Violet nodded. “I absolutely do.”
Nikoli popped in then and suddenly the laughter dried up. Baladar was all business as he instructed Kade, Finn, and me to move back and sit on the bed, away from their immediate spell area. Kade wrapped an arm around my shoulders, and the three of us perched on the edge of the bed. It felt weird; this was where the Red Queen slept, and although her body was gone, her spirit wasn’t. She’d hate us even being in her private quarters. On her bed would be even worse.
I focused then as the spell began. “Violet, present your offering,” Baladar instructed.
Violet nodded, placing a small jar of powered gold on the floor in front of the painting. It had no lid and was only half full. Next, Nikoli spread his salt in a circle around the three of them and then placed the remainder inside Violet’s jar of powdered gold. Then Baladar sprinkled Finn’s blood around the circle of salt, letting the last drops land on the salt and gold inside of the jar. A sudden and strong energy came over the room, which had my pulse racing erratically as the mecca inside of me started to thrash about.
The three of them quickly held hands, forming a triangle as they began to chant. “The power of three, the power of three, the power of three. Do not harm thee. Do not hide from me. The power of three, the power of three, the power of three. Reveal to me! Reveal thyself to thee!” At the last they shouted in unison, and with a pop the painting flew off the wall and crashed to the floor in front of the circle they had created.
Nikoli, Baladar, and Violet still held hands, but they were now all looking at the small safe that had been hidden in the wall. When the painting had flown off, the safe door had also popped open. Holy mother.
I was up and walking towards it before I even realized what I was doing.
“Arianna!” Kade growled, at the same time Baladar said, “It’s okay to approach it now.”
Of course Kade didn’t take his word for it. He was also up off the bed, stepping in front of me before I could reach the safe.
“I’ll look inside first.” His tone was hard. He was not taking no for an answer.
That was my overprotective bear. Always putting himself before me.
I stayed right behind him as he side-stepped the magic born and their circle, closing in on the safe. “The dark securities are mostly dispelled,” Baladar reassured us. “But whatever is inside that safe is also dark, so proceed with caution.” Not the best reassurances, but we’d take it. We didn’t have much choice.
I peered around Kade to see that the hole was small. Not much could fit inside. “What can you see?” I murmured, feeling for some reason like I needed to whisper.
He didn’t answer immediately, leaning closer. “It’s … a book.”
A book? I wasn’t sure exactly what I had been expecting, something a little crazy maybe, like some sort of crystal, a severed finger from a fae. Basically anything, which would explain the crazy darkness that felt like it was still lingering about.
But a book…
“Don’t underestimate books,” Kade said, tuning into my thoughts. “Words are more powerful than almost anything else in the worlds. We have no idea what sort of information this book could contain.”
Violet hovered at my right shoulder. “It could be a special spell book. Maybe it is one of those lost from the original witches. Or the fae. One which deals in magic long forgotten.”
That piqued my interest. “Maybe it’s magic that can take down the Winter Court?” I breathed my hope out loud. “We need to open it.”
Chapter Three
Yin and Yang. Dark and light.
Before Kade could stop me, I dipped under his arm, popped up in front of him, and snatched the small book up. The sound of him cursing was lost as energy slammed into me and my knees buckled. I dropped down, my eyes locked on the black tome clutched between my hands.
“Ari!” Kade and Violet both yelled my name.
With a lot of effort, I lifted my head and said, “I’m okay, it just took me by surprise.” Large hands fitted under my arms and lifted me back to my semi-steady feet. “This energy is weird,” I said breathlessly. “Like familiar … but also like nothing I’ve ever felt before.”
I noticed Baladar had remained in his spot across the room, his expression creased in concerned lines. He was peering at the book, but didn’t seem to want to get closer.
“Do you know something about this?” I asked, narrowing my eyes on him.
He sighed. “Tell me about the symbol on the front cover.”
I wasn’t even surprised that he knew there was a symbol on the cover, despite the fact he had not stepped foot near me or the book. I let my eyes run across it, but didn’t move my hands to trace it as I would normally. This was mostly because my hands were molded around the sides of the book, seemingly held there by my fae and mecca energy — which was smashing inside of me like crazy.
The symbol was etched into the cover, which was not made of any material I had ever seen before. It was thick and smooth, like leather, but with a consistency that felt hard like a metal. It was definitely organic … an animal skin maybe. It actually kind of reminded me of the ercho that tried to kill me in Central Park.
Baladar let out an impatient sound, so I quickly focused on the symbol. “It’s carved into the cover, and it looks like an inverted tree, gnarled and dead, roots sticking up from the top, and the branches burrowing into the ground. There is a stone in the center, the heart of the tree.”
The ancient magic born staggered forward. His face was frozen, mouth open, eyes wide. I found myself mimicking his panicked pose, part of me wanting to thrust the book away, but still being unable to remove my hands.
He spoke, barely above a whisper: “Is the stone black?”
I nodded, and in a flash he surged forward, his body shrinking into a half-crouched position. He began chanting and waving his arms wildly in the air. I looked to Violet, who was watching him with a look that was part shock and part intrigue. I knew, though, that just like me, she had no idea what he was doing.
As I turned back to Baladar, he thrust his hands at me and Kade, and suddenly a gale force wind slammed into us, knocking us both back into the wall, and in that moment the darkness that had been leaking from the book was gone.
As I straightened myself off the wall, low growls were rocking my chest. My wolf didn’t like being thrown around like that. And judging by Kade’s scowl, he wasn’t much happier about it. Baladar spoke quickly, throwing in a bow for extra measure. “Forgive me, Your Highnesses, I had to act quickly.”
Ignoring the magic born for a moment, Kade turned to me. His face was still etched with dark lines of anger, but this faded slightly as his thumb traced across my cheek. “Are you okay?”