Total pages in book: 142
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 134501 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 673(@200wpm)___ 538(@250wpm)___ 448(@300wpm)
Tickled by that, Emberlyn nudged him. ‘Now you can talk to the dead again.’
‘Well, ain’t that great,’ he deadpanned.
Paisley, my Aztec coin collection now belongs to you. Don’t spend it all at once.
The brunette’s lips curved in genuine delight. ‘Awesome.’
Emberlyn, my collection of voodoo dolls is now yours. You may also have your mother’s pearl earrings if you take care of Lucie. Don’t disappoint her as you have done me.
Emberlyn rolled her eyes at the latter sentence. As for the dolls and earrings? It was more than she’d hoped for. She’d wanted the earrings since she was a child, but Millicent had rarely gifted people anything . . . as if to do any good deeds would diminish her power.
‘This can’t be right,’ Gill adamantly stated. ‘It can’t. Or it’s an old will, I don’t know, but this is all wrong. She swore the house would be mine!’
‘She also swore it would be mine,’ Dez curtly remarked. ‘Said that though she couldn’t regret treading down her chosen path, she did wish I hadn’t suffered for it. Said—’
‘That she wanted to soothe the wound by leaving you the manor as an apology?’ asked Gill.
His gaze sharpened. ‘Soothe the wound, yes. She said the same to you?’
Sighing, Gill nodded. ‘More fool us for thinking she meant any of it.’
Mari sat back, putting a hand to her forehead. ‘Oh my God, she really did hate us all, didn’t she? I used to think that it was an act; an effort to hide that she had a soft underbelly.’
Hank put a hand over hers. ‘No, sweetheart, she hated everyone. What else does the will state, Reena?’
Rubbing at her wrist, the High Priestess went on,
Jax Stone, to you I bequeath both the land that once belonged to your clan—
She cut herself off, her face darkening. ‘No, that isn’t possible. Millicent can’t do that.’
Ripper fluidly straightened in his seat, his entire being practically perking up in interest.
The jaws of Emberlyn’s paternal family all but hit the floor, as did that of Ward.
Emberlyn grinned. Millicent had clearly been aware of Reena’s plans – perhaps through gossip, perhaps because she’d always ‘known’ certain things – and she’d taken moves to ensure that the land she’d loved couldn’t be turned into an upper-class neighborhood for the coven.
‘No,’ Reena repeated, staring down at the will, ‘no, the land wasn’t hers to give away! It is part of Bellcrest!’
‘It lies beyond the border, actually,’ Ripper corrected, his voice deep, thick and rumbly – pure vocal testosterone. ‘It belonged to the Vautier line, not to the coven.’
The corners of Reena’s eyes tightened. ‘It comes with the manor.’
‘No,’ Ripper objected. ‘It was originally my clan’s land. It was purchased by a Vautier witch who hadn’t wanted the house to be so close to werewolf territory; she’d wanted more space. Our clan has been trying to get it back for years, but no one would ever give it up. Until now.’
Reena shook her head hard, the will crumpling in her hand.
‘What else did she leave me?’ he asked.
Reena blinked. ‘What?’
‘You didn’t finish your sentence. It read, “I bequeath both”, as if there’s more.’
A little flustered, she flicked her gaze back to the papers in her hand.
Jax Stone, to you I bequeath both the land that once belonged to your clan and . . .
She trailed off, her brow creasing.
And my granddaughter, Emberlyn.
Oh, that hag.
Ripper looked at Emberlyn, his brows inching up.
She flapped a dismissive hand. ‘Just ignore that last part.’
‘This whole thing is ridiculous,’ Dez proclaimed. ‘You don’t bequeath people in wills, and you can’t dole out land like it’s candy. Reena, what about the manor, the money, everything else? Whoever owns the building can probably contest this.’
Reena looked back down at the will so fast it must have hurt her neck. She pointed to the bottom of the sheet. ‘Well, she added here: ‘“The rest of all I own, my small fortune included, will belong to the new owner of Black Willow Manor. By new owner, I mean whoever manages to get inside it.” ’
Gill’s lips parted in enraged shock. ‘She didn’t. She did not pull that archaic bullshit tradition out of her ass!’
Emberlyn exchanged amused looks with the twins. It had once been tradition for the manor to go to whichever of the Vautier beneficiaries it ‘chose’. Every piece of material used to construct it had been imbued with sentient magick, so the house had an ‘awareness’.
It would be interesting to see which of them it chose.
‘What about my coin collection?’ asked Paisley. ‘How do I get it?’
Again, Reena consulted the will. ‘According to this, she placed it in a storage facility for you, along with the other items stated in the will.’ Her gaze cut to Emberlyn. ‘Except for the earrings. She left those in the manor. So if you want them . . .’