Page 72 of Forgotten Arcane

“I’m sorry, maybe we shouldn’t have told you,” Calia says with a worried frown.

I shake my head and smile. I really do feel okay about it. The initial shock just hit me a little hard. Okay, really fucking hard.

“No, I would have preferred that you told me rather than kept it to yourself,” I reply honestly.

Because I want to change the subject now, I check in with the Voices about what I want to do, and when they don’t really react in any way, I grin. Standing up, my smile widens even more as the guys immediately catch on to what I’m doing and move the chairs back so that I have enough room.

“Is everything okay?” Eamon asks, looking extremely confused.

Doc nods, “Watch this.”

I call on my magic to bring on my shift, and I’m really pleased that, just like River said the first time that I shifted, the odd sensation that comes with shifting is already not as bad as it was.

Just like with Sully, I only shift my wings, not my fangs or eyes.

Calia and Eamon’s eyes widen, as huge, proud smiles light up their faces.

“Oh, Neith, they’re beautiful,” Calia mutters. “You look so much like your mom right now. I know your wings are different, but wow. She would be so proud of you.”

My answering smile is watery. I don’t know why it affects me so much that a woman I don’t remember would be proud of me, but it really does.

Clearing my throat, I grin, “They’re pretty cool, aren’t they?”

“They really are,” Eamon agrees. His smile dims, “You should be really careful where you use them. You’re really fucking rare. There are only two of you.”

I nod and shift back because chairs are still the enemy where my wings are concerned.

“We were made aware of that when they first appeared,” Reed says. “The Elders sent a messenger.”

Eamon’s eyebrows hit his hairline, “The Elders? They haven’t gotten involved for centuries. They think that it hasn’t been that long, but they really don’t have much concept of time.”

“Oh wow. Lucius made it seem like they were slightly out of touch, but not massively so,” I reply.

Calia nods, “That’s because Lucius is almost as out of touch as the rest of them. He used to put more effort into staying up to date with current affairs. It’s certainly surprising that they’ve gotten involved now.”

“You need to be cautious,” Eamon warns us urgently.

Van nods, his expression serious, “Yes, we know. Our initial instinct was to be incredibly careful.”

“They know ancient magic,” Eamon says. “Magic that the rest of the supernatural world has forgotten, and because of that, they are extremely dangerous.”

I share a look with the others. We thought that they were something that we need to be cautious about, but now that we’ve learned this, we’re going to need to be even more careful.

“Thank you,” Reed says. “Obviously, we can’t just ask anyone about this kind of thing.”

Eamon shakes his head, “No, you can’t. I’m sorry that I couldn’t tell you more. I will have a look through my library. I brought quite a few books over with me from Trieneliea, hopefully one of those might have more information about them.”

“That would be great,” Raiden grins, excited at the prospect of new books with better information.

“No problem. If I find anything, I will call you, and you can all come and grab the books,” Eamon says, with a smile. “And have dinner again.”

Van frowns slightly, “I’m sorry. I promise that we’ll visit more.”

Eamon chuckles, “I’m teasing. I know how demanding your jobs are.”

“Alright, is there anything else that you want to talk about?” Calia asks, changing the subject. “We should probably start cooking soon. It’s going to take longer than usual to get everything ready because I want to teach you all how to do it.”

I look at the guys, for the moment, I think I have all of the information that I need. I’m sure that more questions will come up the more that I find out, but for now, I know what I need to.

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