Page 67 of Tales of a Deadly Devotion
‘The Septimus lords didn’t have a compendium.’ Gideon ran a hand through his blonde hair, the metal of it glinting in the kitchen’s firelight.
‘Their bloodline must have crossed somewhere with another house. Whatever he’s looking for has to be old.’ I shook my head, the lord lines were known to marry into one another. Anything to keep the blood pure. Only maybe they’d been keeping it pure for another reason. To keep their secrets hidden.
‘There was a tale many dark things could be hidden in books that old,’ Thean began, voice almost disinterested, but their eyes were too sharp as they peered down at the abandoned copies ofThe Crow’s Footspread across the table. ‘Why the lords were hesitant to relinquish them after the wars. Why they bound them to their bloodlines.’
‘Relics?’ I pressed.
‘I’ve seen many things in my years,’ Thean nodded, turning around the papers with a distasteful glance. ‘Hiding one object within another is an old trick.’
‘Fuck.’ The word was a soft curse from Gideon. Emrys had gone very still, those dark eyes scanning over the pages before him. ‘Relics are from the old ages. Before the seals.’
‘If Montagor has a relic, he can find a seal. Those bastard compendiums probably lead the way,’ Thean added without emotion. Of course – because all dark things return in the end. They always know their way back.
‘That’s why he wants her.’ Gideon nodded in my direction. ‘Why he sent that beast after her blood. Why he set the trap at all. He’ll also be needing more than one relic to accomplish anything.’
I hadn’t considered that. Just as relics could guide the dark to a power source, the magic in my blood could do the same – guide it to the seals it protected. Because Montagor knew there was a seal beneath Fairfax. He knew it was gone. And he knew I was the reason for that.
‘He’s going to open a seal.’ I felt heat flare in my veins with panic as my eyes met Emrys’s. ‘There are other Kysillians. Others with lesser blood. It isn’t just me.’
No. I wasn’t special or chosen. That poor girl and all those fey had died in that pit for nothing and Montagor would do the same. Find anything remotely close to Kysillian to try to get what he wanted.
‘No. But you present a challenge I’m certain a primitive part of Montagor’s nature is quite obsessed with,’ Gideon offered, giving Emrys a dark look.
Of course. Verr were territorial. I flushed. Montagor knew mine and Emrys’s entanglement and he’d use it to his advantage. Anything to claim power over another. In challenge, an opponent needed to find a weakness … and Montagor had found one of Emrys’s.
Me.
William worried his hands. ‘It makes sense why Montagor has been after you and your role within the Council, Emrys. You have enough compendiums and dark artifacts here.’
Gideon let out an irritated huff of breath. ‘As entertaining as this revelation is, we still don’t know where to start.’
‘Ainsworth’s compendium,’ Emrys and I said at the same time, startling Gideon.
‘It’s already open,’ I finished. ‘They wanted something from it.’
‘Why on earth would it be open?’ Gideon asked, looking slightly unnerved by the thought. ‘Where the fuck is the gobrite from inside it?’
The house clattered the pans in the corner in excitement before something crashed into the kitchen table. Sending the apples bouncing from their bowl.
There, rattling in the cage I’d trapped it in, was the gobrite. Only it didn’t look the same. It had shifted itself into somethingfar less grotesque. Like a small wyvern as it curled in its own sheddings, hissing at us as if annoyed by the disturbance.
Small onyx scales glinting in the hearth’s light.
Why had Emrys kept it? I looked at him but his annoyed gaze was focused at the ceiling, hands on his hips.
‘There it is!’ William beamed, but he still took a few steps back from the creature, standing on Gideon’s foot. ‘Kat captured it in an old chandelier.’
‘Of course she did,’ Gideon grumbled. Then those blue eyes were back on me, hard with annoyance. ‘We could have asked the little Ainsworth twat about the book and saved ourselves all this bother, if Miss Woodrow hadn’t clawed his fucking eyes out.’
‘When?’ William croaked, mouth agape.
‘Should have gone for his throat,’ Alma muttered darkly, making William go paler.
‘Finally, you’ve decided to be interesting, darling,’ Thean mocked me, amber eyes practically gleaming.
Gideon – thankfully – ignored them all and finished. ‘Now, we have to deal with the bastard lords.’
‘I can check the inventory for which compendiums we have and which were destroyed. Which books belong to which houses. That will narrow down the missing ones and any Montagor might be interested in,’ William offered, turning to see where Alma was still lost in pensive thought. ‘Alma, do you want to help?’
