Page 55 of A Kingdom of Monsters

“Another vision?” Lonnie asked hopefully.

Again, I shook my head. “Not this time. I just have a lot to think about.” I took a breath. “I think we should travel to Inbetwixt in the morning.”

“Why? Bael asked, his yellow eyes narrowing. In the dim light, his irises glowed, like that of an animal.

“Because I don’t want to focus on Idris. Instead, we need to concentrate on breaking the curse.”

Bael made a slightly angry noise in the back of his throat and Lonnie audibly sighed, her shoulders slumping. “Isn’t that what we’ve been doing all this time?”

“Yes, but listen to me. You heard what Ciara said downstairs about draining, and she wasn’t wrong. As long as your circle of bonds remains broken you’ll never have enough magic to pull from to take on Idris, or to maintain power over the kingdom afterwards. His coup was public, and it will take years and many battles to regain the reputation we once had.”

“It could also take years to find out how to break the curse,” Bael growled.

“It could, but I doubt it.” I held out the book to them. “Grandmother left us all her notes, and I’ve spent the last several hours deciphering them.”

“I can’t read this,” Lonnie bemoaned, pushing the book back toward me.

“Here, then look at this.”

I flipped to a page with a drawing and slid it back toward her. She and Bael leaned over the book as one, assessing. Lonnie opened her mouth, undoubtedly to ask questions, but I cut her off, already prepared to explain.

“This is that same crown we kept seeing pictured in the other books. Celia was clearly ruminating on it for years. Perhaps for decades, but here she’s drawn it differently. See, instead of thethree pointed crown with a jewel on each, she’s made it a five pointed crown. Like the obsidian crown.”

“You said the obsidian crown never had jewels.” She eyed me suspiciously. “There were historical records and whatever else to prove it.”

I smiled. This was the part of my theory I found the most interesting–the bit that confirmed for me that I was on the right path, finally, after so long of wandering aimlessly.

“I believe that it didn’t have those jewels anymore by the time the Unseelie king stole the crown from Aisling and took her away from Aftermath. I already recognized one of the jewels as the diamond of Nevermore. I believe the others belong to Inbetwixt and Overcast.”

I widened my eyes, expecting them to catch on and join in my glee at having finally worked something out.

“Did she dismantle the crown herself?” Scion asked.

I looked over at him, startled. I hadn’t realized he’d woken up. “I believe so. It seems too much of a coincidence that Aisling had three mates, one from each province, and here we have dozens of drawings of the crown jewel of each realm set into the obsidian crown. But if she took her crown apart, spreading the pieces between her bonded, that would make sense.”

“So we just need the stones?” Lonnie clarified. “That’s it?”

“And a way to put it back together,” I conceded. “But if we can do both…” I let my sentence trail off, leaving them to make the rest of the connections on their own.

“This is amazing,” Lonnie beamed. She made a small lurching motion, as if about to hug me, then stopped herself. I bitback disappointment. It was such a small thing, but I felt like a starving man grasping for scraps. Anything she offered was better than nothing.

“I agree this is the best information we’re going to get,” Scion said. “We should leave for Inbetwixt tomorrow.”

I looked sideways at him. “Are you agreeing with me?”

He scowled. “I’m agreeing with the best possible option.”

I raised my eyebrows. Whatever he cared to tell himself.

“Why should we go to Inbetwixt first?” Bael asked, also looking much happier than he had when I entered.

“Because I’m almost certain that your friends in the thieves guild have the stone. Or, at the very least, they’ll be able to help get it. There’s a passage about it in the book. The stone used to be kept at the Lord and Lady’s manor, but several years ago it was taken.”

“Oh, good.” Lonnie sighed in relief. “I wouldn’t want to go back and see the Lord and Lady of Inbetwixt, anyway.”

“But if we know Cross has the stone, why should we go there first?” Scion asked. “If we know they have the stone and have been presumably keeping it safe for a while, shouldn’t we go look for one of the others first?”

I shook my head. “No, it must be Inbetwixt first. We’ll need the thieves' help to reach the stone, but I’m not sure how much longer they’ll be in the city.”

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