Page 12 of Bounty Hunter

He stops for a moment, thinking with a finger and thumb stroking his chin in a manner far more mature than he looks. “How to word this?” He paces for a few seconds longer. “Your kingdom loves your magic, and you are bound to it. If it suffers, you suffer.” I nod, thinking of the blackening mark on my shoulder. He continues, “Lucent magic, when used, turns gloam. For years now, there has been no Tulip to recycle the magic, and so naturally, gloam is growing as lucent has decreased. You need a Tulip to restore the gloam to lucent. Even a king can’t do that.” He clasps his hands behind his back and strides from one side of the small space to the other, almost in circles. “Lucentia placed within all the royal heirs and within her chosen Tulips a draw to each other. Which is the reason you will have a magnetism toward a Tulip.”

“You mean like attraction?”

He shakes his head. “There can be that, too, but what I’m talking about is deeper, a magical magnetism.” He repeats himself with a smile. “I like that.Magical magnetism. Has a nice ring to it, doesn’t it? I do enjoy alliteration.”

I pull him back to the conversation. “A natural draw to their magic. Continue.”

“Yes, yes. That draw, it’s how you’ll know you’ve found one since they’ll likely keep the mark on their neck hidden. Their reputation has suffered the last two hundred years, you know. Not to mention they were hunted down and murdered.”

I nod, but this all sounds crazy. Maybe Jethonan drank that rancid potion, and it ruined his brilliance. I narrow my eyes at him, watching for oddities, but I realize that’s useless—he’s full of them on a normal day.

“What exactly are their abilities?”

“Ah, yes, another important point.” He walks to his bookshelf and pulls out the book he used last week. He opens it back to the page showing the woman in the gown. “See the white bird here? That indicates peace. Black Tulips have only defensive magic. The black tulip flower is the ancient symbol of magic itself.”

“Ablacktulip? Black symbolizes gloam.” I lift a brow at him, still not completely sure if I believe they aren’t evil incarnate as I’ve been taught.

“Not really. Magic is magic. Lucent. There’s always a bit of gloam, and always will be—just as there is night and day in perfect balance. It’s the unrecycled waste of used magic, and it’s currently out of balance because we don’t have a proper way to restore it. But when our kingdoms work with the Tulips and they fill our kingdoms with lucent magic, the gloam is naturally restored, and things come into balance, effectively drowning out the dark creatures naturally and quickly turning it back over to light.” He looks up with a frown, thinking. “Though, I’m not sure how that balance will be repaired since it’s been so long and gloam is thriving. Better find a mighty powerful Tulip.” He chuckles off-handedly, like he’s not talkingabout the survival of my kingdom. “Something we’ll see, I guess.”

He begins pacing slowly around his office with his hands behind his back. He’s always had difficulty being still. “Anyway, where was I? Ah, yes. The black tulip is the ancient symbol of magic and indicates that they areverypowerful. Where all others risk death if they pull too much magic, Tulips have no limit.”

My brows raise, impressed. I know well the fine balance between pulling magic and the energy required to survive. It can be dangerous, more so with how much more energy is required now to pull even small amounts of magic. I experienced it firsthand while battling the shard beast. People have died just trying to use magic to accomplish simple tasks now that things have gotten so bad.

“They’re peaceful and powerful. Got it. But what can they do with all that power if they don’t use it to fight?”

Jethonan pats the book as he’s passing by. “According to the book, they can share it with individuals on a case-by-case basis, but there are no details about how that works. Seems similar to an Originator, at first.” He shrugs. “But they seem to have gifts of a variety of forms of magic.” He lifts fingers as he lists. “Originators, Hunters, Healers… you get my point. Makes them very difficult to recognize without the magical draw between them and a king or a visual of their mark.”

I list off a quick version of what I’ve learned so I remember it. “So, they can offer raw magic at will, heal, and have some hunter senses.”

Jethonan nods. “It seems their magic is most similar to Originators, to me. Though from the sounds of it, their magic runs cool and is white, whereas Originators, as you know, have more of a yellow magic that runs hot when shared in great amounts.Lucentia wanted her Tulips different, their magic made specially to complement the king. After all this time, though, they’re likely very good at hiding it, and it may not be noticeable.” He looks at me like that’s a big deal when all I can think is that this search is like a needle in a haystack.

“Where do I find them?” I run a hand roughly through my hair.

He passes by again, his robes fluttering behind him while he gestures again to the book. “These books are ancient records, so it is impossible to verify their current-day accuracy. I’ll tell you what I do know. They used to be a tight-knit group, even had a school where Tulips would live, a sort of boarding school to learn about their gifts andhowto be a Tulip. Now? I don’t know.”

Right. I’m supposed to find a woman who has skills that could place her among any of the factions, without seeing a mark, and she could potentially take over our world by bridging with an enemy. That’s going to go over well if this information is widely spread.

This is a lot to take in, and I’m still not surehowI’m supposed to find one. “Thank you for your help, I’m sure I’ll be back with more questions.” I nod to him and head for the door, but he stops me.

“One more thing, my lord!”

I turn slowly, not sure I want to knowone more thing.“Yes?”

He laughs uncomfortably. “There’s also a flower you’ll need in order to bridge. The Tulips know where to find it, but…”

“I’ll have to search for it,” I say flatly. Of course no one knows. I curse under my breath and sigh. “Where can I find another one… more… of the flowers?”

“It can only be found in the Lucent Mountains. There lies the only field of black tulips. Only a worthy king can take one. I read that Lucentia ensures her Tulips are cared for only by the best.”

I stare blankly at him. No one goes there. It’s probably entirely engulfed by gloam at this point. And a worthy king? From the looks of my mark, that’s not me.

He continues quickly, aware of my darkening mood and seeming as ready as I to be done with the conversation. “I would highly recommend taking an Originator to amplify your magic for the journey.”

“The High Kingdom can’t spare any of the Originators. I’ll have to find one elsewhere.” I can’t leave my people completely unprotected and helpless while I’m away, though I only hire the best of the best Originators, and it’s tempting to hire one of them for this important journey. “We’ll discuss this more later.”

As I stalk down the echoing hallway, the literal downpour of information I just endured seems too deep—as if I can’t come up for air and the weight of it is going to crush me. And what about Nadiette?

Chapter 9

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