Page 50 of A Vow of Wrath and Ruin

Caiden walkedthrough the snowy streets of Vantris, chewing on a piece of willow bark to ease his throbbing head as he went. His stomach fluttered thinking about seeing Ora again, but he still hadn’t shaken the way his heart leapt when he thought of Aelia. Her inviting eyes, the way her hips rounded, the smile that lit up her face. He wanted to make her laugh, and he didn’t know why.

The library was quieter in the afternoons when most classes at the university took place. Paintings of the War of Three Kings scaled the walls. The dancing flames of the torches made them come alive.

“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Ora’s soft voice echoed from behind him. He turned to see the brown-eyed beauty staring up at the intricate painting of the famous Alder King Eoghan smiting a demon with the horns of a goat and the fangs of a wolf.

“It’s certainly something,” he said, wiping his palms on his pants. “I dreamed of being a fierce warrior, but a poison arrow cut my dreams short.”

“Not all warriors kill with swords,” Ora said.

“I guess that’s true.”

“Come, my Lord, I think I have found something you may be interested in.”

Caiden followed Ora down into the depths of the archives, where stacks of manuscripts piled high. She pulled a massive leather-bound tome from one of the shelves and heaved it onto a nearby desk. Blowing the dust off it, she cracked it open to a page depicting the three goddesses Amenna, Eris, and Illya. All three pointed skyward to a constellation of stars known as the Huntress.

“What does the Huntress have to do with this?”

“Nothing, I thought at first, then I read the inscription:In the darkest nights when hope hangs askew, look to the stars to guide you through.”

“So?” Caiden still didn’t understand how this connected to the Wells. “That’s just an old saying for children who get lost in the woods.”

“Look at her, the tip of her arrow. They are all pointing to it. I think it has something to do with it.”

“Why do you think that?”

“This book is old. It was written when the Trinity still walked the earth, yet look at the colors. They’re vibrant. This book should be faded and disintegrated into pieces, but no, it’s pristine as though it was printed yesterday. It is brimming with magic. I can feel it radiating through me. As far as I know, the Trinity created the Wells as a kind of fail-safe should the world need saving or the magic ran out… or something terrible like that, but they couldn’t just put them out in plain sight.”

“Okay, and?”

“And look at the stars!” Her eyes widened, and her nostrils flared. “They are off. They aren’t correct. Only the tip of the arrow is correct. The Trinity is standing on the highest peak of the Cheyne Mountains, looking north. They shouldn’t even be able to see the Huntress from that view.”

“This was made over ten thousand years ago. Maybe the skies were different then?”

She pinched the bridge of her nose. “It’s a puzzle. I think we need to take this book somewhere and align it with the north star.”

“Oh,” Caiden said, swallowing his fear of heights. “You mean the mountains?”

“Maybe? I need to take this to my elders. Maybe they know more.”

“No.” He touched her arm. “No, we have to keep this between us. Whatever is hidden in this book, we can figure it out.”

Her eyes flitted between him and the book.

“You’re really serious about this, aren’t you? Someoneisafter the Trinity Wells.”

“Yes,” Caiden said. “It’s like I said before. Crom’s followers will stop at nothing to bring him back.”

Her eyes fell to the book. “It has been so long since he walked this plane. I thought his name would be forgotten to time.”

“Evil is never truly dead.”

Ora bit her plump lower lip, and Caiden recognized the fear in her eyes. It had been a long time since such a threat knocked on Vantris’s door. People forgot what evil looked like. But that’s what evil wanted. It waited for you to forget its monstrous ways, to become comfortable in your life, and then it struck.

The bells of the temple chimed, and Caiden knew he had to get to his parents’ for Amolie and Roderick’s binding ceremony. “I have to go, but I’ll be back tomorrow. Keep looking.” His voice trailed off as he climbed the ancient stairs.

Walking through the great halls of the library, Caiden stared up at the ceiling where the night sky was painted in silver and gold. He stopped and stared at the Huntress. The same star at the tip of her arrow shone brighter than the others.

“That’s odd,” he said to himself. Scanning the rest of the ceiling, he noticed each of the other constellations had one prominent star. Could they be related, or was this just a feature of the paintings at the time? He should get to his parents’ house, but something tugged at him. Turning on his heel, he raced down to the archives where Ora still studied the book, spectacle over one eye.

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