle. Couldn’t be, not with his unnatural size, strength and glowing eyes. His origins are a mystery and his entire person is cloaked in danger. He might just hold their fate in his hands.
Making an alliance was always going to be difficult, but now it might be nearly impossible, and not just because the crew has no idea what “normal” might look like.
The clock is ticking.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
ONE
Jessie
“Rise and shine, miss.” Mr. Tom set my coffee on the nightstand. “It’s time to get schooled by a very pushy garhette.”
Garhette was the term they used for female gargoyles who didn’t shift. He could only mean Patty, Ulric’s mom. She’d promised to help me go through the connection requests that the gargoyle cairn leaders had sent. I was the new kid on the block and the only living female gargoyle that could shift and do magic. They were curious.
Hopefully that curiosity would turn into a desire to form an alliance. To help Kingsley, we needed numbers. The basajaunak had turned us down, and so now the gargoyles were our only hope.
Mr. Tom laid a white T-shirt across the bed over my midsection.
I wiped the sleep out of my eyes and checked the clock on the nightstand. Ten a.m. About normal for my wake-up time.
“Is she ready to get to the connection requests?” I asked, sitting up.
“Yes. She’s moved them all to the largest sitting room in the back of the house and organized them yet again. She has also tramped through the town and heard any and all gossip she possibly could. Very nosey, that woman. She’s in everyone’s business all the time.”
“That’s what makes her great at networking. It’s why she’s here.”
He sniffed, not able to argue with that.
Patty had been on a one-woman mission to learn every inch of the territory. In just a few days of being here she seemed to be intimate friends with a great many residents, both magical and not, and knew by name absolutely everyone who frequented Austin’s bar. Even crazier, I’d heard that she’d somehow organized a dinner at Broken Sue’s house that she would be hosting. The woman was a manipulative powerhouse, but you wouldn’t know it with all her pleasant smiles and seemingly innocuous chitchat.
“Here we go.” He patted the white T-shirt, which could only be Austin’s. “This one isn’t fresh, but it should still suffice. Austin Steele needs to come back and spend some time here so I can grab more of his discarded laundry.”
I should really tell Mr. Tom to stop stealing Austin’s clothes, but I loved being wrapped up in his smell. People said the yearning for each other usually waned after the first week of mating, but that hadn’t happened in our case. If anything, it kept getting stronger. Hence the stolen, dirty clothes of my mate that I wore in the mornings, especially after a night when he hadn’t made it over. Unfortunately, last night was one of them.
“He’s been busy,” I said as I reached for the shirt. “I wish there was something more I could do to help.”
“We can help right now, miss. Here we go.” Mr. Tom picked up my coffee mug and held it out to me. “Let’s get some coffee in us, and then we will be ready for the day.”
A knock sounded at the door as I checked in with Austin through our links. He seemed distracted, frustrated, annoyed, and determined. Also fatigued. Very fatigued.
I quickly got to work healing him as Mr. Tom crossed to the door. Before he got there, it swung open and Ulric poked his head in. His blue and pink hair caught the light, newly dyed and very bright.
“Oh good, you’re up.” He pushed the door open a little farther as Mr. Tom stopped in front of him, blocking his way.
“She is not up, as you can plainly see. She is awake,” Mr. Tom said in a snooty tone. “She understands that your mother is ready to get started, thank you very much. She will take her breakfast as usual and be down when she is able. The mistress of Ivy House is not to be rushed. It’s time you learned this.”
I frowned at Mr. Tom. He was literally just rushing me.
“It’s fine.” I slipped the shirt on before pushing the covers away and swinging my feet over the edge of the mattress. I held my hand out for the coffee mug Mr. Tom still held. “I’m good. I was just up late last night looking over the spell books Sebastian wants me to learn.”
“A good use of your time.” Mr. Tom turned with a stiff back and delivered my coffee. Instead of leaving to grab my breakfast, though, he stood off to the side and glared at Ulric.
Ulric barely suppressed a grin as he stepped a little farther into the room. The grin pulled into a smile as he gave me a sweeping bow. “Good morning, miss. I trust you slept well?”
“What do you need, Ulric?” I stood and took a sip of the coffee as I made my way across the room. I looked out the windows at the beautiful day. Green grass stretched across the backyard and a doll with a billy club trudged its length. “Why…”