Page 83 of The Secret Keeper's Daughter

We read, taking turns and flying through the pages. Everything Vivvi told me holds true. It wouldn’t surprise me if she read from this very book back when she was obsessed with my grandfather.

According to this book, the hunters have always been male, and once a child starts coming into his—or her, in my case—powers, the mature hunter begins weakening. But no hunter has ever gotten so weak they died of natural causes.

They always fight to the death. Without exception.

My stomach flip-flops at that thought, which activates the magic inside of me to start racing around. I really need to get through this book and find out how to deal with this magic. It doesn’t matter if I get rid of it or learn how to control it.

Fae come and go, passing us as the hours speed along. The tome is full of stories about my ancestors, going back many generations. Most of the hunters live more than a century, some for several and others for far less time. It all depends on how long they go without procreating. The longest was just over five hundred years, and the shortest not even twenty.

I have no idea how old my father is. Clearly younger than Vivvi who had a thing forhisfather, but with fae it’s impossibleto tell. If Vivvi was human, I’d guess her to be in her late fifties at the oldest. However, as a fae she has to be centuries old.

“Did you hear that?” Harek’s voice pulls me from my thoughts.

Crap. I wasn’t listening, and this is life or death. “Sorry, no. My mind wandered.”

“Your stomach aches aren’t caused by magic.”

That gets my attention. “What is it?”

He throws me an exasperated glance. “Next time your mind drifts, let me know.”

“What’s the deal with the black mist I absorbed?”

Harek points to a paragraph on the middle of the lefthand open page. “It says here that when a hunter kills an evil fae, they take the souls with them.”

Everything beyond the table disappears as I process the news. It can’t be. “I have evil souls in my stomach?”

“Unfortunately. That’s why it feels like they’re fighting each other—they probably are.”

“How do I get rid of them?”

“That’s what I’m trying to figure out.”

My skin crawls at the thought that I’ve been carrying around the souls of the fae I killed. “I need to get them out!”

“We’ll figure it out. Let’s keep reading.”

I shudder. “Foreign magic would be so much better. Evil souls are so gross.”

“It says?—”

“What if I can’t get rid of them? Will I have to carry them around for the rest of my life?”

“We’ll find out if you let me read.”

“Go on.”

He turns back to the book. “It says here the hunter’s sword collects the souls.”

“You’ve got to be kidding me. Gunnar has my sword!”

“I know.”

“What am I supposed to do now? Go all the way back to Skoro with thesesoulsinside me and then figure out where he hid it?”

“If that’s what it takes.”

“It’ll take another week to get back, and we just got here!”

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