Free The Hatter is Mad: An Urban Fantasy Novel (The Lillim Callina Chronicles Book 2) by J.A. Cipriano Page A

it to myself, let alone him.
    “Do you know why I left?” he asked, leaning into me, but the only thing I could focus on were his lips as he spoke.
    “Because you didn’t like me? Because you were just following orders? Because—” he cut me off by pressing his mouth against mine. The movement was so sudden, I couldn’t even think as an electric shock rippled down my spine, turning me into jelly. His hands roamed over my back, pulling me into him as I stood there unable to even think.
    “I’d try to protect you,” he said, pulling away and brushing the hair out of my face with one hand. “Which is stupid because the last time I checked, you’re the most powerful Dioscuri on the planet. You know it. I know it. Diana knows it. Hell, even Warthor Ein is scared of you,” Caleb said before leaning down until we were eye to eye. “Even the monsters know that. Why else would the Death’s Edge come after you? You think Grollshanks wants to kill you? What a damned laugh. You’d already be dead if that was the case. What he wants, what Grollshanks really wants, is for you to kill him. He only fights people he thinks can kill him. That’s why he left after he beat you.”
    I stumbled away from him partially because of what had just happened and partially because of what he had just said. I mean, he’d just kissed me… and what did I do? I’d let him. I’d have let him do anything. I swallowed, taking a deep breath and trying to still my racing heart as he stared at me, patiently waiting for a response to what he’d said.
    “What does that have to do with anything?” I asked him cautiously. “There is hardly any supernatural activity in my sector. If you stayed there, no one would bother you. You’d be safe.” I left the “with me” part of my statement unsaid.
    “And why the hell do you think that is? You killed a dragon and defeated a master vampire. You think creatures like Ajax,” Caleb said as he grabbed me by the hand and dragged me back into the office. He was suddenly more upset than I’d seen him in a long time. He pointed at Ajax, one finger shaking. “You think they don’t take notice?”
    “It’s true. We take notice when powers like yours claim a territory. I pulled all my people out of your area,” Ajax said, but he wasn’t smiling anymore. “You are the boogieman. The Dioscuri have been saying that if we don’t behave, you’re coming for us. You are on a whole different kind of radar.”
    “The Dioscuri have been doing what?” I asked incredulously. There was no way that was true. Aside from the fact they were touting me like I was some kind of supernatural bad ass, it was a rude thing to do. Sure, the Dioscuri used Warthor Ein like a goddamn boogeyman, but I was a far cry from Warthor ‘I kill dragons for fun’ Ein.
    Caleb shook his head and rubbed his eyes with one hand. “It’s true, Lillim. They are talking about you like you’re vengeance personified.”
    I wanted to laugh, but for some reason, I suddenly felt angry. I’d never once been told I was good enough. Even if I was, there was no way my mother would condone people talking about me like that. She’d put them in their place, wouldn’t she? “Unlikely. That’s not like them. My mother is firmly in the camp of ‘Lillim can’t do anything right.’”
    “The only thing your mother wants to do is keep you safe, Lillim. You think we’re here by accident?” Even as Caleb said the words, horror filled me.
    “Safe from what? Something back home in Lot?” I asked, and with one deft movement I pulled out my shotgun and pointed it at his face. “Are you meaning to tell me we’re here as a distraction? For me?”
     

Chapter 13
    Lot was a smoking ruin. Again. The great spires of the central library were on fire. They managed to survive a demon invasion, a civil war, and countless other atrocities, but now the spires were burning, filling the sky with so much smoke, it was nearly a thick black blanket in the