Page 92 of The Brotherhood

Another.

No hesitation, no looking up, no thinking. Just translating while the room remained deathly still.

Seer’s gaze flicked to Bishop who had subtly shifted forward, clearly interested in likely what she’d seen in Sinrik who now sat with an impenetrable expression.

Beth looked too, face gripped in a mix of worry and curiosity at what secrets were unfolding.

Seer felt it. This was it. Something was happening. They all knew it but none of them knew what yet.

Page after page filled the floor.

Fifteen.

Sixteen.

Seventeen—

A single drop of red hit the page.

Maggie barely reacted, wiping at her nose absently, smearing blood as Spook hurried to her.

“That’s enough—” He grabbed her shoulders, steadying her as she tried to keep going. “Maggie, you’re done.”

She suddenly surrendered then gave a weak nod, dropping the pen.

Twenty pages.

The answers were there.

Now they only had to read them.

At the head of the room, Nidev called the only one who had done it before. “Zodak.”

Seer saw the shift in his friend before he even moved. He knew the storm that churned behind those black ocular gates, the way his mind dissected before his body followed.

The whole room watched as he stepped forward, his long, black skirt whispering against the stone floor, the tattoo-swirls covering his front and back seeming to move with him.

The air in the room shifted, like pressure dropping before a storm as Zodak walked around the spread sheets, angling his head as he went then circling back to the beginning.

He raised his hand and lifted his ocular gates.

Again, he moved from sheet to sheet, studying. Slower.

He suddenly paused. Looked back at the previous sheets. Then turned to the ones on his left.

He lowered and lifted one, moving it. Then another.

“What’s he doing?” Cherie whispered.

“I think he’s organizing them.”

When they were all in a single line, he turned those sharp, silver eyes right on Seer. “Come.”

The single word cracked through the silence and Seer’s pulse rose to answer as he made his way to him.

Once next to him, Zodak pointed. “Look here.”

Seer’s gaze was already locked on the first image. Had to be the Velkratos stronghold before it fell. Then another picture of a jagged, gaping abyss consuming the stronghold, dark lines dragging into the depths. But at the edges of the darkness—shapes moved within the void.

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