Page 68 of A Queen Of Broken Realms
When Wynter finally gives the signal, I unstopper the other vial and draw it close to my nose before handing it over to Davina. There’s a faint note of cinnamon, an undertone of sulfur. Other scents too, like bleached bone and burnt fur, white sage and starlight magic, black blood and mist traveling through shadow. “What is this stuff? What does it do?” I ask as I close Davina’s hand around the vial and help guide it to her lips.
“It’s calledushgada. The Veil. It shields her from the boundaries of death and life.”
“I’ll take a few extras for me and the rest of my friends,” I say, only half-jokingly.
“There can only be one practicing Resurrectionist in each spirit realm, so in theory we could bring more here but it wouldn’t work for anyone else. If we had more, that is. It’s incredibly rare and the Vaultkeeper only releases it by approval by at least two members of the Guild’s council.”
Davina pours the powder onto her tongue and I lift the glass of water to her lips. As soon as she’s swallowed, her limbs become boneless and she passes out against me.
I slap her.
“It’s okay, she can sleep now.”
“Such a shame. This has been an oddly therapeutic experience,” I mutter. My ever-present, latent desire to grind her bones to dust has abated.For now.
I take the empty vials and bring them closer to my nose to analyze nuances within the scents. There’s a subtle hint of myrrh in the vial that held the liquid, ink in the one that held the powder. “Where did thisushgadacome from? What is it made of?”
“It’s something very rare, distilled and kept with the Guild of Gilgamesh at the Enir building in Cairo.”
That’s…evasive. I straighten a little, Roman mirroring my tension as he pushes away from the wall. “What kind ofrare something, exactly? And if you say ‘a little of this, a little of that,’ I’m going to start slapping you instead of her,” I say with a nod to Davina, not taking my eyes from Wynter’s as I give my new Resurrectionist another tap on the cheek.
“Truthfully, Lu—” she starts, Ashen interjecting with a curt cough, “—QueenLu, I’m not entirely sure. There likely aren’t many apothecaries who do know it intimately as it’s locked away and used so infrequently. All I know for certain is that a Scythe is needed to procure the ingredients, so I’d assume it contains at least a little of a human or creature, but I’m not sure what exactly.”
“Human or creature,” I repeat, my gaze colliding with Ashen’s. I set the vials on the coffee table and rise, heading toward the dining room where the bottles sit next to the scales Wynter used to weigh their doses. I pick up the one containing the powder and raise it to my face to smell the residual scent clinging to the stopper.
“Do you know who created thisushgada? Is there a record of who gave it to the Guild or where it was obtained it from?” Ashen asks as he stands. Wynter’s gaze darts between us, flicking briefly to Roman. “Where did it come from?” Ashen says, drifting closer to Wynter while trying his best not to be too imposing, though he’s failing miserably. Roman approaches and Ashen gives him a look of warning, but it doesn’t deter the vampire from placing himself between the Reaper and the apothecary.
“I don’t know who made it,” Wynter answers with a shake of her head. Her brow furrows as her eyes dart between us. “It’s old, and rare. It was made before my time.”
“I didn’t saywho, I saidwhere.”
I turn over the bottle of the powder in my fingers to read the scrolling text of the handwritten label. “Évora,” I say, turning toward the group, meeting Ashen’s eyes. I don’t need to see his face to know the blood has dropped from his skin. I can hear it rush to his heart, swirling through his veins as his eyes latch on to Davina’s sleeping form.
“The Scythe,” he whispers, and I follow the hot flame of his simmering rage.
I twist the bottle between my fingers tilting it to watch the grains within coat the glass and dance like live yeast. “And the demigod.”
CHAPTER26
Davina sleeps without stirring beneath the weight of our collective scrutiny, unaware that the first ghost she’s about to resurrect is her past.
“We just made her eat someone? I feel super bad.”
Ashen raises one brow.
“Kind of bad. I feelkind ofbad.”
Ashen eyes me with doubt before pinning his sharp suspicion to the apothecary. “How did the Guild come into possession of this?”
“I don’t know,” Wynter says, shaking her head as she glances toward Roman. “I’m not even sure if Ammon knew much about its provenance.”
“Franca Duarte,” I interject, looking between them. “When Ember claimed her soul, the Guild must have taken back all her possessions. Maybe it was still among her materials, or maybe if Franca was aware that her client Davina had been reaped, perhaps she got rid of it.”
Ashen hums in agreement before turning his attention back to the stunned apothecary. “How didyouobtain it?”
“I was due to meet Ammon at his apartment. He knew I was at the Guild and called to ask if I could bring it on my way. He then called the Vaultkeeper and requested its urgent release. Since Ammon was already on the Guild Council, he only needed one approver, but I don’t know who that was. Approval was granted right away. That was about thirty minutes before…” Wynter swallows and her gaze falls to the floor.
Roman’s stone-faced facade finally cracks, and he steps closer to Wynter as though shielding the apothecary from our questions. “What are you not telling us? You clearly know something about theushgada.”
