Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 125179 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 626(@200wpm)___ 501(@250wpm)___ 417(@300wpm)
“If we have Abaddon’s help, yes. Without him? Not so much.”
“How difficult will it be to wake him?”
“If he’s the one who keeps leading you to the garden while you’re sleeping, perhaps not so difficult.”
She bit the inside of her cheek. It was still strange to think that the male voice she’d heard in her dreams could have been not only real but his uncle. “When are you going to try?”
“Tomorrow evening.”
“Alone, or with the other Ancients?”
“All seven of us will try as a unit. It may take several attempts to pull him completely out of sleep. It may even be something that takes days or weeks. On the other hand, it might not work at all, but I don’t wish to dwell on that.”
She hummed as he nuzzled her neck again, his nose brushing her skin, his lips grazing her pulse. “Seth’s idea to try punching a hole through the cage on All Hallows’ Eve is a good one. Especially since there’ll be a blood moon then. I’m totally up for meeting Eve and the twins. I think the other Ancients are right, it would help smooth things over.” And she was interested in observing them, in making her own judgments about them. “I agree with Seth, I think Eve will definitely want to help puncture your cage.”
“Maybe. But I’m not so sure that either Noah or Rima will.” Cain captured her gaze. “Never let your guard down around Eve or the twins, no matter how innocent you believe them to be.”
“I wasn’t planning to. So, when am I supposed to meet them?”
“We will all have dinner together at Seth’s Keep tomorrow evening. Why are you pulling that face?”
“I get the feeling it’ll be a fancy affair. I’m not fancy. I don’t know dinner etiquette. I can wave a sword around and impale people and all that jazz. But sit up straight, put a napkin on my lap, and make sure not to pick up the wrong fork? I just get uncomfortable.”
His consort was so competent and self-assured that there were times Cain forgot that, like everyone else, she occasionally felt out of her element. “Seth is old-fashioned in many ways, so he’ll likely aim for ‘tasteful.’ But that doesn’t mean you won’t fit in that environment. And fuck etiquette. No one will care what you do with your napkin, what fork you use, or if you slouch in your seat.”
“I know, but I’ll still feel out of place among all that elegance and shit.”
“You have your own grace—it’s predatory in nature, and it makes my dick hard.”
She snorted, humor lighting her eyes.
Cain caught her face in his hands. “You won’t be out of place. Your place is with me. And trust me, there is nowhere you could go where you wouldn’t fit; where you’d appear to ‘lack’ compared to others—you’re perfect as you are.”
He stroked her prominent cheekbones with his thumbs. He loved to look at her. Loved knowing that this stunning face would never physically alter; that she was frozen on a cellular level and he wouldn’t lose her to the aging process. Watching her age and wither away . . . no, he couldn’t have handled that.
Immortality had changed her. She was stronger, faster, more durable, boasted better reflexes, and healed faster—it was all part of the package. But she’d changed in other ways too. Power sometimes thickened her voice, which never failed to make his inner creature stir in delight. The hum of dark, chaotic magick surrounding her now held a static quality, as if amped up and eager to be released. And her predatory air was so much more apparent, more threatening.
He doubted she could ever again pose as harmless and submissive the way she had when they first met. He hadn’t bought her act. His gut had warned him that there was much more to this witch, and it had been correct. Wynter had been hiding plenty from him but, bit by bit, she’d revealed many of her secrets.
There were few secrets left between them now. She’d had to withhold some things at Kali’s insistence. He didn’t blame Wynter for that, but he didn’t like it much. More, he didn’t like that he had no idea what the deity wanted with or from her.
In creating a revenant that could age, live as a normal person, and return from the dead over and over, Kali had gone far off-script. She’d essentially shaped Wynter into a weapon, an instrument of vengeance, and his gut twisted each time he found himself wondering just what Kali would one day ask of his witch.
Cain slid his hands from Wynter’s face into her hair. Black as a crow’s wing, it was soft and long and shiny. A pleasure to fist while he moved in and out of her. “When are you going to move your things here?”