Page 91 of A Dusk Of Stars

Then I feel it all stop, as abruptly as it started, leaving my heart pounding.

For a moment, I keep staring at the corpse, then force myself to keep my cool when I sense Bane walk over to me with his eyebrows pulled down.

“Let’s be quick about this,” I say, trying to sound light. I squeeze the crystal tighter and, feeling three pairs of eyes on me, I lift it up and let it drop, slowly swinging on the thread until it gradually stops.

Of course, it’s vibrating, and not gently at that. It’s no wonder, that this is the effect of some magic. What else could it be?

I let the crystal hang for a couple of minutes, in complete silence. But it doesn’t seem to be trying to lead me anywhere. “It’s not Nature Magic,” I say, “that’s for sure.”

I look around the space once more, feeling its vibe seep into my bones like ice-cold tar. “A goddamn curse,” I whisper.

“It’s not a curse,” Bane protests, but he doesn’t sound too sure now.

“It is,” I hear Raven’s voice. All our eyes dart to her, the one who’dknow. “I have no doubt about it,” she says in a strangely pensive voice.

I just look at her for a second, feeling the need to give her a hug and shrugging it off thinking I might make her uncomfortable. “See?” I turn to Bane instead. “I was right and you were wrong.”

“Some victory,” that’s what his look is telling me. Because he senses it now, too.

It does feel like a defeat more than anything else. I let my eyes sweep over the corpses once again. “So this is real.”

“Yeah,” Bane says in a low, serious voice, “this is real.”

Chapter 28

We’re in the garden — Alaric, Raven and I — lying around an ancient oak with the April sun beating down on us and other students walking past. There are papers strewn on the grass around us, but we’re all struggling to keep our focus on the task at hand, albeit for different reasons. Alaric is too focused on Raven, Raven is too focused on ravens skipping around, and I…

I'm torn between two things… I'm worrying about the whole end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it, especially when I think about how little progress I've made since my first real training session with Bane. Sure, I can shoot whips out of my fingers, but I'm not in control of them in the slightest. Electricity is proving to be a highly fickle thing. I know I need to be able to rein it in to actually use it, but no matter what I try to achieve it, it doesn't work.

I'm also failing to stop thinking about a certain someone. Today, it’s all got to do with the fact that, just last night, I left the light on after midnight and earned myself another one of thosewarning texts. But it also made me realize it’s beenmonthssince he and I started having sex. Which is a lot longer than I thought this would go on, especially since, well, my appetite for it isnotshowing any signs of waning.

To make it even worse… I look up from the papers to throw a sneaky glance at Alaric. He’s keeping his mouth shut for once, but I know he knows, and the fact he hasn’t said anything… It only goes to show he doesn’t approve.

It snaps me out of it, when he lets out a dragged-out sigh, his eyes fixed on the paper in front of him.

Now I’m back to worrying about the task at hand. Now that I've quit my part-time job in the Library, I definitely have more time and energy to devote to stuff like the papers in front of me — all containing information on places that might turn out to be spots where the other three pieces of Baldur are buried, but as my eyes sweep over them all, I once again find myself feeling desolate.

It’s like whatever I do, I can’t get any answers, just more questions, like whose voice it was in my head back in Harald.

The thought that it could be Baldur himself sends shivers down my spine. There’s this need inside me to tell someone about it, but it’s not like we’re not already trying to stop him from coming back. Why add to everyone’s troubles? This is a weight that I need to carry myself.

“Hopeless, isn’t it?” I say as I look at my friends, making them both sit up. “And if only I’d made progress on deciphering the ritual, maybe it would belesshopeless, but…”

“It doesn’t matter,” Alaric replies. “If you want to keep going, we’ll keep going.”

“I don’t know if there’s any point. These are just places peoplesayare cursed.”

“It is a start nevertheless,” Raven replies.

“Yeah,” I mumble, not really convinced. “But it’s been almost three months since we went to that place and we’ve nothing more to go on than we did back then.”

“Maybe it is time to rethink the way we are approaching the task,” she tells me.

It’s far from a novel idea, what she tells me, but it does something. I sit up. “Alright,” I start, determination in my voice, “I think I know what I want to do.”

“What?” Alaric asks, narrowing his eyes.

“Let’s just say I have these…” I pause, trying to find the right words. “Feelings about some of these places.”

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