Page 248 of The Robin on the Oak Throne

“Right?”

“If I had to guess, it gave you the other half.”

“But I’m still human,” she said. She knew that for a fact. She was still only half wisp. The cauldron had agreed.

“That’s right. Since your magic is bound, that made it possible to give the powers to you without interfering with your humanity. We’d have to test it. But I think the cauldron got around Lorcan’s binding by giving you powers he didn’t bind.”

Kierse’s eyes widened as her magic came swiftly to her fingertips. New powers were better than no powers. New powers meant that she had a fighting chance. And the best part—Lorcan had no idea.

Chapter Seventy-Three

Over the course of the week leading up to Nate and Maura’s wedding, the rest of the crew came forward and used the cauldron. Kierse still hadn’t managed to figure out her magic, not even for a small glamour to hide her ears—so she’d gone with a carefully concealed hairstyle for the wedding day. She’d been curious what everyone else had received out of the cauldron, but in the end, it wasn’t really her business.

Laz and Schwartz promised their treasure-hunting days weren’t over—the payout was only ever half the fun. Edgar, Isolde, and George had looked insulted when Graves had promised them an early retirement. Lyra hadn’t had any interest in the cauldron, after all. She only wanted her parents’ photograph and called it even. She had an audition that afternoon and really needed to get back. Walter was still around day and night. He’d moved in upstairs when Graves had offered to continue his training. After Nate’s nomination went through and he was officially going to the Monster Treaty convocation, he and Maura came over to thank Graves again for his help lifting the curse.

“Why haven’t you used it?” Kierse finally asked Graves as she walked into his bedroom dressed in a simple pink floral dress. Graves had left it on the bed in a designer bag. She’d realized immediately why he’d picked it from thecollection of wildflowers embroidered across the print.

“Used what?” he asked as he knotted his tie.

She took it out of his hands and fixed the knot. “The cauldron.”

“Ah, I did.”

“When?” she demanded. “I’ve been waiting all week.”

“I used it after Gen, when we were waiting for you.”

She bit her lip as she tugged the tie into place. “Can I ask what you wanted from it?”

“Magic.”

She rolled her eyes. “As if you don’t have enough of that. You’re a fuckingoceanof magic.”

He grinned. “Careful, or I’ll think you like me.”

“Well, it’s your lucky day,” she told him, straightening the tie and stepping back. “There. All done.”

He reached for her hand, and she let him take it. Things had been…tense the last week. Lorcan was no less present. Where she had once been uncomfortable with intimacy because of Jason’s abuse, now she was raw all over again from a new invasion.

She wanted Graves. She wanted all of him. And yet…

“I made a mistake,” he said simply.

“With what?”

“I went after the sword first,” Graves explained.

“How was that a mistake?”

“The mistake was where I went to get the information on the object.”

She raised an eyebrow and waited.

“I traded for the info in Nying Market.”

“Oh.” She frowned, seeing where this was going. “Wouldn’t that have been…expensive?”

“I thought I was prepared to pay. I had objects that they wanted. I was confident that I knew what I was getting into.” He paused. “I was wrong.”

---