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)
“Yeah, how have we not talked about that? What do you think she’s like?”
He shook his head as they jotted down everything that shook in the room and moved on. “I’m afraid to find out. Scary, probably. I mean…he had to come from somewhere, right?”
“I will die if she’s this sweet older lady with a bun and a little hunch and she smells like cookies.”
“That could almost be Patty, and I think we can both agree she is only sweet until some fearsome creature tries to get the drop on her.”
They both laughed.
In the next room, Nessa sighed. “Why does this place need so many sitting rooms?”
“Because they didn’t have home theaters back in the day.”
“Oh! A home theater. That’s a good idea. One of these rooms should be turned into that.”
“Yeah, maybe upstairs. Anyway, circling back, these gargoyles need a catalyst. They need to feel what a real battle is like. Nathanial was talking about raids the other day, and they seemed like sanctioned affairs. Pretty safe in the scheme of things. But that’s not the kind of creatures gargoyles are. I’ve read up on them—”
“Just look around. The gargoyles in our house are pumped after battles.”
“Right. Except when they’re hurt. Anyway, they all want to be guardians, which is apparently the most fearsome of their kind. Those types of creatures don’t want to play at fighting—they want to actually fight. To protect. To win.”
“Yes, yes, I get it. So you’re proposing we stage a battle?”
They wandered through the kitchen. Not a single thing moved. It clearly needed a remodel. Mr. Tom would not be pleased.
Sebastian held up a finger. “It won’t be as easy as just staging a battle. Not this time. The battle is just one of the overall components.” They stepped into the next room. Nothing moved and the furniture looked a little rickety. “We need to get tensions running high. We need those cairn leaders at a boiling point so that their people are on the edge. They need to be holding in aggression so that when they meet that catalyst, it feels so damn good to let it out and claim victory. That way, they’ll look to Jessie in the most favorable light. She’ll have led them in their triumph, and they’ll love her for it. They’ll want her to keep leading them, despite all their hang-ups.”
Nessa wasn’t even going to ask if he actually thought that would work. If there was one thing Sebastian excelled at, it was the art of subtle manipulation by working the environment around his target. He constructed their whole world and then watched them dance. It was truly a marvel.
He stalled in the next room, looking all around. “I have no idea what this room is. Oh, that looks like a thing for hand-washing clothes. Wow. This is old. This room could be made into something else. Anything else, actually.”
“Moving on.”
“Yup.”
They wound a little deeper into the area that had clearly been designed for household staff and large-scale washing and ironing. The first floor done, they used the back stairs to reach the second floor.
All the doors were closed, probably from when Ivy House had slammed them to mess with Nessa, and they continued on until one slowly swung open.
Sebastian made a sound like ewah and clasped his phone a little tighter. “This is Jessie’s room. I don’t know that she would want her private stuff looked through—”
The door wiggled and opened a little wider.
Sebastian sighed, his shoulders slumping, and walked forward. “Fine,” he said softly.
“Maybe don’t look in the drawers in here,” Nessa advised, following him. “We don’t need to know what kinks Jessie and Austin are into.”
“Are you saying that for my benefit or yours?”
“It’s hard to say,” she replied. “How are you going to get the cairns wound up? With their gifts?”
“Naturally. It’s the easiest way. One we’ve had a lot of experience with, and a proven track record. The battle should be hard enough that they fear for their lives, but not so hard that we lose anyone. Jessie has to truly believe they are all in mortal danger. She’ll want to protect them, and to do that, she’ll unite them like she did in the basajaunak lands.”
“She knew all the players in the basajaunak lands. She won’t know the people here. How can we be sure she’ll unite them?”
“We can’t, and that’s just one of the dicey parts.”
“What’s the next dicey part?”
“Ah, how cute—the dolls are all standing in a line, watching Edgar fuss with his flowers.”
Nessa stopped and bent over the little table by the windows, looking into the wood. “Do you see any of those horrible gnomes?”
“I’d rather not.” Sebastian straightened and looked around before a painting near the closet started to wiggle. He frowned when the painting wiggled again, and then shook his head and addressed the house. “I’m not getting it. I already took a photo. Why are you still wiggling the picture?”