63. Chapter 63
Chapter 63
I take my seat at the table along with the rest of the team, but I’m not exactly registering my surroundings. Everything in me is resisting the very possibility that what Cain just said is true, but I can’t help the images starting to flash before my eyes. They’re images of Baldur smiling at me after knocking me off my horse, holding a hand out for me before entering my father’s hall with me, leaning in to kiss me below the oak behind the village temple.
Then there are the even more troubling ones — images of him gritting his teeth when I told him about finding my one true love, refusing to negotiate when he waged war against me, going out of his way to hurt my mate in our final clash…
“Anna,” I hear someone call out.
Blinking in confusion, I snap back to reality, finding everyone looking at me. “Yes,” I say. Then I shake my head, frowning. “What were we talking about?”
“We were wondering why we didn’t find anything,” Nuala tells me. “Ideas?”
I force myself to put the flashbacks and my emotions aside and think. “I don’t know,” I say in a flat, hollow voice. “I’m positive it’s true, what I told you about Baldur being Egyptian, not Norse. And judging by everything we’ve learned so far, that was supposed to be his family’s temple.”
“How are any of you surprised by this?” de Groot demands with a sneer. “Baldur is very secretive about his past. If he was willing to go to the trouble of destroying Libraries across the world, what would erasing information from a single temple be to him?”
“Then he moved the bones as well?” Dryden asks. “Or worse, destroyed them?”
“Well, that’s what I’d do if I were in his shoes,” she replies. “But why don’t we ask his son? Ah yes, he’s only here to eat our food and sew dissent, isn’t he?”
I ignore the bite to her tone and shake my head, because it’s become very clear to me that of all the people here, including Cain, it’s me who knows best what Baldur would do.
“No,” I tell the group, however hesitantly, “I don’t think he’d erase his past completely. And the reason I can be so sure is the fact that Cain was right. I did know Baldur intimately.”
There’s a murmur around the table. Nuala senses the tension and takes over.
“Look, people,” she starts in a commanding tone, “the personal drama is not what really matters here. I just had a meeting with de Groot and Raven yesterday. Shadowcurse infections are becoming rampant. We don’t have much longer before Baldur conquers the rest of the world. I propose we start thinking about an alternative solution to stopping him, maybe even giving up on the sword.”
“No,” I protest, instantly snapping out of my own petty feelings, “wait a minute.” My mind buzzes in search of a way out. Then it hits me. “The carvings on the tombs were chiseled away, right?”
“They were,” Nuala says with a nod.
“Isn’t that something ancient Egyptians would do to people they concluded weren’t deserving of the afterlife?” I offer.
Dryden frowns. “Meaning?”
I’m suddenly flooded with excitement. “That was Baldur’s family’s temple,” I insist. “But for some reason, Baldur’s family was banished from Egypt.”
Nuala lets out a laugh. “How does that help us?”
“Well,” I say with a smile, “we know where they eventually ended up, don’t we? So the next step is simple — checking the Old Norse temples again.”
“There were no bones,” Raven reminds me.
I’m still smiling, but now it’s with a quirked eyebrow. “Did you check for every kind of magic that could be concealing them?”
While de Groot is outright scoffing, everyone else seems hesitant. But more importantly, so does Nuala. “Let’s take a vote,” she finally suggests. “Anyone for checking the temples again?”
It’s with pleading eyes that I look around the table.
And one by one, everyone except de Groot raises their hands.
Smiling, I breathe a sigh of relief.
Nuala still seems hesitant, but it’s been decided. So she takes a deep breath, claps her hands and says, “Alright, I guess it’s Anna’s suggestion we’re going with. Meeting adjourned, it’s back to work, everyone.”
While the others start getting up, Raven raises her hand. “Um, if that’s alright, I’ve been meaning to ask everyone for blood donations.”
We all turn our focus onto her.
“What for?” Nuala asks.
“I’ll be testing the way the shadowcurse behaves at different stages of infection, so I’ll need samples of healthy blood as well.”
“We could just get settled on the couches,” I suggest to Nuala, “going through our records while she does what she has to do?”
“Sure, why not?”
I lead them to the desk with all the research we’ve done so far. “Why don’t we all grab a folder each and get started. What we’re doing here is simply going through it all again with the new information in mind.”
Within a matter of seconds, all the Old Norse materials have been cleared off the table, de Groot the only one who didn’t take a folder and go sit on one of the couches or armchairs.
It saddens me, but I have more important things to do. I go take a seat as well, opening my own folder and starting to browse the contents. It’s the information we’ve gathered on Odin’s Temple in Uppsala.
Raven walks over with her equipment in hand. “May I?” she asks.
I smile and stretch my right arm out for her. “Knock yourself out.”
She comes into a crouch next to me, a needle in hand. “This shouldn’t hurt too much.”
I quirk an eyebrow at her. “I think I’ll live,” I say, and I go back to browsing the pictures we took of each and every one of the runestones.
So far, nothing that could help. I flip the page, the next picture drawing my attention.
“Hey,” I yell out when someone snatches the folder out of my hand.
I look up to see de Groot standing in front of me with an angry look on her face.
“I thought you were smarter than this,” she grits out.
I try to grab the folder, but she doesn’t let me. Her act causes some commotion among the others, but no one dares to interfere.
She’s hurting, I tell myself. “Smarter than what?” I ask gently.
“Wasn’t it your boyfriend’s information that led you to the Reh-yah Temple in the first place?”
My eyes dart to Cain. “It was.”
“So it’s already been proven wrong, but the plan is to keep trusting the man who is our sworn enemy?”
I grit my teeth, feeling a surge of protectiveness. “He’s not who you think he is.”
“Really?” she drawls.
“Really. And to further prove my point…”
It’s with a plea in my eyes that I reach out my hand. Hesitantly, she gives me the folder back.
Praying I really did see what I think I did, I open it to the picture I’d been looking at before she interrupted me. I point at the top right corner of the runestone. “Do you see this symbol right here?”
She folds her arms, narrowing her eyes at me. “What about it?”
“It’s Egyptian. And it means Reh-yah.”
Surprise flashes through her eyes.
I get up and look around the room, only to find everyone already staring back at me. “It seems we’re going back to the site of the first temple we checked, people.”