Chapter 42
Gideon
One Agonizing Week Later…
Trystan Maverine no longer resembled a prince or villain.
His beard was overgrown more than Gideon had ever seen it, his hair falling in untamed locks that kept sweeping into his eyes.
Dark, empty eyes. His office was drafty and dim, lit by only a few candles, with dawn’s early light barely beginning to trickle in.
The light was too low for reading, but there Maverine sat nonetheless.
Scanning The Cunning Corset Society like it contained secrets yet untold.
No, Trystan Maverine no longer resembled The Villain.
He’d become more like a hermit—albeit one with a penchant for throwing people out the window.
The man’s foul mood had begun the moment Gideon’s sister disappeared among the trees. It manifested in short bouts of rage in which any employee pissing him off became a flight risk. Literally.
“Do you intend to stand there for the remainder of the year, Mr. Sage, or do you plan on telling me what the fuck you want.” He wasn’t yelling. Trystan Maverine had no need for such tactics, but it was even eerier for how dangerously calm the man had grown.
Gideon cleared his throat. “I brought the book of Rennedawn up for you when you’re done with your…pleasure reading.”
The man’s empty eyes narrowed, his mouth pulling into a dissatisfied frown. Bad for Gideon. Very bad for Gideon. “I asked Lyssa to bring it,” he clarified through clenched teeth.
Now, to a logical person who valued their head, this would be the time to make a hasty exit. But Gideon was being eaten alive by guilt and worry for his sister, and it didn’t leave much room for tact.
“Do you honestly think yourself fit to be in front of either of my sisters right now?”
He was already ducking before his sentence finished, knowing an object would be lobbed at his head. Thankfully, at least, it was the paperback.
Whistling, trying to appear unperturbed, Gideon approached the man’s desk and dropped Rennedawn’s storybook atop it. “Not sure what you’re going to find in an empty book.”
Maverine was standing before Gideon could back away. “It’s not empty. It’s just selective about what it shares and when. The prophecy—”
“Oh gods!” Gideon bemoaned. “I’m so sick of this storm cloud prophecy that seems to be dragging you and my sister around by your throats. They’re just words! What do they matter when Evie is gone and no one knows where she is?”
Except for Gideon.
He knew where she was.
He didn’t say this to Maverine, however, even as the man grabbed his collar with a raised fist.
Keeley chose that moment to push open the doors, stopping Maverine before the blow landed on Gideon’s face.
“Tempting as that may be, sir, I have the updates you asked for.” Keeley turned to him with the hint of a smirk, and a painful twist began in his gut. “The Malevolent Guards set traps all about the manor’s borders. One wrong move from the Valiant, and they’ll explode.”
“Very good. And were you able to track down Joseph The Scholar?”
Sighing and shoving her long braid behind her shoulder, she rubbed a hand over her heart. “There are a few leads but nothing concrete yet. The man made himself very difficult to track. You said he was an acquaintance of Edwin’s—should we ask him if he might have any ideas?”
“No,” Maverine said immediately. “We leave Edwin out of this.”
Keeley appeared ready to argue, but she bit her lip. “Yes, sir.”
Gideon spoke when he knew he should’ve remained silent. As was the case every time he opened his mouth. “Why do you want to find Joseph The Scholar? Isn’t he some sort of recluse?”
“I need him to examine this.” Maverine slipped a dagger from his belt and tossed it atop his desk—the one that had been shoved through him. Evie’s dagger. “And I need him to tell me why the wound healed the moment the dagger was removed.”
Gideon had been wondering the same. And why the dagger seemed duller than before. Lifeless. But Gideon couldn’t bring himself to care about Evie’s abandoned dagger. Only Evie.
“And then what? The book has given us nothing, and we are down a villain for the prophecy. What’s your plan for that, your highness?”
“I’ll give you a few seconds to leave through the door before I make you leave by the window,” Maverine warned, hitting the table so hard that the book flipped open. And then it went berserk.
“There are words,” Keeley murmured, pointing toward the text slowly forming on the page.
It was Maverine who read them aloud:
Once lost Once found
What’s put together will be bound
Where sunlight shines unvarnished and pure love forms
One touch to fix all and unlock the door
“Must the book speak in absurd nursery rhymes?” Keeley rubbed her temples. “It’s very unsettling.”
Blade poked his head in, wearing a wide-eyed expression that had them all standing at attention. “Are you guys reading My Love My Sun in here?”
“No,” Maverine said, shutting the book and tucking it away in a locked cabinet. He paused, then turned, disgruntled. “Were you eavesdropping?”
Blade chuckled nervously, pushing the door open to reveal a crouched Rebecka, Tatianna, and Clare. The other door swung open, and Kingsley smiled guiltily.
Blade spoke for them: “We were calling it surveillance so Rebecka doesn’t have a nervous breakdown.”
“That’s what it is,” Rebecka grumbled defensively.
“What’s that?” Gideon asked, his mind hooking on the title. “My Love My Sun?”
Blade appeared startled. “Oh, it’s a children’s picture book. The boss was just reading a passage from it, wasn’t he? ‘Sunlight shines unvarnished.’ It’s why it sounded familiar to me when I heard the prophecy the first time. It was my father’s favorite story to read to me.”
“Keeley?” Maverine said, not needing to finish his sentence before she was alert and ready. “Find it.”
“I know just the place,” she replied.
“I’ll go with you,” Gideon offered.
Keeley stiffened but gave her assent, already charging for the door. They were halfway down the stairs before she asked him, “Why are you coming with me, Gideon?”
He stopped on the stairs above her, struck by a direct view of her face, her eyes fixed on him, searching for ulterior motives.
He had none. So, he told the truth.
“I just want, um—to be with you, if that’s…all right?”
She rolled her lips, but not before Gideon saw her fighting back a smile. “I suppose that’s fine.”
He followed her like a hound on a scent. “Try to contain your enthusiasm.”
“I’ll do my best.” But he could hear the smile in her voice. “Are you going to tell him about Evie?” she asked carefully.
Gideon swallowed.
Knowing his sister was out there. Suffering worse than anyone could imagine.