Chapter 25
Delphi collected the piles of notes and journals from the old lab before heading for Maela's library. She didn't want to be surrounded by the ghosts of her parents' failures, and the bad energy in the room was getting to her.
Delphi had been feeling different in the past few days. She didn't know if it was the quality of the sex that had put her in a good mood, but she didn't want anything to ruin it.
Her magic was changing too. The glowing little ember in her was burning hotter every day and she was testing it little by little. There was no more broken lab equipment, but none of her experiments compared to last night's release of power.
Her magic reacted every time she lost control with Tenebrys, and even though her skin wasn't still glowing from within, power was still pulsing in her veins.
Delphi placed her hand on her chest where the light had bloomed. "I won't smother you anymore, I swear. Not for anything in the world," she promised it.
She set out her notes on one of the heavily carved wooden desks in the library and tried not to feel like she was invading someone's space.
She could see that Maela's spot had always been in the window seat, and she didn't want to disrupt that. The tender way Tenebrys had touched the old robe told Delphi that he had a lot of memories of her there. Good memories were something Tenebrys needed to be reminded of.
Delphi searched the drawers of the desk, and found a blank journal, a quill pen, and still sealed inks that hadn't dried out.
"Okay, Delphi. Two problems: find out if the plague is still active and figure out what Narcisse summoned for the power he got to curse Ten. Then try to understand shifters and my magic along the way. Damn, that's four problems."
Delphi was used to working alone, so she didn't feel the least bit self-conscious about talking out loud to herself. She left her papers and went to have a look at the stacks for information.
Now she had time to explore properly, Delphi went up the stairs to see what subjects the books were about on the next level of shelves.
There was an ornately carved wooden pedestal by the balcony railing with a thick book open on it. Curious, Delphi went to see what Maela had been reading.
The book looked more like an expensive leather ledger, and it took a few long moments to figure out what she was looking at.
At the top of each column was a glyph. Delphi looked about and laughed in delight when she spotted the same glyph painted on the top of the bookshelves beneath her.
"You clever thing, Maela. It's an index." Delphi wanted to hug the book in delight.
Apart from the magical books that were locked behind the glass, Delphi didn't know what else was in the library and thought she was going to have to search for things, one by one. She should have known that a smart woman would have organized her books properly.
Delphi ran her finger down the lines of book titles in one column and the corresponding subjects in the second. Maela did indeed have books on shifters, and Delphi noted down their location and hoped it contained fun pictures of anatomy. Purely for scientific reasons of course.
By the time she went back to her desk, she had a fresh pile of books to work through.
She detoured back to the cabinet of magical books and selected one on sigils and another on a history of the fae.
Delphi didn't understand why a history book about the fae would need to be locked up in a warded cabinet, but she trusted Maela's reasons for doing it.
Delphi opened the book on sigils and started comparing them to the ones that her mother had been drawing. One of the problems, she soon discovered, was that sigils were highly individualized to the user.
Despite that, Delphi began to recognize more and more of the small symbols and circle patterns as she got closer to the final sigil in the book. She tapped her pen thoughtfully.
What if Cassia had realized that creating something individual wouldn't work, and that there were tried and true rituals for summoning certain demons? As if it were some kind of personal address that could be used to send a message?
She stared at the name of the demon before getting another book from her pile. It was a glossary of recorded angels, demons, and ephemeral beings.
According to the publisher's mark on the inside of it, it had come from one of the universities in the very south of Kyllene, where calling on spirits, djinn, and daemones to assist sorcerers was more common.
Just the thought of summoning anything that powerful and then trying to force it to work for her made Delphi's spirit recoil. Maybe it was because she had been on the verge of being a slave before.
Once when she was about thirteen, Narcisse had taken her to the Dark Market in Montcrillon. He had been meeting with a woman there who sold illegal and exotic ingredients.
Delphi had seen a flesh auction first-hand that night. Frightened people were sold off to masters who would do whatever they liked to them. Girls younger than Delphi already had the dead-eyed looks of those who had lost all hope.
They had been moving past a stall when a tall man dressed in blue and gold robes had stepped out and caught Narcisse's attention. He held a tall black staff in one hand, decorated with a red stone. The man had a strange odor, like rich perfume and decay.
He and Narcisse began to speak in the scholar tongue in careful but friendly tones.
Delphi hadn't been fluent then, but she had caught enough words to learn that the man was a sorcerer.
He had made a comment accompanied by a gesture at Delphi.
Narcisse had laughed. The man said words like 'touched' and 'unique' and then started offering Narcisse money.
The laughter in her father's eyes had turned thoughtful.
It was one of the only times Delphi had feared that he would sell her.
She had a knife and knew how to pick pockets easily by then, so she had pretended to be interested in a bird in a cage at the next stall over and wandered just out of Narcisse's reach.
If he went through with the sale, she would run like hell.
Narcisse finally shook his head and left the man. Delphi exhaled slowly and forced a smile.
"What was that about?" she'd asked curiously.
"Oh, nothing. He wanted to see if I was interested in some enchanted talismans from Kisharu," Narcisses had lied smoothly.
That night, he had gotten blind drunk and had mumbled, "Never do it. Never give you up," at her before passing out in a pool of his own vomit. For the first time in her life, Delphi had left him in it.
Delphi rubbed at the sudden ache in her chest, hating the memory that surfaced.
If the sorcerer in the market had been summoning half the things in the book she was reading, then she had escaped a worse fate than she originally thought. Nearly every summoning of higher-ranking demons always wanted one thing: a beautiful human to take their lust out on.
Delphi looked back at the notes in her parents' journal about the first offering not working, and Narcisse's last entry about offering something that it couldn't resist.
"Oh, dear goddess," she whispered, bile rising in her throat.
"Delphi? Are you okay?" Tenebrys asked, coming up behind her.
Delphi got out of the chair and hugged him, resting her cheek on his chest, where short warm fur became bone. Tenebrys's big arms enfolded her.
"What is it, little flower? What's wrong?" he asked, so gentle it made her eyes burn.
"I don't want to talk about it just yet." Delphi pulled back from him. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have grabbed you like that."
"Never apologize for coming to me when you are upset, Delphi. You are my mate," Tenebrys replied, his hand resting on the small of her back. He looked at the books and papers. "If you don't want to talk about it, how about a walk? I want to show you something."
Delphi nodded. "That would be nice. I have to talk to you about some things. I just need to work myself up to it."
"Then let's walk." Tenebrys offered her his arm, and Delphi took it.
"Tell me what you got up to this morning?" she asked, needing to distract her mind from the revelations screaming at her.
"Eiran and Felix captured a fae, and it babbled the same nonsense about wanting you," he replied as they walked. He told her about the stag shifter and how the fae exploded when he spoke the name of his lord.
"How is that possible? Did he curse his name somehow?" she asked, unable to wrap her head around that kind of power.
"The fae are very protective of their true names. We all knew him as the Lord of Plagues. Yes, that Lord of Plagues, who sent the sickness onto the shifters when he was retreating."
"Goddess. I'm so sorry, Ten. He never would have started sending raiders again if it wasn't for me."
Tenebrys placed his hand over hers. "This isn't your fault.
The fae hold grudges forever. We beat him back once.
He was humiliated in front of the Unseelie Queen, whom he answers to.
He would have already been planning to get his revenge, but the presence of your magic only forced his hand. This could be a good thing."
Delphi gaped at him. "How? How can any of this be considered good?"
"If you forced him to act sooner than he was ready, it means he's not back to full strength.
He will be scrambling and not ready. The way he keeps sending raiders is just proof that he is panicking.
The fae are more into seducing their victims to come to them.
He wouldn't be so direct with raiders like this if he were thinking clearly. It means we have time."
Delphi considered his words as they stepped out into the sunshine. It was warmer that day, and she tilted her face to the sky.
"At least the weather is nice," she murmured.
Tenebrys laughed softly. "I heard Grisvallon sits in a cloud-choked valley."
"Gods, Ten, it's the worst. I don't know why they bother farming there. It's miserable all year round."
They talked of lighter things, like how Dlephi had fought for two years to get her garden growing, and the way she had traded for food and clothes for medicines.
"So you know much about healing herbs?" Tenebrys asked thoughtfully.
"As much as I could. Why?"
Tenebrys stopped in the gardens in front of an old door. Its red paint was peeling off. "You know how I had the herbs for your bath?"
"I remember the bath fondly," Delphi said, starting to smile.
"Focus, you naughty creature," Tenebrys chided. "Those plants came from my mother's garden, which also disappeared when Narcisse cursed us and broke the house magic."
Delphi pointed at the red door. "You don't think..."
"I know it's the door. I came out here to check where the fresh herbs for your bath had come from, and it had returned, just like the library." Tenebrys rested a hand on the cracked paint. "It was waiting for you to come."
"Because I am your mate?" she asked."Or because I have magic?"
"Both."
Delphi stared at the door. "I don't know how to comprehend all of this. I'm no one. I always have been. I'm not some special chosen one. I'm the daughter of horrible parents who just did awful things to people."
"You are not no one." Tenebrys stroked her cheek with his knuckle. "Not to me. You are my mate and will be my queen one day, should you wish it. This was the queen's garden before my mother's or my grandmother's time. It always belongs to the queen alone. Her private sanctuary."
"But I'm not a queen," Delphi whispered.
Tenebrys smiled. "Oh? Then try the door. If it doesn't open for you, it will prove that I am wrong. And we both know how you like to be right."
Delphi scowled at him, but it only made him smile wider and gesture at the door.
She huffed out a frustrated breath and grabbed the blackened handle.
A small pulse rippled out from the lock, the chipped paint flaking away to reveal a new coating of scarlet red underneath.
With a faint click, the handle gave and swung open.
Delphi stared at the wonderland of plants and flowers on the other side. "Not a word out of you. I don't want to hear it, Tenebrys."
The bastard only laughed and nudged her inside. "I wouldn't dream of it...my queen."