Total pages in book: 138
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 131708 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 659(@200wpm)___ 527(@250wpm)___ 439(@300wpm)
Right then, Archer pulled a mushroom out of his little paper bag and offered it to her.
She felt her nose wrinkle. “Uh, I’m good, thanks.”
Stood at his back, Saxon cuffed Archer over the head, knocking his short dark ponytail aside. “Stop handing them out to people like they’re chips.”
Archer didn’t even flinch at the hit, despite that his well-built clan member had put some strength behind it. “Why? Sharing is caring.”
“You don’t warn anyone that they’re psychedelics, that’s why,” Saxon complained before taking a bite of his hotdog. “I had to watch Khloë chase an imaginary pixie around our goddamn camp the other night.”
Indignancy flared in Archer’s blue eyes. “First of all, Teague warned her that these are magic mushrooms—she ate two anyway. Second of all, your negative opinion of them is unwarranted. They’re of the Earth.”
“So is poison hemlock. Would you eat that?”
“If I was hungry enough.”
Tucker blew out a breath and lifted a dark-skinned hand. “I think I speak for all of us when I say—”
“Don’t,” said Saxon, tossing him a quelling look. “Don’t speak for us. We’re good.”
Tucker raised his shoulders. “So no one else is thinking that Archer will be the first of us to die?”
Leo twisted his mouth. “I wasn’t thinking it. But I am now.”
“Nah, Gideon will drink himself to death way before I pop my clogs.” Ignoring Gideon’s eye roll, Archer looked at Ella. “I tried to get him off the drink. But some people … they just don’t care what they put in their bodies, you know?”
Watching him plop another mushroom in his mouth, Ella nodded sagely. “I know.”
Tucker leaned toward her, blanketing her with the scent of marijuana. “The word you’re looking for is ‘oblivious’.”
“Watch where you’re leaning,” Saxon groused, glaring at him. “You almost made me drop my hotdog.”
Tucker gave him a superior look. “It’d be better if you had, Baldy, since you still haven’t washed your bloodstained hands.” He shuddered.
Saxon sighed. “Back to that again, are we, little man?”
Tucker bristled. “I’m not short.”
“Okay,” Saxon agreed.
Slade looked at Viper. “I’m still not happy I got kicked out of your club.”
Viper spared him a sideways glance. “You weren’t kicked out. You weren’t even inside the club. You were stood outside doing your best to get a rise out of Sting.”
Slade flapped a hand. “Semantics.”
Ella cocked her head. “So, like Teague, you don’t know what that word means?”
“No, they don’t,” Tucker confirmed for him.
“Why were you bothering Sting?” Jester asked Slade.
“I heard he’s a good fighter, so I challenged him weeks ago to a brawl in the Underground fight pit,” replied Slade. “I bet him two hundred dollars I’d kick his ass. He waved away the challenge; said it’d be like taking candy from a baby. Who gives candy to babies?”
“Archer probably would,” Saxon muttered. “And mushrooms.”
A fond, nostalgic smile curved Gideon’s mouth. “You know, my mom used to put brandy in my bottle to make me sleep.”
Leo stared at Gideon for several seconds. “That explains so much.”
Yeah, it kind of did. She spared Leo a quick look when he adjusted his golfing glove. “So, you heading off to play golf after this?”
Leo seemed both surprised and confused by the question. “No. Why’d you ask?”
“Well, because you’re dressed for it.”
He swept the ungloved hand down his body. “This is my normal, everyday attire.”
“Why?”
Tucker snickered. “Because he’s a goddamn weirdo.”
Leo threw him a snarky look over his shoulder. “Fuck off, Frodo.”
His mouth tightening, Tucker leaned toward him. “I’m not short.”
No, he was just smaller than the others. But he was as wacked as they were—that was for sure. He just seemed to consider himself the only normal member of the clan.
After watching several races—and winning a nice clump of cash—Ella and Viper began making their way out of the Underground, hand in hand. It garnered them plenty of looks, all of which she ignored. His brothers remained close, on high alert.
“Thank you for tonight,” she told him. “I didn’t realize how much I needed some time to just chill.”
Viper sighed. “And I still don’t get how all that made you feel chill.”
“Oh, my sweet summer child.”
He gave his head a quick shake. “Forget it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY
Cursing aloud as the blanket in her hand burst into flames, Ella dropped it on the nursery floor in surprise. “I am sick and tired of this shit.”
Beside her, Mia quickly dowsed the fire with a flick of her hand, her expression sympathetic. “Dr. Greene warned you that your abilities might—”
“I know, I know. But she said the power-hiccups happen in the third stage of pregnancy. I’m not even fully out of stage one yet.”
“Only by typical demonic pregnancy standards. I think the gestation period for you is going to be more that of a celestial.”
As did Viper. It was kind of unnerving. As was the fact that, according to him, the baby was psychically developing at a faster rate than expected. That would mean Peanut was physically developing at much the same speed. Hence her bump.