Page 63 of The Duplicity of Thieves

“Yes, she was, but she had different views. When I was a kid, Kate would always rant on and on about prophecies and monsters. My mom didn’t know that I would listen to them at night when I couldn’t sleep. When she would hear me creeping around, they would speak in Mondurian. I asked her about it once, and that was when she called it the Tartarian Tongue. Said that it was an old way of thinking. I loved Aunt Kate. It was always fun when she came over, but my mom didn’t share a lot of her opinions. Called it a heretical way of thinking.”

“So your mom did Magic?”

“No, she laid it down after The Burning. It was something she argued with Kate about. She was worried if anyone found out that we would burn, too.”

“Stafford said all witches had books.”

The fact that Vivian is an unpracticed witch doesn’t escape me. As close as we are, I've never known that about her or her mother. I didn’t realize her connection with Kate was so complicated.

“Not all of them had one. It was just one. The Grimoire. It was burned with Nyx’s temple. It was full of ancient Magic. Only Nyx’s priestess could call on it. One of her gifts. I heard about that during a particularly nasty argument with Kate.”

“I can’t believe your mother was a witch.”

“I didn’t want to talk about it. I was angry at her for a long time for never teaching me, but I get it now.” She shrugs. “I think Kate never taught me anything to respect her wishes.”

“Stafford is looking for the Grimoire,” I admit. Her head snaps up.

“What would he want with it?”

“Apparently, he knew, and or knows now, that Kate was a witch, and he thought she had it. He says people want the book, but he is trying to find it first to keep it out of their hands,” I explain.

“It doesn’t matter. Even if she did somehow have it in her possession it would have burned with the house,” she grits out.

“That’s what I said.”

“I can sense a ‘but’.”

“But I was doing some spring cleaning,” I lie obviously. “And decided that I should finally remove Killian’s things from my closet. I took out the duffel bag and emptied it…” I take a deep breath to prepare myself. “I found it.”

“Found the Grimoire?” she asks slowly.

“I’m pretty sure. It has weird thing on the front and locks. I can’t get it to budge open a centimeter.” I leave out the part about the symbols matching mine. This doesn’t feel like the time.

“Sounds like that’s exactly what it was. Did you give it to Staff?”

“No.”

“Don’t,” she urges me. “Don’t get me wrong, I love Stafford. He’s really done a lot for us, but if it remotely gets mishandled we have no idea what is in, there and the kind of Magic Kate was capable of if she had it. If she was reading the spells in there…Ancient Magic is beautiful, but it’s also dangerous. Like I said, it was a gift from Nyx, and she’s not really the do-good type.”

“Then what do you suggest I do?”

“I don’t know, but you can’t keep it. You have to destroy it.”

“Why?”

“Hello? Did you not hear me? Danger. Ancient Magic. Dark Magic.”

I let her words sink in. Fuck me. Of course I would end up in this situation. Maybe whoever killed Kate that night knew what they were doing. They killed her before she could get rid of it. But why keep it in the first place?

“There’s more,” I continue.

“Fucking hell, Josie.”

“Do you remember that story Kate used to read to us?” I blurt out. We’re too far down the path to stop now.

“Those dark tales?”

“Yes,” I quickly reply.

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