Chapter 37 #2
Blair peeled herself from the crowd of witches and tiptoed up the few steps leading to the store’s front door.
Bronze that matched the sign above ran the perimeter of the window, illuminating Jace’s coven name.
Blair turned the doorknob, and—it didn’t budge.
Locked. Blair cursed. They didn’t have time for this; she needed to get her hands on that book.
Lorkan glanced into the shop, honey eyes narrowing. “It appears Jace Brookes isn’t in.”
Blair humphed, unconvinced. Lorkan didn’t know where to look for the signs.
She pushed him aside, taking his spot at the window and framing her eyes to block out the light as she peered inside.
Ah, right as she predicted. The light under Jace’s workroom was lit, which meant he was here but hadn’t opened the shop.
Perfect.
“Follow me,” Blair said.
Lorkan made an unintelligible sound, and Blair didn’t pay him any mind. If he objected, so be it. She was getting her hands on that book today, regardless of his grumblings.
She scurried around the corner and then the next, quick on her feet as she reached the back alley behind Jace’s storefront. A rusted mint door was the third on the left. Blair had accessed it plenty of times, using a danu straight to the back ally to meet Jace for an afternoon—
“Jace!”
A woman’s voice echoed beyond the door, and Blair froze, stilling her hand above the doorknob. Goddess.
Lorkan hovered, a smug smile tugging at his lips. “Sounds like a busy man.”
His condescending, jarring tone had Blair’s sights turning red, her fingertips growing cold, and the shadows of the back alley darkening. Blair fled her darkening magic and burst through the back door—
Kneeling on the ground, Jace’s head was between a witch’s thighs as he pleasured her with his wickedly talented tongue. Heat scorched Blair’s cheeks—she’d sat at the edge of the desk in a similar position many, many times.
“Oh!” The witch threw her head back, hand tightening in Jace’s curls.
Though jealousy had been a close friend of late, it never joined Blair as she stood next to Lorkan, taking in the couple. Completely lost in bliss, Jace nor his lover noticed they had an audience. Instead, heavy breathing sent a shiver down Blair’s spine.
Lorkan stepped closer with the swiftness of fog over the stone floor.
She peered up at him, regret snuffed the heat blooming in her belly.
His eyes had turned molten, a predatory hunger gleaming in his amber stare.
Blair’s mouth turned dry. Not because she was afraid, but because of what it promised.
Something insatiable. Something irrevocable. Something she craved.
“YES!”
The tension snapped between them, and Blair averted her attention back to the entangled couple. Flushed and panting, the witch sat scrunched like she’d lost the use of her limbs, relaxed and tight all at once. Her eyes fluttered open and instantly landed on Blair.
“Goddess!” She swatted Jace’s head. “I thought you said the door was locked!”
Jace popped out from underneath her silk skirt. “It is locked, Daisy. I checked it three times!”
Daisy pointed a finger straight ahead. “Then how in the hel did they get in?”
Jace whirled and shot to his feet. “Blair? What are you doing here— Oh my gods, is that a werewolf?”
Daisy smirked, spreading her legs wider as she leaned back. “Oh, I’ve never been with a male like you before. Care to join us? Three is fun, but four is a party.”
“No,” Blair said through gritted teeth. Ah, there was jealousy, not so far away after all.
“We’re here for research,” Lorkan said. “Our visit is also urgent.”
Daisy’s stare lingered on Blair, and then she sighed. “Well, I guess that’s my cue to leave.” She laid an affectionate kiss on Jace’s cheek. “If you’d like to finish what we started, you know where to find me.”
The witch winked as she passed by Lorkan and strutted out the back door, humming a jolly tune.
“Can we trust her?” Lorkan asked once she was gone.
Blair’s stomach backflipped. Surely she’d misheard the level of concern in his tone.
Jace sighed, running a hand through his curls. “I don’t have the slightest idea.”
Lorkan rolled his eyes toward the ceiling. “Then we’d better make this quick before you have the Guard at your doorstep. Blair claims you possess a book written by ancient fae, detailing the bloodstone. I think you’re full of horseshit.”
Jace smirked, boyish and unabashed. “Prepare to be proven wrong.”
He gestured for them to follow him into the front of the shop.
Blair stepped to do just that when Lorkan grabbed her wrist.
“Are you alright?” he asked.
Blair opened and closed her mouth. “Excuse me?”
His nostrils flared, and he flicked his attention around the room. “Werewolves have a keen sense of smell. It took me thirty seconds to discover . . . you and Jace were once involved.”
She swallowed, and heat rose up her neck. “And?”
Lorkan hesitated, as if weighing his words. “We just walked in on him with another woman.”
Blair snorted, and she couldn’t explain the pain lodging in her throat. “Jace and I fucked on Mondays and Thursdays. Today’s Friday.”
She snatched her hand out of Lorkan’s grip. How dare he have the audacity to care or ask? Blair shook her head as she waltzed into the front room of Jace’s antique store, dismissing any thoughts of Lorkan’s confusing behavior and setting her sights on getting the book.
Jace yanked a chain switch in the corner, and a dozen lights popped on, casting their heady glow onto the hundreds of items in the shop.
Attached by invisible strings, the bones of a giant creature dangled from the ceiling.
With wings spread wide and toothy skull roaring towards the window, the remains of a dragon were positioned in mid-flight.
A tag hung from the tip of its tail, its three-thousand-year-old age written in thin cursive.
Caldrons, some too large for a table and others small enough to rest in Blair’s palm, lined the tables filled with timeless items. Amethyst crystals dotted the store in specks of purple.
Velvet cloaks buzzing with magic hung on a rack in the corner.
On the left wall, jars of dirt, dried herbs, and potions collected dust. On the right wall, waning black candles sat on a floating shelf.
Jace paused at an all-glass cabinet. Eerier items glared up at them—a vampyr’s fanged jaw, the coiled tail of a beast Blair’d never seen, the black feather of iolair, and a stack of ancient text.
Magic filtered out from the shelves as Jace opened it, and Blair spied the grimoires, research journals, and a text that had once been detailed with gold foil but was now splitting at the spine, its brittle pages barely hanging on.
Jace grabbed the text and placed it atop an empty table. Blair’s fingers tingled, the text’s age prickling in the air. Her magic sensed the power within the words and those who inked them to the page. Jace flipped it to the first chapter and revealed the lost language of faerie.
“Stars above.” Lorkan’s voice caused Blair to jolt. She’d not heard him approach from behind as he peered down at the text. “Interesting . . .”
“That’s all you have to say?” Jace asked, wide-mouthed. “This text samples at four thousand years old. I’ve conducted the test myself.”
Lorkan made a low rumble of acknowledgment.
Jace shot Blair a pained look.
She shrugged. “How on earth did your coven come by this?”
Jace smiled, a proud glint entering his blue eyes. “My great-great gran stole it from the Nūa Library.”
“Stole it?” both Blair and Lorkan hissed.
Jace threw up his hands. “Well, sort of. Apparently, after my gran had checked this book out from the library, the Nūa Library suffered a horrific fire. Checking books in and out wasn’t really their concern, and she simply kept it.”
Blair pocketed the information for later. “Why has no one bought the book? This is an insane collector’s item.”
“It’s a thousand silvers,” Jace said.
“What?“ Blair asked.
“That’s absurd,” Lorkan said.
“It’s four thousand years old,” Jace grumbled.
“We can’t pay that sum,” Blair said.
Jace shrugged. “Then you can use it here for as long as you need—“
“Are you really going to put a price tag on breaking the Blood Curse?” Lorkan said, his voice far too calm.
Jace’s eyes widened. He opened his mouth, but stopped, his attention falling outside the window. “Shit.”
Elder Circe waltzed across the street, heading straight for the antique shop’s front door, nose high in the air.
“Both of you need to hide. Now.”
Blair snatched the text off the table. Jace glared, but there was no time. He ushered them into the back of the shop. A heavy knock rattled the door, and Jace sprinted to let Elder Circe in.
“We need to go—“
Blair laid a hand over Lorkan’s mouth, placing a finger over her own to silence him. His eyes flared, but Blair ignored the heat searing her hand at their skin-to-skin contact.
They should leave, but interest nagged at Blair. Why was Circe visiting Jace’s shop? What artifacts or antiques was she after? Was Jace working with her? Her thoughts tumbled alongside her churning stomach. She conjured her winds, buzzing a magic of air that concealed her and Lorkan’s presence.
“Good morning, Circe—“
“It’s Elder Circe.“ The witch snorted.
“What can I help you with, Elder?” Jace’s tone edged with annoyance.
Circe sighed, her voice growing closer as if she moved further into the store.
“I came across the most interesting information this morning. Your great-great gran checked out a text long ago. I thought it was lost to the fires as so many texts were, but imagine my surprise when I discovered it’d never been returned to the library. Where is it?”
Jace laughed, and Blair stiffened. He didn’t know Elder Circe like she did, hadn’t experienced her wrath against Evelyn and Kade.
“Why are you so certain my coven even has this text still?” Jace said.
“Because I had a colleague scribe for faerie-touched things in the city. Only one item appeared, and it is in this shop.”
Lorkan snatched Blair’s hand from his mouth. He glared. Jaw ticking. Golden eyes lethal. His stare screamed Now!
Jace’s next words were louder, pointed. “Perhaps the text is with someone for safekeeping. After all, it is a priceless item.”
Realization dawned on Blair—Jace was telling her to go.
Hope. It settled over her like morning dew.
Goddess, her swelling pride receded. She and Lorkan had the book.
They had to leave before things escalated, like their last stint in the village.
If Jace could lie to an Elder, she could face a village she’d sworn never to visit again.
But could she leave him and let him face the consequences? What if Circe hurt him?
No, that wasn’t it. Of course, she cared for Jace in a friend-like way, and she appreciated his help, but reflection made her face the truth—Blair was afraid of who she was outside this city.
The painful memories of Fika were one thing, but being back in the Drengr Village and being around Lorkan made her off-kilter.
Here, beyond the Wall, she was safe, away from the reminder of her broken heart and from that young, foolish girl she’d been.
In Nūa, she recalled her place—a second born, a scholar.
She held that truth like the book she clutched to her chest.
Vísdómr was a library, one with the answers on how to break the curse, and Fika, though the village where her heart had shattered, was simply a place on the map along the way.
Instead of running from the memories, perhaps Blair would be better off running into them headfirst, a cold reminder that sticking to who she was didn’t get her hurt.
The back door eased open, breaking Blair from her tumbling thoughts, and Daisy popped her head inside. She motioned for them to join her, and on cautious feet, Blair and Lorkan darted out into the alley.
“I’ll help Jace distract Circe. Go.” Daisy slammed the door shut, leaving them in the chilly air.
Rook cawed from above, and with her decision made, Blair twisted her hands and created a danu.
Lorkan grabbed her elbow, eyeing the other side with narrowed eyes. “Where does this lead?”
Blair inhaled, and with Rook on her shoulder, she crossed from Nūa to a quaint town. Over her shoulder she called, “Fika.”