Total pages in book: 134
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 127026 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 635(@200wpm)___ 508(@250wpm)___ 423(@300wpm)
What she needed now was a way out. She needed proof that she could get out.
She gasped softly as realization hit her.
There was a way to be certain. A way that she had been pushing off due to the consequences if she got it wrong. Well, she had to do it. And she had to do it tonight.
No matter what Cleora said could go wrong.
She was going to spirit cast into the future to find out the truth.
25
THE CASTING
Kerrigan wasted no time. She collected a cloak and a bag full of candles from an unsuspecting servant. They looked very confused by the request but could deny the new head of household nothing. That was good. She also required silence on the subject. The last thing she needed was for someone to find out where she was headed.
She took the side exit out of the house and moved through the shadows, away from the Row. Even with her cloak slung over her shoulders, she looked conspicuous in the streets. She would have never worn such a nice dress through Central as she headed toward the western border with the Dregs. Let someone attack her out here like this. They’d get the shock of their life.
Despite receiving curious looks, no one came up to her. She marched along at a fast clip. It kept the onlookers at bay. And for that, she was glad.
“Are you going in there?” a voice asked behind her.
She whipped around, only to find Dozan Rook standing at her back with a knife in hand. “How long have you been tailing me?”
He flipped the knife and slid it back into place. “Long enough to make sure no one knifes you in the back.”
Kerrigan scowled. Well, maybe having a crime lord at her back was why everyone had left her alone. “Yes, I’m going inside.”
Black House loomed before them. Several stories high, black as pitch, and ominous, the old building was an abandoned, haunted house. It had once been an orphanage, where the children inside had all perished—or so the story went. On the Night of the Dead, children dared each other to touch the door. They always ran away, screaming. She had done just that with Lyam on a Night of the Dead while Hadrian and Darby looked on in fear.
That was so long ago. Now, she had actually been inside the house twice. Once to search for the weapons that the Red Masks were hiding there. A second time to work on her spirit magic with Zina on the Night of the Dead—when the veil between the spiritual and physical was at its weakest.
She didn’t have that luxury tonight. It wasn’t a holiday or a full moon. She was still an hour from midnight, and she couldn’t wait for it. Spirit magic worked best at the witching hour. She had never had the luxury of choosing when her visions hit her. If she could survive them appearing to her in the middle of the day or when she had been twelve and barely understood her magic out, then she could figure out this casting business.
Dozan stepped forward as she steeled her nerves to go inside. His hand came to her cheek, and he tilted her face into the light. He hissed, “Let me kill him.”
Kerrigan jerked out of his grasp and covered her face. “Is it that bad?”
“He hit you.”
“You’ve seen me get hit before,” she muttered.
“By an opponent you could crush with your will in retaliation. Not by a man you are bound to marry.”
“Yeah, well, that’s what I’m trying to get out of.”
Dozan growled, “No man should be allowed to touch a woman like that and live to tell about it.”
“I agree,” she snapped. She met his amber gaze. “I will ruin him. I will destroy the foundations holding a man like that up. I will do everything and more. But I can’t do it if he’s dead.”
Dozan nodded once approvingly. “Is that what this is?” He gestured to the bag she was toting around.
Dozan Rook was one of the few people who knew about her visions. She’d kicked herself for being so young and vulnerable to tell him about them when he saved her at twelve. Now, she was glad that she didn’t have to explain.
“I’m going to force a vision,” she explained.
He startled. “You can do that?”
“We’re about to find out. I can’t marry him. I want a vision to tell me what’s coming next.”
“And you can be that specific?”
She gritted her teeth. “It’s all about intention. I’m going to make it work.”
“I’m coming with you.”
“I don’t know if it’s safe,” she said with a shake of her head. “You should stay out here.”
“I should,” he said, wrangling the bag from her shoulder, “but I’m coming with you.”
Kerrigan could hardly argue. Dozan always did what he wanted. He was as likely to back down as she was, and it might be better to have someone watching her back.