Page 40 of Creed
A single snowflake was light, but an avalanche could kill a man. In the same way, many simple codes overlapping each other made for a very complicated puzzle to figure out.
She’d also changed the code system she’d used for different parts of the journal. For now, I’d only figured out the first part.
The beginning of the journal talked about the sister’s initial escape fromThe Tamed Souls, and how they’d pulled it off.
It hadn’t been as simple as just walking out the door one day. They had spent weeks planning, secretly hording supplies and money. However, the biggest obstacle had been the cult founder,their shared husband. He was a vigilant man and kept close tabs on his wives.
Either he was a naturally suspicious man, or he already knew that they hated being married to him and wanted to escape.
I had to take a break after translating how the sisters would take turns going to him at night to keep him distracted so that the remaining two could keep safely working on their escape plan. There were no specific details given, but the meaning was still clear. I practically felt like I was right alongside the sisters when Lisianthus talked about the dread she felt when her night came. Yet, she faced it without complaint since the one thing she dreaded more than her husband, was forcing her sisters to bear her share of the burden.
I could relate.
Not the part about having to appease an unwanted husband, but the need to keep moving forward even when you wanted to give up, just so that you didn’t burden those you cared about.
How many times had I faced similar situations with Magnus and Brody?
How many times had I kept fighting, not because I cared about my own life, but because I feared that if I died there would be no one to watch their backs.
It was what had helped me survive when I was a prisoner of war, and it was what would help me survive now.
Luckily Lisianthus didn’t spend too much time detailing how the sisters planed for their escape, but the next part of the journal was even more shocking.
“Coffee beans?” Kayden gasped in surprise when I told him.
“That’s what it says.” I pointed to the paragraph I’d just translated. “Apparently, the key to their escape was coffee beans. They came up with a plan to drug their husband, along with all the most important people in the cult, during a monthly meeting that the founder always held.”
By this point, Kayden and I were sitting together on the bed as we looked over the part of the journal I’d translated. It almost felt like I was reading a bedtime story, except the story wasn’t so innocent and our situation was much more dire.
“Drugged them?” Kayden asked, tracing his fingers over the words I’d written. “That was ballsy of them. If they were so heavily monitored, how’d they pull it off?”
“By going right to the source. Everything that came in or out of their home was scrutinized. There was no way for them to add anything extra to the founder’s food, so they altered the food itself. Rose had an extraordinary green thumb and grew a lot of their food in her own garden. So, she bred a new type of coffee bean that acted as a natural sedative. They gave it to the founder and all the guests at the meeting. No one suspected a thing since it came from the founder’s own garden, and they knew nothing extra had been added to the coffee. The natural sedative had a delayed effect, so that night all the important people in the cult went to sleep and didn’t wake up for twenty-four hours, giving the sisters plenty of time to make their escape without being followed.”
I barely paid attention to what I was saying, more focused on the feeling of Kayden pressed warmly against my side.
The bed was barely big enough for one of us, let alone both. In order to keep from falling off, Kayden had to press himself asclose to my side as possible, using my shoulder as his pillow and throwing one arm across my waist like a seatbelt.
In a different setting, I would have enjoyed it.
“That explains the coffee beans in the locket.”
I was so lost in thought, admiring the feel of Kayden pressed against me, that I almost missed what he said.
“What do you mean?”
He had to turn himself awkwardly to look up at me and still stay on the mattress.
“In Rose’s locket, along with the map to the hidden mausoleum, there were also coffee beans. This explains it. The sisters held onto the beans as their literal smoking gun. It was proof of how they’d escaped. Also, probably a safety measure, in case they ever needed to escape again.”
It was a sensible conclusion. I was just surprised that I hadn’t thought of it first. I hadn’t been there when the others discovered the secret of Rose’s locket, so it had slipped my mind. I hadn’t even realized Kayden knew about the locket at all.
“Magnus and Brody told you about the locket?”
Kayden just shrugged. “I didn’t have much to do while you were getting ready for our trip, so I asked your friends about what happened. They gave me a summary of everything. I’ve got a good memory for detail, otherwise I’d never be able to remember enough about my trips to write about them.”
His whole body stiffened up and his eyes grew wide before he suddenly sat upright on the very edge of the bed.
“Oh, fuck!”
