Chapter 7
Kit grabbed a table at the bar, waiting for Bellina and Cat to arrive. She couldn’t get the conversation with the king out of her head. She also couldn’t help but notice that he didn’t leave Vincula with Rory, despite not letting her out of his sight ever since Nina tried to have her killed.
The information he sought must be important, and tomorrow, she would comb through the library’s catalog for anything promising.
A woman’s voice startled her, and she glanced over her shoulder. “Hello, dear.”
Rory’s mother, Lenora, appeared next to the table. They’d been introduced briefly by the legion commander, but she’d not seen her since. “Hi, Ms. Raven.”
Lenora waved her hand. “Please, call me Lenora. May I join you?”
“Of course.” Kit waved toward another chair, telling her, “Bellina and Cat should be here soon.”
Lenora perked up. “That little curly-headed one is something else, isn’t she?”
A snort escaped Kit before she could stop it. “You could say that.” When they were introduced to Lenora, Cat asked her how it felt to go crazy and come back.
“Would you like another drink, dear?” Lenora indicated Kit’s almost empty glass.
“I can get both of ours,” Kit offered as she stood.
Lenora pushed her chair back and motioned for Kit to sit. “The king gave me unlimited credits.”
She accepted the gift better than Rory had, Kit thought with a chuckle. “Thank you. I’ll have a brandy and lemon-lime soda, please.”
Lenora grabbed Kit’s glass and walked off, returning shortly with a server holding a tray of shots.
“What’s this?” Kit asked, eyeing the tiny glasses of liquor.
Lenora set their drinks down and began unloading the tray. When she was done, the server smiled and left. “They’re shots.” She held up her beer, motioning for Kit to clink her glass with the bottle. “Cheers!”
There were four shots, and when Lenora saw Bellina and Cat weaving through the crowd, she lifted her hand to flag them down.
“Hey, Lenora,” Cat said, going in for a hug.
Lenora smiled and handed Cat a shot. “It’s nice to see you girls again.”
She passed a shot to Bellina, and the seamstress stared at it before smiling. “I knew I liked you.”
The women sat, and Kit reached for her shooter as Lenora held hers up and said, “To the king being a dumbass.” She threw it back as the other three stared with wide eyes.
Cat shrugged. “Hear! Hear!” She threw hers back and scrunched up her face.
Bellina and Kit exchanged a glance and took theirs too. “What did the king do?” Bellina asked casually, but Kit could tell she was worried.
Lenora took a swig of her beer, looked around, and leaned forward. The other three mimicked her, and when they were huddled close, Lenora said, “What has Rory told you about her sister’s murder?”
The three looked at each other. “We didn’t know her sister was killed,” Bellina whispered. “I’m sorry to hear that.”
“Rory had a twin sister named Cora and, when they were fifteen, Rory watched as Caius’ identical twin brother, Gedeon, killed her,” Lenora explained.
Bellina gasped, and Cat swore under her breath.
“That’s why Rory hated the king when she first arrived,” Kit remarked. “She thought he was Gedeon.”
Everyone knew of the anomaly that was the current generation of Royals. Four Royal children were unheard of, but there was nothing in the books about the boys being identical twins.
Lenora nodded. “I don’t know what happened between him and my daughter, but I imagine she hated him until she learned the truth.” She shook her head and chuckled. “With as stubborn as she is, it’s a wonder he convinced her at all.”
“What does this have to do with the king being a dumbass?” Cat asked impatiently.
The four were still leaning in close. “As you are aware, I am a Sibyl.” The group stayed quiet. They knew of the lives Sibyls endured. “I saw Rory and the twin Royals in two different futures. One where Gedeon kills her, and one where Caius saves her.”
“Oh, fuck,” Cat hissed.
Bellina’s hand flew to her mouth, but Kit watched with rapt attention. She needed to catalog everything Lenora said in order to help the king because whatever information he needed was literally life and death.
“I tried to break out of my mind to get here to make her stay with him,” she said grimly. “I knew there was a way she left the prison realm, but I didn’t know what it was, and by the time I arrived, it was too late.”
“How did she get out?” Kit inquired, needing to know every detail.
Lenora met their gazes with unwavering intensity. “Caius took over her contract.”
“What does that mean?” Bellina demanded, and Kit knew their friend was hanging on by a thread. Tallent beating her half to death changed her. She was no longer the fun-loving woman she once was.
“It means Rory was released on his release date, and he must finish out the rest of her five-hundred-year sentence,” Lenora explained with a pained expression. “And Rory doesn’t remember her time here. Or him.”
“Or us,” Bellina murmured, and a somber silence descended on the table.
Kit sat back in a daze. “You’re right. He is a dumbass.” She signaled for the server and ordered another round of shots as they digested the information. When the server returned, Kit downed hers quickly. “He can’t save her if he’s locked in here.”
Lenora took her shot. “He has to. Rory’s life depends on it.” For a mother whose daughter was sent to her death, she was eerily calm.
“He gets out, doesn’t he?” Kit guessed.
Lenora nodded. “Yes. In one future, he’s too late.” Unchecked emotion laced the older woman’s words. “In another, he makes it without a minute to spare.”
Kit understood why the king wanted information on the magic possessed by the Scales of Justice. He needed to either break through it or use it to get through the barrier.
“What can we do to help?” Cat asked, and Kit was taken aback by how serious she was. “We are criminals. Doing things the illegal way is our specialty, and we will do whatever it takes to break him out.”
Lenora turned slowly to look at Kit, pinning her in place. “Yes. You will.”
It was then that Kit understood. Saving Rory’s life depended on her finding the correct information. Her pits began to sweat.
She’d never been great under pressure.
That night, after leaving the bar and parting ways with the others, Kit found herself standing in front of the library. Despite being tipsy, she wanted to start looking right away.
The jangle of her keys cut through the quiet night as she let herself in and hurried toward the back. She was thankful the torches were still lit, albeit low, and when she retrieved the large catalog and plunked it on the desk, she flinched at the sound.
She would kill for an electronic catalog, but she’d work with what she had. While history was her passion, as a child, she collected old storybooks with tales of the first days. They were fantasy, but she always suspected they were rooted in truth, which proved to be correct when she met Samyaza.
Her plan was to pull every historical text and storybook this realm possessed. As she found them, she would take them to the king, but they couldn’t comb through them alone.
They needed help.