Total pages in book: 117
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 109477 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 547(@200wpm)___ 438(@250wpm)___ 365(@300wpm)
Her adrenaline kicked up. The first thing that ran through her mind was an attack on the Demigods.
She squished down the fear as she ran for the door. Fear had no place in a situation like this. Cool logic would win the day. The whole family was on hand, and Kieran was excellent at strategy and battle, not to mention Lexi could handle armies. They’d be fine.
“What is it? Do you know?” she asked as Bria ran by the open door.
Mordecai waited for Bria to pass. “Property breach, I think. I overheard someone yelling about it.”
She followed Mordecai down the stairs, taking two at a time. Confusion seeped into the moment. A property breach could be anything, but given that Lexi’s ghost sentinels were on duty, roaming about the yard undetected by normal people, they had clearly reported something extreme for this much activity. Yet…no one had told Mordecai and Daisy to get to safety. That was the first thing Lexi would do. Always. Then they’d argue about Daisy and Mordecai wanting to help…
This couldn’t be an active battle. This had to be something else.
Butterflies swarmed in her belly with implications. Dread was a heavy weight in her gut.
Produce and other breakfast items littered the kitchen counters. Cutting boards and knives lay strewn about, the breakfast prep abandoned. The front door stood open, people having run in from the other house and down the hall to the backyard. Daisy could feel their souls gathering there.
She was right behind Mordecai as they burst out through the back door. The yard stretched before them, with a large patch of cut lawn surrounded by bushes and then trees, obscuring the brick fence at the perimeter. Everyone gathered in one location, looking down at something in their midst or around them in the empty yard. Soft billows of fog rolled and tumbled through the air, leaving dampened kisses across Daisy’s exposed skin. A chill slithered across her, leaving goosebumps in its wake. She wasn’t exactly sure if that was from the fog…or the situation unraveling before her.
Zorn glanced back at her and Mordie, his expression guarded.
Fuck. That wasn’t good.
“What is it?” she asked, out of breath as she joined everyone else.
“Yes, Frank, I can see that,” Lexi said, talking to one of the resident ghosts that had followed them from the old house to this one, and now just kinda loitered around Lexi wherever she went. “Obviously it means something, yes. That token, or whatever you want to call it, has been marking murders across the world for the last six months. But what we need to know is how it relates to us.”
Another shock of adrenaline rolled through Daisy, and she pushed forward, needing to see what everyone was looking at.
“Here comes John,” Kieran said, his voice full of authority and command. John was another of the sentry ghosts, this one much better at his job. Having shared power with Lexi, Kieran could see and talk to the ghosts nearly as well as she could. “He’ll have talked to the others.”
Jerry twisted a bit when he felt Daisy’s hand on his arm before stepping back so she could get a look.
Her world bled of color, so many emotions running through her that she couldn’t process them all. Didn’t know how she felt.
A body lay on the dull green grass with its limbs twisted and broken, jutting out at unnatural angles. The man’s lips had been shaven away in gruesome hacks by what looked like a dull blade. His handsome face was contorted in agony, even in death, and dried blood coated the sides. A green rope was tied around his throat, where it had once constricted him and now was in a bow. The color was reminiscent of the ribbons Chesters proudly wore to signify their lack of magic. A joke, probably.
“Cause of death?” she heard herself say, somewhat in shock. She’d wondered if something like this would happen. Wondered if she’d allowed herself to be trapped—to have made a deal only an absolute fucking moron would agree to.
Amber was studying her from across the group, almost as good at reading her as Zorn but usually much less inclined to get involved. Her past was somewhat of a sticking point with Kieran and the crew. She always made herself available to Daisy, though, and for that Daisy had forgiven any past wrongs. Not to mention she still had somewhat of a girl crush. The woman was fucking sensational at her job. It had to be acknowledged.
“Strangulation is my guess,” she said, her onyx eyes assessing. She knew something was up. “Probably right before he was dumped on the property. It looks like he was still bleeding when he was put here.”
“I’ve got a name.” Henry glanced up from his phone on the other side of the cluster. “Liam Harrison. I’m just pulling more information now to see how he might correlate to the other bodies that have turned up.”