Page 105 of Shattered Jewel

I reach for the grimoire with both hands before I stop myself, fingers splayed in midair.

It’s not even respect for Clover’s clear, gentle handling of the book that prevents me from grabbing it with my bare hands. It was purely instinctual. I don’t want to touch it. It’s one of the last things Maverick touched when he ripped out Sarah’s confession on where the Heart was locked away.

I don’t want to touch this thing.

Yet, my eyes eat it up. Maverick decided to preserve this drawing. The amulet is perfectly detailed, from the shading of the dark and light to the uncut angles. The full ruby.

“This is what it looked like before Maverick broke it,” I breathe.

“Read what’s written below,” Clover says.

I do as she says, noticing the small, flourished script, written in the days when handwriting was considered elite. My fingers hover over the yellowed page.

“‘Paid to the Anderton house,’” Clover says without bothering to read upside-down. She’s memorized it. “‘A ruby whose circumference is the largest we’ve seen. Its inner glow screams with power, a whisper of the unearthly caught within its flaming heart. Beware its allure, for even in our possession, it seeks its rightful master.’”

Skeletal hands caresses my shoulders. The idea that a ruby has mystical powers is laughable, but there’s something in the way those words are penned that makes me jumpy.

“I never thought much of the written descriptions below the jewels after we recovered the Anderton treasure,” Clover continues, almost to herself. “But you’ve successfully turned my and the Vultures’ theories right on its head.”

“Tempest mentioned finding the treasure, too,” I murmur, raising my eyes from the book to Clover. “Both of you clam up as soon as you’re asked to describe it, though.”

“That’s because, if we made what it truly is public, we’d tank Titan Falls tourism, the founding families’ reputations, and ruin a lot of lives, not to mention history. People were killed to keep it a secret, and there are those that will still murder to keep it from coming out.”

I point to the amulet. “Kind of like that thing?”

Clover blows out a breath. “Yes. Sarah Anderton is the gift that keeps on giving. I thought all this ended when I uncovered her daughter’s name.”

I gape at her. “You know that, too?”

Clover nods. “Don’t ask me to tell you. I can’t. It falls under the horror I just listed. Part of Titan Falls’ appeal is its history, the idea that a priceless treasure is hidden away somewhere and a woman and her daughter were persecuted for it. Finding out her name is part of that draw, and part of what keeps a lot of powerful people where they are in the Titan Falls hierarchy. It’s not worth upending. Believe me.”

Her expression grows so somber, I’m lead to believe Clover experienced certain horrors herself when she became involved in the Vultures and sought to reveal the true history of the Andertons, like so many who tried and failed before her.

Yet she succeeded.

My voice drops to a whisper. “I’m related to her.”

“What?”

A lightning storm of copper bursts in Clover’s eyes.

I gulp. “There’s a high likelihood that I’m a descendant of the Anderton line.”

Clover shakes her head as if flinging away the insane thought, but she doesn’t dismiss what I’ve said outright.

A part of me wishes she would just laugh in my face and negate my fears.

For a moment, she’s so dumbfounded that she can’t speak. Then, with a suspicious lightness to her tone, she asks, “How do you figure that?”

“Cavanaugh Nightshade’s ancestors are the ones who accused Sarah and put her to death. She vocally cursed the Nightshades while she was tortured, and Cav believes the curse is real. His entire family line went through their lives failing to battle this curse of theirs. But … me, Kaspian, Axe, and Wilder discovered a hidden altar room below Thornhaven, the Court members’ Estate. Well, Maverick found it first, but…”

I pause, getting my breaths under control so I can stop rambling.

“Anyway, Maverick said the altar room is where Sarah died, where all these girls the former Sovereigns were taking were being sacrificed, too. I’m trying to find a link. It’s why I’ve come to you, because Cav said the Nightshades took a baby from Sarah’s arms. Her grandchild. And—sold her. That baby is where my family line comes from. I don’t know if it’s Wraithwood or Farrow or … I’m sorry. I’m rambling again.”

Clover listens with a mixture of intrigue, pity, and concern. Every emotion flits across her her cheeks, the corners of her mouth, the quirk of her brows.

Until they smooth and she looks at me anew, as though I’m on her team, suddenly privy to a secret that sets us both apart from the rest of the world.

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