Chapter Twenty-Six #2
She closed her eyes. “It feels wrong.”
“Your magic is still there. It’s only buried.” His voice steadied her. “Just focus on me. Breathe in and out. Nice and slow.”
She did as he said, letting his words sink into her as she tried to relax. This wasn’t forever. It was just a few hours. She had to play nice with the rest of the partygoers so that she could steal from Amberdash and get out of here. Finally, she relaxed her grip on their bond and exhaled.
“I’m fine.”
“One more breath.”
She did another slow exhale, her heart rate coming down with the terror. “I’m good now,” she said, stepping away from him.
“Good.” His voice was low, only for her as he dropped his hands to his sides. His expression flattened. “Let’s get something to drink.”
A flowing tower of champagne was off to the left, and Lorcan snagged two glasses, handing them to her. Already the place was filling up with monsters.
“Do you recognize anyone?” Kierse asked him as they slowly circled the room.
“Yes,” he said and then tapped his temple. “Can we speak privately?”
“No,” she hissed.
He leaned in. “You wish to discuss our enemies out loud?”
She ground her teeth together and then released her anger. Lorcan was here. They had an advantage. She might as well use it. “Fine. But just for this.”
Lorcan grinned. “Fair enough. The incubus and succubus pair are Zayn and Lilian.” They rounded the corner toward the balcony, getting the lay of the land. “They’ve cursed hundreds of people together. They took out a large portion of the youth in Jersey before the treaty.”
Kierse grimaced. The pair’s curse made it so that anyone who had sex with an incubus or succubus could then only have children with the monster.
And so they would feed on their sexual energy until they died.
Every monster had their own monstrous quality, but since Kierse had just seen Maura endure that before the cauldron broke the curse, she wasn’t too happy to see them.
“The troll is Ithra,” Kierse said. “I’ve had a run-in with her in the subway before. It didn’t go well for either of us.”
“The man across the way is Fury. He’s a leopard shifter. I’ve rarely seen him in anything but his animal form.”
“Do you see the mer at the balcony? That’s Mira. She has a true siren song. She was the reason Central Park was off-limits during the war.”
“Yeah, we’ve met, unfortunately. I know the goblin she’s talking to as well.”
Kierse startled when she realized that she knew them, too. “Rio.”
“You’ve encountered them?”
“In the market.”
Lorcan grimaced. “I wouldn’t think that they’d be on Amberdash’s side.”
“No one would think we were, either, and yet we’re here.”
“Fair.”
“Well, this is a pleasant surprise,” a voice said behind them.
Kierse found Dr. Mafi standing before her. She gasped and threw her arms around the witch who was the head of the Covenant hospital. “Mafi, I’m surprised you’re here.”
Her gaze shifted to Lorcan. “You and me both and with such interesting company.”
“Hello, Emmaline,” Lorcan said with a grin.
Mafi shot him a disapproving glare before dragging Kierse closer and dropping her voice. “Does Graves know you’re here? And with Lorcan Flynn?”
“He does and yes.”
Mafi glanced up at Lorcan. “I thought you were trying to break the bond with him, not work with him.”
“You were the one who said that you didn’t know if there was a force on earth that could break the bond,” Kierse reminded her.
They’d gone to Mafi immediately after the cauldron had refused to break the bond.
She’d said that she’d look more into it, but if the cauldron couldn’t do it, how could a doctor?
“Yes, but…”
“Did you find anything else out?”
“I’m still working on it,” she said with a sigh. “Though there might be more progress. The grand mistress of the coven has finally returned to us after many silent years. She is an incredible herbalist and remarkably talented on disentangling spells.”
Kierse’s eyes widened as Lorcan’s narrowed. “Is she here? I’d love to meet her?”
“No. But she’ll be at the convocation. I can give you an introduction.”
“You don’t think we could meet before that?”
Lorcan rolled his eyes. “She sounds very busy. And as the good doctor said, not a force on earth can break the bond.”
Kierse shot him a look.
Mafi ignored him. “If I can set up a meeting, I will, but she’s incredibly busy. I’m honestly a little starstruck myself. I haven’t seen Rosetta Davis since I was a girl.”
Kierse froze. “I’m sorry…Rosetta Davis? She’s the grand mistress of your coven?”
Mafi nodded. “You know of her?”
“She read tarot for me and Graves,” Kierse said, admitting only half the truth about the witch they had met in Vegas who was in Kingston’s pocket.
Mafi waved that aside. “She can’t read tarot any more than I can.
Like I said, she’s an herbalist. Her potions are miraculous.
What I would give…” She trailed off. “That’s not important.
I’ll speak to her for you. Perhaps it’ll be easier to get the meeting since she knows you.
” Then Mafi reconsidered. “Or worse…since she met Graves?”
Lorcan guffawed at her side.
Kierse nodded, knowing Mafi would do her best. She would have to tell Graves about Rosetta being in town again and what the implications of that could be. “Why are you here anyway?”
“Same as you, I’d guess. I want to know what the monsters are planning.”
“Well, stay safe.”
“Didn’t you hear? We’ll get thrown out for fighting.” Mafi waved her hand dramatically. “I’ll believe it when I see it,” she said before wandering off.
“I’m surprised she will still work with Graves,” Lorcan said. “He fucked her up real bad.”
“Well, he is not her favorite person, but she likes me.”
He leaned forward, his mouth right by her falsely rounded ear. “One day you’re going to see that the string of people who hate Graves is not a coincidence but a pattern. He draws you in until he can’t use you anymore and then discards you.”
“Thanks for your concern,” she said drily.
She turned away from him just as another familiar face stepped into the party.
“The exiled prince of the vampire elite has returned to the city,” Lorcan mumbled.
“You know Quint?”
He furrowed his brow. “I’m familiar with Alexander Batiste and his father Roland. How do you know him?”
“Family friend,” she quipped.
But there were definitely more people she didn’t know than that she did.
Enough familiar faces to know that Amberdash had pulled out all the stops.
On any normal day, these monsters would have been at each other’s throats.
Kierse could barely keep from barging across the room when she saw Nova stride into the room like the alpha werewolf she was.
Lorcan’s hand gripped her bicep. “Don’t.”
“She killed Nate.”
“You knew she’d be here.”
“I know,” she said with barely contained fury. She hadn’t realized how much buried anger she could dredge up at the sight of her.
“We have bigger problems.”
“Bigger than Nova?” she snapped, following his gaze.
Kierse stilled as that fury that had been raging through her brightened into a bonfire.
The first person walking out of the elevator bank was a Black woman with big black glasses and a long black dress.
Kierse hadn’t been able to guess her age the last time they’d met inside Sansara, the tree cult that lay within the Goblin Market, but she would guess a few years younger than Kierse now that she saw her out of the cult uniform.
Her name was Maya, and she worked for Jason…who walked in behind her.