Chapter 38 #3
Releasing me just as quickly as he’d grabbed me, he strode on. “Alright, Princess. Let’s go to the damn library.”
I stood frozen for a moment until I shook my head and hurried after him.
“This had better be good, Lexie,” Finn complained as he sat across from me at our usual table. “You interrupted an excellent dream.”
I ignored him, giving in to intuition and throwing up an extra ward around us. That got Finn’s attention, and he raised an eyebrow.
“Tell me everything you know of Starfire,” I said in a low voice.
This time, both brows went up. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of it.” He looked at Griff, who shook his head. He leaned forward, arms resting on the table, all complaints about sleep forgotten. “Why, Lexie? What did you find out?”
“Neither of you have ever heard of it?”
They shook their heads in tandem, the same look of confusion in their eyes.
I told them about what I had seen—the Wraith, Violet’s belief that there was something she had to do, but it wasn’t fix the Veil or defeat the darkness.
How the Wraith had agreed with her. How they had talked about Starfire as if it was something important and necessary.
I found myself unable to speak past the lump in my throat when I thought about the scenes with my parents, so I glossed over those.
If the twins realized I wasn’t telling them everything, they wisely decided not to ask, but Griff’s hand rested on my thigh, hidden by the table.
“But I was right. This”—I gestured to the prophecy that we’d taken from the shrine and brought out onto the table—“is incomplete. There are whole passages missing.”
“How do you know that?” Finn asked.
“Violet learned the original. She memorized it. And then had it destroyed. Or modified, I guess I should say.”
“Why would she do that?” he said in outrage.
“Because he told her to.”
They looked at me with various questions on their faces.
I sighed. “Look, I’m just figuring it out myself, but I don’t think the prophecy was an it. I think it was a he. And he knew Violet.”
Unable to sit still, I started pacing. Thinking out loud, I went over again what I had seen. Finn had a look on his face like he was about to charge off to try to find that cave, but held himself still as I got to the prophecy.
“I’m not sure he told Violet all of it. Maybe only the things that affected her? And we only have parts of it here, in written form. And most of what Violet knew applied to her time, I think.”
It had to be this Starfire. Whatever that was. That had to be the key to it.
“Can you repeat it?” Finn asked.
I eased back into my chair and closed my eyes, casting myself into the memory.
Griff’s fingers dug into my thigh under the table, grounding me while I searched around.
I covered his hand with mine, silently letting him know I was alright as I flipped through the memories as though they were pages in a book.
My brow furrowed in concentration as I recited the words that had been burned into Violet’s consciousness.
Finn furiously scratched it down as I dictated. Brow furrowed, he said, “Okay, I think I got it, but if you compare this to the original—”
“I don’t know that you can call this one”—I gestured to the open book lying on the table—“the original anymore.”
Finn made a face but accepted it, staring at the two versions of the prophecy as if he could will them into giving him all of their secrets.
I wished him luck with it, beyond ready for this to be in someone else’s hands to figure out what the hell any of this meant.
“There’s one more thing,” I said softly. Two pairs of hazel eyes shot to my face. “I saw your father.”
Their reactions were completely different. Finn blanched, gripping the table and leaning forward. Griff stiffened, his mask slamming into place.
“Violet asked him to do something. And he said he’d take care of it.” I looked back and forth between them. “Any idea what it was?”
Finn stared at Griff, who was staring down at the table. It was my turn to touch his leg under the table, silently telling him I was there.
“No,” Finn said finally. “He never spoke of her.”
Griff still didn’t say a word, but covered my hand where it rested on his thigh with his own and squeezed tightly. I let it go—we had enough to figure out for now.
Hours later, it was truly the middle of the night, and we were still discussing it, nowhere near closer to figuring anything out.
“If we go with your theory that these spacings are there for a reason, then what new lines slot in here?” Finn was asking.
“And does it even truly matter?” Griff added.
“It all has to do with Starfire, I can feel it,” I said, pointing out all the places the blanks appeared.
“Then let’s look at that.” Griff bent closer to look at the page with me, his breath tickling my cheek. “‘Pull the Starfire the earth has mined.’ Could it be some latent power from the universe itself, deep within the earth?”
We all stared at him.
“What? I grew up with him.” He looked pointedly at Finn, even as he shifted in his chair to press his knee against mine. “I learned some things.”
“Interesting thought.” Finn started musing on some theory or philosophy about the universe and power and balance. He went deep pretty quickly and lost me.
Griff’s arm was draped along my chair. With Finn’s attention focused elsewhere, he began to play with my braid.
“Stop that. He’s going to notice.”
“Doubtful. He’s talking about some arcane history thing. Besides, you dragged us out here and now we’ve spent all night in a fucking library instead of curled up in bed. I need to touch you.”
I conveyed my scoff mentally. “You’re making it sound like you’re deprived. You can go one night without me.”
“Doesn’t mean I like it.” He started massaging the nape of my neck. “When it comes to you, I can’t help it. I’ll always want you. Even when I’ve just spent myself and I’m still inside you, I want you again.”
I fought the rising blush and the need to move closer to him. “Now he’s really going to notice.”
“I still doubt it. But if you keep blushing like that, he may get curious about what you’re thinking.”
His finger traced the shell of my ear before trailing down my neck to toy with my neckline, leaving warmth every place he touched. I bit off an audible moan, but let it go through the bond.
Griff stood abruptly, cutting Finn off mid-sentence. “It’s late. Or early, depending on how you look at it. I suggest we all go get a few hours of sleep and pick back up in the morning. Later in the morning.” I might have been the only one who heard his emphasis on the word later.
“Go, go.” Finn waved a hand at us, not even bothering to look in our direction as he moved to the stacks, excitedly reading titles and running his fingers down the spines of books.
Griff waited until we left the library before grabbing my arm and tugging me to our room. We barely made it back before he had shoved my pants aside and claimed me.
Afterward, we both fell into the deep sleep that only came from being thoroughly loved.