Page 37 of Sons of Sorrow
“Sorry,” I mumbled, suddenly meek as I polished the unbitten half on my shirt. “Um. You want the rest of it?”
Dr. Fang rolled her eyes and sighed. “No, you can have it. Though I’d caution you to be more careful about putting things you find at random around the Wispwood into your mouth. That might have been poisoned, you know.”
My tongue stopped halfway through sweeping flecks of juice from my lips. Hah. She was kidding, of course. This was just a bit of subtle, snippy revenge on her part, planting the seed of doubt in my head. I squinted at the apple warily and set it down. Just in case.
“Forget the apple, I can tell you’re elated,” she said, getting up from her desk, sitting on the edge of it opposite from me. Casual colleagues, almost, fast friends, in another reality. “And this is certainly something to celebrate. You’ve defeated the four oriels. Now that you know how to navigate them, you can prepare for more expeditions in the future, harvest as much elemental essence as you want for profit.”
My fingers ran over the four gemstones embedded in Aphrodite’s amulet. I couldn’t help smiling, a tingle of excitement going up my spine. Dr. Fang was right. The gems of elemental essence were valued throughout the arcane underground for their applications in all sorts of magical disciplines. Alchemy, enchanted jewelry, ritual magic — the list went on and on. There would always be demand for these stones.
We even helped Luna score her own Heart of the Flame, beating it out of a second guardian. Nothing too fancy: a salamander, a great reptilian beast famed for being invulnerable to fire. It was not, unfortunately, invulnerable to crescent-shaped blades, or razor-sharp leaves, or exploding butterflies, or everything else we threw at it.
“Thanks, Doc,” I said. “Glad we took your advice and visited the oriels in the order we did. Just — isn’t it funny? We’re still nowhere closer to understanding why I can call out the guardians in the first place.”
She picked up the apple, examining it for a smooth, unbitten surface. Mild guilt tickled the inside of my belly, nervous butterflies. I owed teacher an apple. “I hate to say it, Lochlann, but it’s looking more and more likely that your goddess is the only one who might know the real reason.”
I pursed my lips with distaste. And now that Dr. Fang had mentioned her at all, Aphrodite was bound to show up. The gods had eyes and ears everywhere. But maybe that was for the best. I had questions. If only the gods were more generous with their answers.
“Now,” Fang said, biting into the apple. “You say you defeated the phoenix by summoning the unicorns.”
I sprang to my feet, my eyes wide open. “It was amazing, Doc. You should have seen it. A rainbow orb rolled down a rainbow ramp, and a unicorn spiked it with her head straight into the phoenix. Gayest thing I’ve ever seen.”
“Curious. Truly an impressive feat of summoning.” Dr. Fang pressed the tip of her finger against her cheek, tilting her head. “And yet it seems you still haven’t brought me any pictures.”
I hightailed it out of Dr. Fang’s office, her apple core just missing my head, hitting the door behind me with a wet squelch. Not that I was really worried she’d murder me, oh no. I had an appointment to keep with Alister Brittle, partly to discuss the matter of reading the parchment, but also because he’d discovered something new about its nature.
We didn’t get many details from the messenger imp Mr. Brittle sent, which was for the best, anyway. Too many eyes and ears everywhere, and they didn’t always belong to the gods. Sometimes they were spying butterflies planted by one Evander Skink, which was probably worse, in all.
Sylvain had told me to meet him at the library after my catchup with Dr. Fang. Normally he would have loved to chitchat with her, but something about his exchange with Swimberly had made him both more accepting of his situation, yet also more curious.
He wanted some time to himself, to peruse some books on royalty and bastardy, on fae folklore. I wasn’t sure how human rules and fictional retellings would help him, but I was fully in support of anything that would make him feel better.
Speaking of feeling better, Namirah was on the mend, recovering under the care of staffers from the Wispwood’s infirmary. Bruna had retreated to her office once we’d returned from the Oriel of Fire, no doubt to replenish her stock of potions, maybe slam back a few cocktails.
Luna and Evander went skulking off to some darkened corner to bully small children, or sacrifice goats, or whatever it was that mean girls did to unwind. And Satchel was supposed to be showing Ember around the castle, but I had a feeling that they were doing a lot of other stuff around the castle, too. Wink, wink.
I turned the corner down the hallway to the library, pausing mid-step when I realized my fingers were a little tacky. From the apple? I briefly considered licking my hand — you know, like an animal — when someone else’s fingers tousled at my hair.
My skin crawled, my blood curdling with fear. I trembled as I looked up. A hand was reaching out of a painting on the wall. I swayed unsteadily on my feet, biting down on my tongue to hold back a terrified scream.
“Something on your mind, sapling?”
“You — oh, gods above and below, Aphrodite, you scared me.”
How the hell did she get in there? I’d taken this hallway for granted and couldn’t remember what was supposed to be in the painting in the first place. An ancient professor? A bowl of fruit?
Now it only contained an upsettingly lifelike portrait of the goddess of love. I frowned at the canvas, watching as the ancient paint shifted and rippled with her every movement. She retrieved her hand and shot me a satisfied smirk.
“Come now, sapling. Why are you so jumpy? Shouldn’t there be cause to celebrate, now that you’ve accomplished your task?”
Her hand reached out from the painting again, attempting to reach for my medallion. I took a full step back, resisting the urge to swat her away.
“Well, yes, but I wasn’t expecting you to infiltrate the castle’s paintings. Whatever happened to a normal, casual greeting? But okay. I admit. It feels great having assembled all the elements, a guardian for each one.”
My thumb lingered over the Heart of the Flame, its polished, glassy surface warmed by the essence of fire contained within. Later, once the phoenix had replenished its energies, I could attempt to summon it and ask if it would consider reading the cursed parchment.
Gods, even the thought of inflicting the Withering on my allies left a bad taste in my mouth. We’d have to suppress the phoenix once it transformed, too, deal with its amplified fire. It was already so powerful to begin with, too.
“So,” I said, scratching the side of my nose. “You did mention that you’d have a gift for me once I finished collecting the stones.”
