Page 124 of Dark Souls

“It’s what I’m used to.”

Those words sliced right through my heart, but I kept my emotions in check and did not fall apart all over again. Instead, I focused on what he had in his hands from the secret hole he’d made in the wall. He stood up, hesitating before he extended the belongings towards me.

I took them carefully. The first was my pink feather boa from Sienna’s party and I smiled at the memory, raising my eyebrows at him. He smirked, a small twinkle in his eyes, which soon faded when I focused on the other items. One was a handmade stake. The wood was charred and scorched by fire, and dark blood stained it. I gulped, knowing who he was likely to use this on. Himself. The second was a bunch of photographs. All of one woman. A rather beautiful woman with long red hair.

Of course, my first instinct was to feel intense jealousy that he had so many photos of a stunning woman in his possession, but as I studied her face, I saw an uncanny resemblance. I lifted my eyes to stare at him as his nostrils flared.

“Your sister? Is this… Hana?”

He exhaled.

“Where is she?”

“I don’t know,” he growled with rage.

“Is she safe?”

He huffed again. “I don’t know. But she’s alive.”

My mind raced as I began pacing the floor. I had a few more pieces of the puzzle, but they weren’t connecting. I needed more.

“So you don’t know where she is? When you met my dad and Grandpapi, you said someone you cared about was in trouble. I thought you meant Heathen, but you didn’t, did you? It was Hana. Does someone have her against her will? Oh my god, is it the Devil? Is that how he controls you?”

He stepped forwards suddenly, grabbing my shoulders in his fierce grip and my lips parted.

“Have I ever told you how brilliant you are?”

I smiled, knowing he was basically saying I was right on the money.

“Okay. Do you have any of her belongings? Anything to do a locator spell?” I asked eagerly, but the excitement fizzled away when Luka shook his head. That wouldn’t deter me, though. “That’s okay. Look, my family has resources and skills that we can use to help find her. I am sure of it. If we—”

“No.” He shook his head quickly and I sighed, knowing how he felt about getting anyone else involved.

“Luka, I promise my family can help. You can trust them with this. They will find Hana,” I argued as I saw an internal fight starting behind his eyes.

“Not yet. Not until you know who I am,” he interrupted. “Because that will change everything. And I can’t put her life at risk, too.”

“What do you mean?”

He grabbed my hand and led me out of the cellars and back up to the first floor of the manor. I had to jog to keep up with his long strides until he opened the door to the vast library room I had decided was my favourite room in this terrible place. Bookshelves lined the walls, holding hundreds and hundreds of ancient-looking books. A desk sat at one end with a stack full of papers, as if the owner had just left them for another day, believing they would return. At the other end was a small sofa in front of an open fireplace I had fallen asleep on last night.

“I don’t know what you will find in here. Honestly, I haven’t been able to bring myself to look at what sick and twisted shit they might have had. But if you think you can handle it, I am pretty sure you’ll find enough answers to your questions to realise who I am.”

He stepped back as I walked into the room and paid attention to the titles of the books. Damn, most of them were in Latin.

“I might need some help to read some of these,” I explained, turning to find him in the doorway, observing me. He looked… nervous. “I didn’t pay much attention in my Latin classes. My brother, Leif, reads Latin fluently. So do my mum and grandpapi but I know!” I raised my hands up in the air. “You don’t trust them.”

“They’re royals. And witches. I can’t.”

I spun around quickly when an idea struck me. “I have a family friend. She’s like a second mum to me, actually. She can read Latin but she won’t ask questions if I just ask her to translate a few pages. Is that okay?”

He rubbed his forehead as he glanced around the room. “She won’t tell anyone?”

“I’ll say it’s for a project I’m working on with the SIA…”

“Fine.”

“Good.” I smiled, but he continued to look on the verge of a mental breakdown as he slumped down on a bench by the door. He seemed uncertain about this and I felt the need to reassure him, though I wasn’t entirely sure what I was meant to be reassuring him of.