Chapter 43 - Adreona
ADREONA
“I’ve found it.” Keziq’s eyes flew open, her pale hands still braced on the arms of the chair, her nails digging into the wood.
I kept my hope tamped down. Everything else Keziq had managed to find had been useless. “Tell me,” I said through gritted teeth.
“There’s a cabin in the woods, in the Blood Court, at the southern border. A family scrubbed from the archives. They have what we need.”
It appears she was coming in handy for once. “Best not waste time, let’s go.”
I held the worn journal in my hands, flipping through the pages, my eyes scanning the words as smoke filled my nostrils.
I had tuned out the sound of screams when the fire first started, too focused on reading the contents of the journal.
My back was kept warm from the blazing fire behind me. I had left it up to Keziq to determine what was to be done with the family while I scoured the journal, making sure this was truly what we needed.
It was her reward for finding me Astria’s journal.
I flipped toward the end of the book, my eyes catching on the words. A spell, a fucking spell, I had found it.
My hand trembled as I flipped to the next page—where was it? I looked at the ground, turning in a small circle where I stood in the snow. Had I somehow dropped the page? It had to be there. I traced my fingers over the torn edge. There had been a page there.
But where was it now?
A frustrated scream tore from my throat.
“What is it?” Keziq asked as she came to my side.
“The page is missing!”
“Let me see.” She took the journal from me, her blood-splattered face illuminated in the orange glow of the fire at our backs.
I tore at my hair as she assessed the journal. “The last page, I’m certain it’s the one I need. And it’s gone!”
“Do you think the family tore out the page or Lennox Adair?”
I froze. “Why would you think it would have been Lennox?”
“Her magic is all over this journal—her imprint. She’s held this—used it with some form of magic.”
“Well of course it is, she copied it after all and gave me the fake journal. She had ripped half the pages out of the one she gave me.”
The decoy didn’t have anything detailing a spell. I should know, I spent countless hours scouring over every word in the journal, looking for a hint, anything that would lead me to the spell. The final piece of my plan.
“What if she tore out the last page in this one too? As a fail-safe, in case we ever found it.”
A laugh bubbled up in my throat. Keziq looked at me, her eyebrows drawn as I continued to laugh.
“Then that would be fantastic wouldn’t it.” Perhaps my luck truly had started to turn.