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Chapter 33 - Tagan
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Circle of the Stars Chapter 34 - Toven
"Just fix it, Jameson," I said. The idiot needed to be moved to a different section if he couldn't figure out the simplest of routine fixes. I walked back to my office and pulled up the encrypted file I had started at home. We needed more information. At least we finally knew who the master was. I could start doing a deep dive on him. But it was going to be very tricky. The man was richer than Midas and he had his own computer team protecting his data from here to eternity. It wouldn't matter. Not in the grand scheme of things. He'd hurt my Hollyn, and that shit wasn't going to stand. I set up another autotask to mine for data between the Walsh, Kavanaugh, and Cananach names. Then another with all of those and the Christiansens. The fact that Ainsley was involved in this mess should have come as a shock. But when I thought about it, I could see the calculation and predatory look in her gaze too often. I wouldn't be surprised if she knew we had magical blood in our family ei
Circle of the Stars Chapter 35 - Thane
I felt it in my belly before the call ever came through. I knew something had happened to her. To Hollyn. Like a light had been snuffed out inside me, I felt the moment she lost consciousness. My world plunged into the darkness with her. "Seems your brother is getting lax in his duties as bodyguard, lover," Ainsley said in my ear. The complete deadness on her end of the line signaled an encrypted channel. "What do you want, Ainsley?" I asked, but I already knew. And I knew I would do anything to get Stretch back. "Exactly what we talked about. Show up at the gala, be charming and sexy. Tell daddy that you were wrong. That you undercut Jonathan on purpose, knowing it was him."I gritted my teeth. "Why does this matter so much to you? It's a buried comm line out in the middle of nowhere.""Why doesn't matter. Not to you and your performance. Just do what I want, and you'll get your dirty whore back. Fight me on this, make a stink, or try to go around me, and I'll make sure y
Circle of the Stars Chapter 36 - Hollyn
I blinked rapidly, tried to clear the clouds and mist from my vision. It still looked like I was standing in the middle of a cloud bank. I reached up to rub my eyes. Only I couldn't. Restrained once again. Damn it. I reached out with my senses. It didn't work in this world as well as it had worked when I was in the Village. Nature whispered to me there. But all the cement and metal in Triport blocked that communication. Nothing whispered back to me. Time for the old-fashioned route."Hello?" I called softly. "It's awake," a hard, feminine voice called. She grabbed at something on my head and yanked. I rolled my lips in to keep from shouting when she pulled some of my hair out with whatever the cloth had been. I blinked again, glad my eyes hadn't been lying to me. They were still working. I looked up at the woman. She had a very thin body. So thin, I could see most of her bony parts. Her hip bones looked like mountain cliffs in her tight muted green dress. Her dark red
Circle of the Stars Chapter 37 - Toven
Wednesday afternoon"The signal is still in one place. I've got it narrowed down to two buildings. They're packed so closely together, that the signal is bouncing," I told Tag over the phone. "Give me both addresses. My team is ready to set up surveillance. We just need a spot."I sent him the geotag for the tracker. I didn't know what kind of battery it had, but it was a miracle it had lasted this long. I prayed to anyone and anything that would listen that we got to her in time. Thanked the universe for letting the tracker work. For giving Tag the foresight to put it in her clothes.We'd sat around the last two nights trying to come up with a plan to get her out before the gala. Everything we came up with bordered on insane and carried a super high risk of getting Hollyn hurt or killed. They were thrown out immediately. "Once we get a solid location on her, I'll hit you back," Tag said and hung up before I could say anything. I sent up another string of prayers and pleas
Circle of the Stars Chapter 38 - Tagan
I double clicked my mic in the affirmative. My tech guy, aptly named Radar, had piggybacked the signal Tove had on the tracker for Sweetcheeks. I was in the building across the street. I gritted my teeth as I looked through the thermal imaging glasses. At least she was all alone in that ancient hotel room. On the top floor, her guards were two doors down in both directions. The windows had all been boarded over so I couldn't see her with my eyes. But I knew that body, even if it was outlined in rainbow colors. "Setting up eagle position," Banksy said through the comm link. I double clicked again. I wasn't moving from this spot until I could put my hands on Sweetcheeks. After this, I was going to lock her up in the penthouse. Bar the doors. Demand blood sacrifice before anyone else was allowed in to see her. I took a picture of the thermal imaging with a date/time/location stamp on it. Once we got her back, I was going to toss all of the Christiansens under the fucking bus.
Circle of the Stars Chapter 39 - Hollyn
Friday night - Autumn GalaI skimmed my hands down the sides of the dress. I wondered if Ainsley thought giving me a dress with as little material as possible was in some way an insult. Joke was on her. I hated clothing. The dress was really beautiful though. A long line of fabric that hugged every inch of my skin. It was a very pale green, like shoots of new plants in the spring. It also had huge sections missing over the sides and it was slit up so high I couldn't wear any panties. Again. Joke was on her. Panties were the devil in my opinion. Or the master. I snickered. The way Tagan reacted to the strappy outfit Camara had found flitted through my mind. A slow smile pulled at my mouth. Maybe panties wouldn't be so bad if it got that kind of reaction all the time. "Wipe that smile off your face, you trashy girl," Ainsley hissed at me. I rolled my eyes at her, pulled the smile wider. "You might have tricked me into following you at the store. You might even have been in
Circle of the Stars Chapter 40 - Thane
I wiggled free of Ainsley's touch. My stomach threatened to rebel at having her hands on me. Even through the barrier of clothes, it felt wrong to have someone other than Stretch touching me. "Get the fuck on with it, Ainsley. I'm sick and tired of your shit," I said it under my breath as we passed the mayor and his wife. The man was one of the best we'd had in our city for a long time. After the wars that sprang up following COVID-19, he'd been a voice of reason. The man was a huge advocate of self-policing and natural consequences. "Then you should have just done what I told you to do the first time around, lover," Ainsley said. I clenched my fists to keep from slugging her in the face. I wasn't a violent man, and definitely not against women. But this particular one made me want to do her physical damage. Especially after she kidnapped Stretch to force my compliance. "What do you even want with the land, Ainsley? There's nothing out there. We've checked. Multiple times."
Circle of the Stars Chapter 41 - Hollyn
I turned around and stepped forward. If anyone would be getting punished, it was going to be me. Not these brilliant, brave men who'd done nothing but accept me for who I am. I dipped my head. "Master."He stepped closer and I forced myself not to move or shiver. He punished weakness to a brutal degree. "We've missed you in the village, Hollyn. It's time for you to come home."Grumpy, sweet, brave, stupid Grumpy, stepped forward, wrapped his arm around my waist. "That won't be happening. We're keeping her."My eyes fluttered closed. Hollyn. I squeezed them shut now. No. No. No. Get out of my head. I screamed it. Howled it. I grabbed both Tove's and Grumpy's hands. I needed their help. This close to the master, I needed their help to resist his call. Their fingers entwined with mine. Take what you need, sweetcheeks, Grumpy said. I believe in you.So do I, Tove added. You'll kill them. They have no magic of their own. You'll rip their spirits from their chest
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