Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 144404 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 722(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 481(@300wpm)
We could still be a family.
Yeah, that blood was heady shit.
I stared at Fenrir, wondering if I was about to get the whole “don’t you dare touch a hair on my beloved’s head or I’ll murder you” lecture. I get that more often than you would think.
Instead, Fen walked right in and tossed his lanky body on my couch. Not my couch. Someone’s grandma’s couch. There were doilies on the table and everything. I noticed Fen had a bag of chips in his hand, and he pulled a bottle of soda out of the pocket of his cargo pants.
That big dopey werewolf king propped his feet up, avoiding the aforementioned doilies, and gave me a grin. He was so fucking young and yet heartbreakingly handsome. “Hey. I was hoping we could talk.”
He was definitely going about the threatening talk in a different way. He had some serious sunshine vibes going on while Evan was totally playing the grump. As reverse tropes went, I approved. Still, I could get this out of the way.
“I’m perfectly harmless.” I gestured around. “The wards bind my magic. No one left any hand weapons around, and without my magic I’m pretty helpless.”
I wasn’t, but I didn’t want him to think that.
Goddess, it felt good to not hurt. It’s probably why I didn’t tell Fenrir to fuck off. I’m sure that was it.
“I doubt that,” Fen allowed, opening up the chips. “But I didn’t want to talk to you about how you’re planning on getting revenge on all of us. I’m sure you’ve got an excellent plan, but that’s your private business. I wanted to talk about my mom. What was she like? Like was she cool or was she a total nerd? My dads only know her from her badass period, and I haven’t been able to spend a bunch of time with my grandma and uncles.”
Because we’d made a deal to stay away from Kelsey’s relatives as long as they lived human lives. Mostly human lives. I’d pushed Myrddin to make that deal and hadn’t thought at all about the boy. He’d been with Trent and the royals. He hadn’t known his adoptive mother’s family, so it didn’t seem like something wrong. I couldn’t stand the thought of killing Jamie and Nate and the woman who always made my favorite buttery carrots with dill whenever I came to dinner.
“You want me to talk about your mom? You do remember the times I tried to bring you in, right?”
“The times you tried to kill me?”
“I never tried to kill you, Fenrir. If I’d tried to kill you, you would be dead.” I’d even stopped my Profane sisters from killing him on occasion.
He shrugged that off as he reached into his other pocket and pulled out a bottle of beer. “We’re going to have to agree to disagree about that. As to sitting and having a chat with a person who’s tried to either kill me or take me to their evil leaders, well, if I didn’t do that, who would I talk to? It would be Lee and Rhys and my girl. Look. I brought you beer. It’s stolen straight from Dev’s fridge. So, my mom. She was cool, right?”
This was surreal. I wasn’t sure what to do. How long had it been since I sat down and had a beer with someone? I know you would think the Coven House would be an all-day party, but Myrddin was serious about the whole take over the supernatural world thing. The truth of the matter was when you’re a superpowered witch enforcer, there was not a lot of time for friends. I didn’t even like my Profane sisters. They were kind of bitchy.
I grabbed the beer. I was usually a wine chick or a fruity cocktail, but it had been years because Myrddin didn’t want his Profane to come under the influence of alcohol.
Just highly addictive demon blood.
Shut up, Inner Kelsey.
I was feeling chill, and a beer kind of sounded nice. As long as I was in prison, I should enjoy the amenities. “Your mom was so not cool. She was a hot mess in high school. I was absolutely the cool one.”
I started to talk and felt…comfortable.
It was the weird demon blood. I was sure of it.
* * * *
Kelsey
Hellhounds are super cute when they’re puppies, but don’t think that those suckers can’t trip you up.
Puff was following at my feet as I climbed the stairs up to Liv’s room. I liked to call it a room and not what it was. A magical prison.
Ever since Sasha had mentioned Liv’s problem, my gut had been in knots, and I was pretty sure it wasn’t because of the chicken wings. I’d started this pregnancy out with all the joys of nausea, but the past few days had seen a massive change. I’d gotten back to Frelsi and my appetite had come with me, and poor Eddie was trying so hard to keep up.