Page 5 of Justice

“I beg to differ,” she grumbled.

“At this point, I don’t doubt that you would try to challenge fate to a duo.” Sterling laughed. “But something greater than us is at work. This book has so many answers; it’s – well, it’s almost creepy. It’s like it’s writing itself as we go.”

I cut in, “I don’t doubt that it is. In the first half, it talks about legends and history, the prophecies. Past that, it gives us geological locations of importance. Some make sense, and some don’t. Some location’s powers were never hidden and tend to be a hot spot to recharge for the paranormal, like Niagara Falls, for instance.”

“What does this have to do with me?” She wiggled in my lap impatiently, trying to get me to get to the point.

“This book has information that corresponds with the prophecy and links you to it,” I began, and she stopped me.

“That doesn’t mean much. It could be a total coincidence.”

Sterling cleared his throat, and her eyes fell to him. “That may be true. Except there was this.”

He flipped to the page of the book he needed and held it out to her. “The page on the right is blank. That’s because it hasn’t written itself yet.”

“Written itself?” Honestly, at first, I didn’t want to believe it. I couldn’t, but the evidence was too strong.

“Read it. Read the pages before that one,” Sterling instructed.

She took the book from his hand, skimming over the words before her hand came to her mouth, shock written all over her face. “How is this possible?”

“I would have thought it wasn’t,” I admitted. “But it’s there. Everything that has happened from the moment we got summoned to this house until the sea creature’s defeat and you healing Sterling.”

“I’m a little disappointed the page after that is blank. I definitely thought that was something to write about,” Sterling added, and I ignored him.

“Every key point of our journey together is documented.”

She dropped the book, letting it fall to the floor like it was a hot ember, painful to the touch. Its nearly translucent pages fluttered as it fell until it landed open at my feet. I reached down and picked it up before skimming over the page it landed on. “According to this, you need to collect some powerful artifacts that will give you strength when the time comes to defeat Greta. Greta isn’t the ultimate power, but she could be if you fail. Her willing followers are slim, but she controls a wide variety of paranormal unwillingly. She has camps she uses to harbor her strength.”

“You got all that from a book?” She seemed suspicious, but the more I read from the book, the more it all seemed to fall into place.

“Page fifty-four,” Sterling responded.

“I have to admit,” Ellis spoke, and he had been so silent, I nearly forgot he was there, “I’m skeptical. But stranger things have happened recently. I know Liberty feels the same. So, then, what’s next?”

I help up the book where it had landed, displaying the page it had fallen open to. “It appears that we go get a necklace.”

“From?” Liberty asked.

“I’ve not figured that out yet. Truthfully, we’ve only skimmed. I haven’t read the full book.” But I had skimmed enough to know that she would not be thrilled about some of her future. Fuck, I wasn't thrilled either. Call me selfish, go ahead, but if there were any way to prevent what would inevitably take place, I would choose that option every damn time.

Liberty grabbed the book from my hand and read the pages. “Somewhere in England.” She squinted at the notes in the side margin before listing off the cities James had left us. They sounded familiar, but I hadn’t pieced together the details.

“I know those cities. They came from my research. They used to belong to our families.” Ding, ding, ding. There it was. “What do we do with them?”

Liberty’s eyes lit up before she squirmed off my lap, and it took all my power to let her leave. I wanted to clamp my hands down harder, will her to stay. I didn’t fucking want things to stay this way, but I didn’t want fucking change either. Couldn’t we just be for a moment? Have a few days, a week, a year of tranquility? But no, the moment her feet hit the floor, she was pulling and searching through piles of maps James had hoarded until she found the one she wanted. When she laid it down, she put a pin through the city names.

We all rose to watch her work, and when all cities were pinned, a perfectly even triangle was formed. We hovered above the map, staring, trying to figure it out. “Everyone willing to agree that where we need to go is within this triangle?” I heard mumbled agreements. “So, now what?”

Liberty bit her lip, working the tender flesh as she stared down. Time dragged as if we thought something would magically appear and make itself known. It didn’t. The longer I stared, the more I doubted we would get anywhere.

“Anyone else wants a sandwich?” Ellis finally asked.

“Didn’t you just eat?” Liberty questioned.

He shrugged. “I’m a stress eater.”

She tilted her head from side to side as she contemplated. “I’ll take one, no mayo.”

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