Page 58 of Fate Unchained

Damn, he wanted to be inside her again.

They were pursuing two of the most dangerous threats to Ulterra right now, but anytime the faint scent of buttercups drifted to him, all he thought about, was her. And it wasn’t only his desire clawing for more of her. Whenever she left his side, he missed her with an ache that had nothing to do with his cock.

He’d never missed anyone or anything in his life.

Biting back a curse, he stepped away. “I keep thinking about the Dark Cabal. If we can figure out who the leader is, we may be able to follow him to Boris.”

Lilah frowned. “You don’t know what he looks like?”

Kyril shook his head. “No. He always wore a cloak with the hood pulled up over his face, even when we fought him in the battle where he stole the grimoire.” Kyril explained about Hoyt dying with the grimoire in his cloak during the fight at the island off Ryba’s coast. Before the vulk could get the book, the Dark Cabal leader swooped in and took it, then used a portal and left. “But we think he was in one of the Ten families here in Coromesto.”

“You mentioned that before. Why?”

“The scrying bowl showed us a few things, including a man who was in the Ten bribing the dean of Herskala Academy to say another family was weaker than they really were. His face wasn’t revealed then, either. We think the scrying bowl showed us that scene because that man is the one we are looking for. If we’re right, then he knows Boris well enough for Boris to steal the grimoire from him.”

Lilah tapped the leather-bound tome in front of her. “I just finished reading the grimoire. At least, I read what was already translated. It will take me a lot more time to explore the entire thing and see what might be hidden.” She sighed. “It’s terrible. It does contain Herskala’s spells, and they’re all focused on how to kill or dominate the other beings of Ulterra.”

“Anything we need to know right now?”

She shuddered. “Well, the powder I threw at you, he tried to make it lethal. It’s got colloidal silver—basically a slurry of silver—in it. He hoped when a vulk breathed it in, that it would kill them, but it doesn’t. He thinks it’s not getting fully absorbed. He tried all sorts of things to make it work but never succeeded. So he turned to looking at non-silver ways to kill you.”

“And he described those, too?”

She nodded. “He crafted a hex he thought would work.”

Kyril growled. “A hex.”

She nodded again. “I don’t know the arcane language well, and the spell is really complicated, so we’d need a magicwielder to really understand all the elements, but from what I gathered, the hex works like a poison, first on the Alpha, then spreading to the rest of the pack through your connection with him. If it worked, it would kill all the vulk.”

The hair on the back of his neck rose. “That’s exactly how the hex that Hans got last year worked. The one Baba Yaga mentioned. She removed it, but if Hans hadn’t been with Briony, he never would have made it to Baba Yaga’s hut.” If Briony hadn’t been a healer and hadn’t been at Hans’s side, it would have killed him, then possibly the rest of the pack.

Ice slid down his spine. No one could ever find this spell. He leaned over her shoulder and pointed at the grimoire. “Where is the spell?”

She flipped a few pages and put her finger on a numbered section. “Here. He says this hex will reveal the vulk’s weakness.” Lilah turned and stared up at him. “What’s wrong?”

“I need to talk to Hans and Briony.” He ran a hand over his head, his fingers combing through his human hair, and not fur. “Remember how Zann said Hoyt was being fed this spell from someone else?”

“Yes.”

“Well, he was being fed the spell from Morana. She was his master. At the time, she was stuck down in Peklo, so she needed Hoyt to do it for her.”

“She must have had this grimoire with her or had access to it at some point.”

He straightened. “And somehow Hoyt got it later.”

The front door of the library flew open, and Kyril launched himself forward, putting himself in front of Lilah and her desk. Backlit by the gray light from the street, an elegant woman in a trim black coat, her dark hair pinned back. He scanned her. All she held was the strap of her bag which was slung over one shoulder. No weapons. No glowing hands. “Who the blazes are you?” she asked, her voice echoing in the empty library. “Where’s Lilah?”

“Who the uit are you?”

Lilah squeezed past him and patted his arm. “This is who I sent the boy to fetch.” On the way to the library, Lilah stopped one of the street hawkers and asked him to run back to the newspaper with a message. Kyril hadn’t realized she was asking for someone to join them though. “Brooke has been doing a lot of research which may help us.” She turned to Brooke. “I’m so glad you came. This is Kyril.”

Brooke stepped forward, still eyeing Kyril. “Was your father part troll? Look at the size of you.”

He shot a quick glance at Lilah. “I drank a lot of milk growing up.”

“I’ll say.” Brooke dumped her bag on the table. “Is he the reason you rushed off? Been having a bit of a lie-in?” She surveyed him again. “I would have figured you’d go for the bookish type.”

Kyril crossed his arms. Hazel was one thing, she already knew about the vulk’s fight, but now another person was involved. The fewer who knew, the better. He needed to send her back on her way. “She likes men who surprise her.”

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