Chapter 6
Aheap of books has been transported from the cave to Odessa’s room, and finally, to our depressingly bare library.
I should feel relieved to have useful books in here at last, but as I pick through the massive amount of text, I only feel dread.
Or is it hunger? Right on cue, my stomach growls.
Lachlan sighs and pushes off the wall next to the fireplace, where he’s been a sentry-shaped statue, watching me skim through book after book.
After book three, my ass went numb. By book five, my eyes started to burn.
Nothing has piqued my interest yet. It’s all family histories, royal politics, and prophecies.
“Come on, let’s get ye some food and then ye can come back and read to your heart’s content.”
It’s like he can read my mind sometimes. I take his hand and let him pull me out of the cushioned chair I’ve sunken into. I rub the back of my leg with my free hand, hoping to infuse some life back into my asleep backside.
“You don’t like reading?” I ask as we head to the dining hall where everyone else has already gathered.
Lachlan grins and shakes his head. “I like to keep moving. That’s why I like building.” There’s a happiness to his eyes as he says it.
I study his profile, seeing him in a new way. “If you find yourself bored, there are still parts of the capital that are in need of some rebuilding. I’m sure they would love to have you.”
His eyes swing to my face and soften. “I would love that, but ye need me here. And I would always rather be by your side.”
I lean against his body as we walk into the dining hall.
A large pile of plates is stacked between Tane and Evander, and I can’t tell whom they belong to.
Luna sits at the far end of the table, eyeing the group with bleak disdain before focusing back on the book held open in front of her.
She doesn’t look so hollow as her eyes swiftly skim the words on the page.
It’s one of the books we pulled from the cave, Prophecies of The Morrigan written in scrawling gold letters down the spine.
Mina and Mathilda laugh raucously, and an answering smile blooms on my face. But a small part of my heart aches when I spy the empty chair beside them. Lachlan gives my hand a gentle squeeze, no doubt seeing my face fall at the reminder.
“So how many books did she read before you convinced her to eat?” Mathilda asks, popping a grape into her mouth.
“Seven,” Lachlan retorts. “Which makes Tane the winner. Ye get to pick dinner tomorrow.”
My mouth drops open, and I reel back, offended. “You guys were betting on me?”
“Yeah, and I’m mad at you!” Mina wrinkles her nose and pushes her plate away.
I place a hand on my chest. “You’re mad at me? Why?”
Mina rolls her eyes and dabs her lips with a napkin. “Because I bet you’d get through twenty, and now we’re stuck eating what Tane picks.”
Luna snorts, and all of us turn her way.
“Do you have something to add?” Evander asks, leaning towards her. There’s a quirk to his lips as he studies her.
“Other than the fact you’re all childish? No.”
I sling my braid over my shoulder and sprawl into my chair at the opposite end of the table. Lachlan slides into the seat next to me, and I can feel the annoyance radiating off of him.
“Yeah, well, that’s better than being wildly unpleasant.” The words fly out of my mouth before I can think twice, and I regret them immediately. In calling her unpleasantries out, I tumbled into my own.
The table falls completely silent, and even Tane stops shoveling food into his mouth. A fork loaded with food hangs precariously in front of his open mouth.
But it obviously wasn’t the wrong thing to say when a small, not lethal, smile graces Luna’s lips. “Noted.”
Evander’s eyes flare at her small display of humor.
“Alright, so we know they were experimenting with the asphidra venom in crystals, but even with all the books we found, I haven’t learned why—yet.
I’m thinking it’s a weapon? Like a grenade.
” I nod and mouth “thank you” to the young lady, who drops a plate full of roasted chicken, carrots, and grapes in front of me.
Steam wafts from the chicken leg, the skin perfectly roasted and covered in spices.
My mouth waters as I pluck the leg from the plate and bite into it.
“So we’ll go through the rest of the books and hopefully figure it out.
Have you come across anything in them about restoring magic?
” Mathilda asks while hurling a grape at Tane.
The grape bounces off his chest and lands in his glass.
The force with which it lands in the glass has it toppling over and soaking his entire plate with water, washing everything on the plate onto the table.
Tane lurches up, cursing, and Mathilda falls out of her chair laughing.
The color of the grape in the glass triggers my memory.
I lurch out of my chair. I’ve seen that color before, and I know exactly where.
There are shouts behind me as I race out of the dining hall and into the library, where we stashed everything from the secret cave.
With each bounding stride, I push myself faster.
It can’t have been right in front of us all this time.
Can it?
I throw myself to a stop, and nearly skid face-first into the oak doors of the library before I rip them open.
“Lena!” Lachlan’s yell surges in from the open door as he dashes through the opening right behind me, a dagger in his grip. “What the hel? Are ye alright?”
The crystal I brought from the cave is perched right in the middle of the table I sat at earlier.
Surrounded by the books I read and a pile of ones I had planned to go through.
But my eyes lock onto the clear quartz, that’s glowing an eerie pastel green color.
Without a second thought, my hands are wrapping around the quartz and I’m turning carefully on my heel.
“Key, do ye ken what yer doin’?” Lachlan’s eyes narrow at the venom in my hand. His hands are palm up like I’ve just pulled the pin on a grenade.
“I think I’ve figured it out,” I mumble, walking slowly and steadily through the door and down the hallway. Lachlan’s footsteps are right behind me, his head peering around my shoulder.
“Figured what out?” His voice is smooth, like any loud noise will cause me to drop it.
But the throne room is mere steps away. As I cross into it from the hallway and the throne comes into view, my stomach sinks.
I set the green crystal filled with venom directly in front of the crystal throne—their colors match perfectly.
The throne has been filled with venom.
Lachlan whispers from behind me, “They desecrated the throne.”
My eyes burn as rage bubbles up within me at the absolute mockery of my home, this realm. Boots scuff against the marble floor, and I glance over my shoulder to see my friends and Luna enter the room, weapons all drawn.
“Quartz magnifies,” Luna grumbles. “And asphidra venom blocks magic.”