Page 106 of The Keeper of the Kingdoms

“We found a recipe, but I’m not sure we are reading the translation correctly. Plus, there is no mention of these ingredients anywhere. That’s why we were retranslating it ourselves. It feels like a dead end.”

“Have you checked with the botanists?” Gran asked.

“I asked them about it. They had no record of Lepidodendron.”

“Because not everything in these texts still exists. Wepreserve as much as we can, but some are lost to us forever while others cannot be grown because the ways are lost to us.” Gran shrugged like I should have known all of this. “You need to check the seed archive for extinct plants.”

“Are you sure? Couldn’t it be as simple as a name changed in translation?” I’d never run into this problem before. We used the old language as much as the new in alchemy. There wasn’t another system.

“Before the Twelve Kingdoms united, we each had our own language, Firefly.” She shrugged. “It’s possible. I don’t recall it having another name, just that it’s extinct as far as we know.”

“Let me work through this and see if I reach the same conclusion as you,” she suggested.

“Thanks, Gran.” I leaned in and put my head on her shoulder.

“It’s what I’m here for, child. Old magic translations and relationship advice.”

I sighed.

“Talk to him. It might just be fear guiding you.”

“I don’t know. I feel it in my gut,” I admitted.

“Don’t ever ignore your gut, Firefly. It’s the most powerful tool you’ve got.”

FORTY-ONE

KIERA

“Idon’t like it,” Jaxus grumped.

“I know you don’t, but it’s the right thing to do. I owe him at least the courtesy of breaking it off with him officially and I need to let the council know I have a mate.”

“Let them know they can’t have you back to become one of their breeding females, you mean?”

I sighed. “Exactly.”

“Wouldn’t you rather I just tell him?” Jaxus gave me a big grin.

I rolled my eyes, wishing it could be so. “While that would be easier and funnier, I don’t think it would go over well.” He’d probably try and poison him or something for all my luck, I thought to myself.

“I heard that.” Jaxus looked at the cup of coffeehe’d been drinking. “I’m not eating anything else I don’t see made in front of me.”

“Like you’d be able to determine if they were poisoning you even if you watched it being made.”

His upper lip curled. “Good point. No more tiny mushrooms!”

“You going to cook everything the rest of the time we’re here?”

“Don’t think I won’t. I’ll hand-feed it to you, too.” The look in his eyes told me he was entirely serious.

Heat pooled in my belly. “Stop.” I pointed a finger at him. “I need to do this.”

He slipped his fingers between mine as we walked to Casimir’s family compound. Theirs was one of the largest in the city, with all of the family dwelling in interconnected homes. I’d always hated the idea of being forced to live with his mother hovering around. I was so happy that was no longer my future.

“I don’t want you going in there alone,” Jaxus insisted.

“You’ll hardly be welcome, you know?”

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