Page 49 of Pints & Potions

She laughed. “Do you think you can tone it down a bit before you sear our retinas?”

“I’m not—”

“I wasn’t speaking to you.”

The glow faded to a mere flicker, but an impatient one at that. If Cian didn’t know better, he’d suspect the flashing was the grimoire’s way of tapping its fingers.

With a deep breath and a silent prayer to the Goddess Anu, he asked, “What is it you wish to show us?”

The thick, ancient binding whipped back and the pages fluttered at a blinding pace, finally settling on a passage around the center of the book.

“I can’t read it.” Disappointment was heavy in her voice.

“It’s Gaelic,” he replied.

“What does it say?” Spring asked eagerly.

“It’s the riddle.” In the face of all the blank stares, he said, “It has to do with a family prophecy. I’d forgotten about it, because it never mattered to me.”

“A riddle.” GiGi looked intrigued as she settled into her husband’s embrace. “Do tell. Let’s see if we can solve it.”

Cian silently read the passage three times. With each reading, he grew uneasy until his nerves were a proper mess.

“Cian?” Piper’s soft voice held a question, and he knew he needed to answer, but he didn’t know how to respond other than to speak the rhyme aloud.

“When the mighty Thorne pricks the heart of the Frozen, the end shall start in motion,”he croaked out.

There was a collective gasp.

“The question is whichmighty Thorne,” Hoyt eventually said. “There’s a whole heap of us.”

“Right, but in dealing with the matters of the heart, I’m going to say themighty Thornein question is present and accounted for,” Knox said with a short laugh and a pointed look at Piper.

Cian stared at her and she stared right back. Neither could break the pull of the other, and the sickening realization they were the ones referred to in the first line of the prophecy smacked them both at the same time.

“You’rethe Frozen, aren’t you?” she said achingly, no real question in her tone. Tears shimmered in her horrified eyes. “Am I supposed tostabyou?”

Ringing started in his ears and it felt as if darkness was clouding his vision.

Jaysus! What if she were?

What if his death was needed to kick-start his family’s magic? Was he willing to be a sacrifice for a power they’d all lived without until now?

Hoyt changed positions with Spring and hugged Piper’s shoulders. “I think you’re taking this too literally, Pip.” He lightly rubbed a hand up and down her arm, as if to warm her. “You might touch Cian’s heart in another fundamental way.”

Her terrified expression dissipated but she didn’t appear any less thrilled as she nodded. “Good point, Dad.”

“Is that the only line of the riddle?” Spring peered over the edge of the grimoire. “It looks like there’s more.”

Cian swallowed in an attempt to moisten his desert-dry throat. “There’s more.”

“Don’t keep us waiting. There could be a clue to the first line,” GiGi said with her standard impatience.

But Cian knew there wasn’t. He dutifully read on.“When the golden Son sacrifices for the One, only then can the curse be undone.”

“I wonder who thegolden Sonis?” Spring murmured and gave him a curious glance. “I suspectyouknow, don’t you?”

He did, or rather he suspected he did.

---