Page 108 of A Touch of Gold and Madness

The name Jensen sounded oddly familiar. I racked my brain trying to place it. It hit me, “Jensen? That’s the runner at the—”

“The speakeasy where you tried to slit my throat? Yes, little savage, that’s the one,” Chrome cut in, drawling with an amused grin.

I snorted, shaking my head but otherwise keeping silent, ignoring the heated reaction my body had to his seductive tone.

Orion bit his cheeks to hide his smile, but the twinkle in his sea-green eyes gave him away. “Anyway,” he said. “She met him at his current scorse location. His scouts and spies reported that Forest plans to make a move—and fast. He’s desperately searching for the location of this Hollow. He knows you run it, Chrome.” Orion trained a pointed look at Chrome and then swiveled that gaze to me. “Gray, he’s searching for you, too. He suspects you’ve met up with Chrome. It seems he doesn’t want either of you dead, after all. Now that he’s expediting his plans, he will stop at nothing to have you both brought to him alive.”

Orion sighed and leaned back in his seat. “Harlow also mentioned there’s a book. A book about both Elementals and Kinetics origins. It’s been lost to our kind for millennia. No one in our recent generations knows it even exists because it fell into the humans’ hands long ago for protection. Now, Hogan and his clan are charged with its safekeeping. Harlow’s source didn’t say how they retrieved it, only that it was a top-priority mission of theirs.”

Chrome leaned forward and narrowed his eyes at Orion, listening intently. I combed through my memories for any mention of a book that matched Orion’s description. Nothing was there. This was brand-new information to me. And by the looks of it, it was for Chrome, too.

“Roughly translated, it’s titledThe Book of the Arcane,” Orion said, falling into a teacher mode that seemed so natural for him. “According to Hogan, it holds the key to stopping Forest’s plans. It has all the knowledge our kind has sought for so long regarding our origins, our purpose, the Endarkened, and many other secrets. If it fell into the wrong hands, then…” He didn’t need to finish.

My head snapped up at the mention of the Endarkened. I dared a sideways glance at Chrome. He sat motionless. I wondered if he was even breathing.

“So, we retrieve the book from Hogan in the morning,” Chrome said, leaving no room for debate.

Orion leaned forward, propping his weight on his forearms on the desk. “We would, but Sergeant Hogan insisted we wait a few months. He’s moving his militia to their underground compound. And since our emissary was recently at his current location, it isn’t safe to visit the same location twice. It increases the risk of exposure to scouts, which could blow everything.”

Chrome closed his eyes and dropped his neck to the side. Loud pops rippled down it before he repeated the same motion on the other side. “A few months? That’s asking a lot.” He sighed. “But we leave as soon as it’s safe.”

Orion cleared his throat. “He also said he’d come to us. Figures the travel will be more discreet that way. He can bring the tome and only a handful of his most trusted confidants,” he explained. “There’s one more thing. The militia’s intel gathered more information on Forest.” He poured another glass of liquor, the pungent smell wafting to my nose.

The knuckles on Chrome’s fingers were white as he squeezed the wooden armchair. “And?”

Orion took a casual sip. “And he’s received an ancient book of his own. Apparently, he’s been developing a backup plan in the event you two died before he could use you. We still don’t know precisely what he seeks. But it’s believed that it’s detailed in theBook of the Arcane.” He raised his browsand glanced between us. His gaze lingered on Chrome, a disapproving expression crossing his face.

I studied them, trying to figure out what wasn’t being said and what I was missing. “What? What are you not telling me?”

Chrome sighed, rubbing his palms over his face. Orion looked at him expectantly, crossing his arms. “Yes, Chrome. Do share with the princess the vital information you’ve been withholding.”

“Excuse me?” I turned to face Chrome. How much more new information was he going to reveal to me in one night? How much more was he hiding?

Chrome shot an accusing glare at Orion before sitting back and facing me head-on. “The realm that Forest seeks to enter is called Arcadia. What he may or may not know is that if he opens the veil separating the two worlds, it won’t just be a portal. It’ll collapse the veil between here and Arcadia. Seeing as Arcadia is the dimension that sits right above ours, separated only by the thin veil, that would mean that without it, our worlds would be combined, with Arcadia plopping right on top of us.”

I gave Chrome a blank expression. “And you’re just now telling me this because…”

“Because there’s more that ties into it.”

“For fuck’s sake.” I looked up at the ceiling, my chest tight.

“Arcadia is a magical realm, but not a pure one anymore. It’s full of dark magic, cast by these sorceresses and sorcerers called Tempests. They practice blood magic, and their power feeds off the magic of other beings, leaving behind a poison on everything it depletes, including wildlife and nature. The realm is decaying from the lack of magic. If Arcadia merges with our world, that would leave us vulnerable for the Tempests to deplete from.” “That sounds like the—”

“The Endarkened. We think there’s a connection,” Chrome finished for me.

“Who is ‘we’?”

Chrome’s shoulders tensed, hesitating. “I have a confidential source. I can’t reveal who they are. But they are relaying me information about Arcadia.”

“How?”

With another sigh, he said, “I can’t go into that. But they have connections with your father.”

“Do I know them?”

Orion cleared his throat. “There’s more you should know, Gray,” he interrupted, dipping his head at Chrome, indicating for him to continue.

I bet I knew his contact. The question was,who was it? “What?”

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