“It must’ve been a smudge of dirt or a trick of the light,” I said, since obviously I’d seen something that he couldn’t. But why did I see it? I’d never seen something like that before. This was something I’d expect my gran to see since she was High Priestess. But not me. Was this because of the Lorewarden thing? There were no doubts now. I wanted—needed—to tell Sky everything.
“Oh.” Theo rubbed at the spot, like I’d been right, even though there truly wasn’t anything there.
To distract us both, I said, “You want to know the history of this sacred space?”
“Sacred?” His eyeballs practically popped out of his head. “Hellz yeah.”
Then I proceeded to tell him all the things I’d learned, making sure it all sounded like I’d found it in research at my job. Having such an attentive audience, not just because he was humoring me, but because he was in to it, too, was one of the nicest ways I’d spent an evening outside of my found family.Huh. That was new, too.
Chapter 15
Sky
“So then what did Theo say?”I asked King as we curled up on my bed, both of us in our sweatpants and t-shirts. As soon as we arrived back at my house, I’d removed my makeup, taken out my contacts, and slid my glasses on. Along with all the other revelations I’d had about myself the last few days, I wanted to work on being comfortable in my own skin in front of King. If I wanted the real him, I needed to give him my authentic self.
He reached over and ran a finger over my freckles, right underneath the rim of my frames. The look on his face could be described as nothing less than fond. It made me happy I’d stepped out of my comfort zone, but it paled in comparison to all of the cool things he’d had happen in the last two days. “Nothing. I talked and he listened. It was kinda cool.” He grinned. “He was really into every word.”
I shook my head. As fun as his time with Theo sounded, we needed to talk more about what had happened at his job. “King, this is…so you’re not only a Dreamwalker but a Lorewarden. Can you be both? Aren’t they like, a conflict of interest?”
He pulled me closer, drawing my leg up over his thighs. “Malcolm said no. We went through several of the grimoires, and it’s the strangest thing. Like in most of them, I can see thewriting, but it doesn’t make sense. Then here and there I’ll catch snatches of phrases. Malcolm showed me how he or someone before him had recorded the information in one of the books it belonged in.”
My mind spun. “So the details you pull out are like, universal truths as opposed to specific to that family?”
“Exactly.”
“Wild.”
As much as I’d wanted to come straight home earlier, I’d been glad when Elyse called for family dinner as soon as Theo and Craig left. I hadn’t had a chance to visit with the two teenagers, but they’d seemed to have a good time with Jetty and King, even though they’d been split up.
But family dinner had been necessary. Elyse had spoken to the others—Scotty, Stevie, Buck, and Harry—about all the things Rosie had revealed in our conversations in the last two days. Jetty had nodded along since Chance had filled him in already, but I hadn’t had an opportunity to update King yet, so it had all been new information for him.
“So you think what you saw on Theo’s wrist is what?” I asked.
I felt him shrug against me. “I’m guessing his family crest, but Crowley isn’t his last name, so I’m not sure.” He sighed. “And there’s something else. The Vault is only supposed to contain the grimoires of family lines that have died out.”
Humming, I tilted my head up toward him. “Didn’t you also say that Malcolm said they’d appear in there if the family line had gone dark or something, too?”
He chewed at his bottom lip, thinking. “Yeah, but Theo isn’t dark in any way. He’s like, the picture of happy. He reminds me of a puppy.”
Speaking of puppies—I’d have to come back to my thoughts on my psychopomp later. I wanted to delve into this Lorewarden thing further first. “So how are you feeling about all of this? Canyou handle it? Is it too much with all the other stuff we have going on?”
“Other stuff? Like that thing we heard but couldn’t see the other night?” His voice sounded pensive, uncertain. Much the same way I’d been feeling.
“Or the fact we didn’t dreamwalk last night. Although, that could be because Ego and I were up most of the night.”
King hummed. “That might have something to do with it. Honestly, I’d rather not return to that poor tortured guy if we can’t figure out how to help him. I felt awful leaving him like that.”
Goddess knew, I did too. It was bad enough that he was displaced, but to be terrorized on top of that felt unthinkable. “What do we do? I mean, if we see him tonight?”
With a sigh, King pulled me in tighter, like he needed to hold me, needed my strength. That was fine since I needed his, too. “I’ve been thinking about it. Remember when we vanquished that apparition torturing the baby?”
“Yeah.”
“So we know she could, at the very least, sense what was happening because she was so brand new, straight from the spirit realm and open.”
“Oh yeah. Gran and I discussed that at length. She said oftentimes, babies, old timers, or those on death’s door are the same. Is that what you’re thinking?”
Gasping, I clutched at his t-shirt. “Oh my gosh, do you think he’s ill?”
