Page 44 of Forsaken Secrets

If this were true, there really could be a fortune there. Artifacts, books, maybe even relics …

My heart raced. Could it possibly be true?

No. I'd hunted the whole area since I moved here at seven. There was no secret library! Unless … could that be the ruins I'd seen when we'd fallen?

No. I didn't have that kind of luck.

Still, though … I thought back to the board at the Harlsteds and ran my finger along the front of the book. What if he was right, and there were tempered relics down there?

If it was an experimental area, it was definitely a possibility …

That could give us the money we needed!

Nervous excitement flaring in my belly, I looked up at him, the small book carefully balanced on my palm. "Where did you get the book? How do you know it's accurate? It certainly doesn't seem that old."

He shrugged, eyes dropping to the right. "Does it really matter?"

"If you want me to trust you, it does." I'd need to tell him about those ruins, and I didn't want to do that without fully understanding the situation.

He let out a deep breath and adjusted the collar of his shirt before speaking. "I can tell you that no one will come after us. It was from a … family library, of sorts."

I studied his face for a moment, then pursed my lips as I slipped open the cover and stared at the first page. It was a black-and-white picture of two men, their clothes dating back to before The Fall. One faced away from the camera, his dark hair cut short, and his shoulders stiff. The other man had long curly hair and grinned widely as he held up a stack of books.

Who were they? What had happened to them? If Eli was right, could they be the Druid and the Drake?

I flipped through the book, my excitement growing with each new page.

There were diagrams of all kinds of relics, with strange strings leading in and out of them, and pages of notes! Some things were in Fae, but most was actually understandable.

I couldn't say no to this …

It would be fun, and it had the potential to help us with our debt. Worst-case scenario, we spent a few days searching and found nothing.

We'd be no worse off than we were now.

"You'll need to find a Reaper and a permit," I said, words clipped. "I don't want this coming back to bite me in the ass later."

His lips twisted into a grimace and he muttered, "I am one."

"A what?"

"A Reaper."

"A Reaper?" My mind raced. "But how … I mean, you're awful at everything! Why not work with one of your own people?"

He chuckled dryly and shifted on his feet. "I'm still new and trying to prove myself. So, if I hire someone outside the Guild, I'm able to keep the credit for myself. Plus, I'd give you part of the money to repay my life-debt AND we'd get to spend more time together. It's a win-win situation."

Spending more time together was exactly what I'd hoped to avoid, but the rest made sense. Of course a rich lordling could get a license without putting in the real work.

"How do I know that you're telling the truth? You could just take the relics and leave without me getting any compensation."

"Hmm. I'll admit that I hadn't thought of that. But of course you wouldn't trust me. You don't even know me."

He didn't know half of it!

"What if you kept some of our find and let the Harlsteds sell them for you? My aunt mentioned you letting them do that before?"

My stomach knotted at the risk they'd be taking, but they had done it for us before, and had assured me many times that it wasn't any big danger for them …

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