Page 31 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

Ransom shakes his head, “No, I should be able to get some from the apothecary in town.”

“Awesome,” I jump up and grab his arm, pulling him up with me.

“Let’s go, I could do with getting out of the house.

I know we haven’t exactly been trapped here, or even here for very long, but I want out.

Oh, we could drop in on Neera and get a coffee.

I feel like I’m never actually going to get to meet up with them.

” Frowning, I stop pulling him toward the door, “Shit, I was supposed to meet them. I have no idea when though.”

“You could check your phone?” Ransom suggests when I just stand there with what I am pretty sure is a constipated look on my face.

Closing one eye because it weirdly helps me think, I exclaim triumphantly, “Sunday. I knew I’d remember. See, I didn’t need to look at my phone.”

“Well done?” Ransom replies, phrasing his response like it’s a question and no doubt thinking that I’ve lost my damn mind.

To be fair, he might be right.

“Thanks,” I grin. “Wait, what day is it today?”

“Friday? I think. Maybe Thursday? Hell, it could be Saturday,” Ransom replies. “I honestly have no fucking idea.”

“Ah, we can figure it out later,” I say as I resume pulling him toward the door. “Let’s go and get the ingredient and see Neera.”

“We should probably ask the others and see if they want to come too,” Ransom suggests.

I nod, “Good idea, Coen and River are most likely conspiring to commit chaos as we speak because they’re bored, and I feel like everyone else is far too into whatever work task that they’ve set themselves, even though we’re supposed to be taking it easy, despite the fact that we have the wolves case for Rana. ”

“Nailed it,” Ransom chuckles.

We move back through the house, and as we do, I send a text message on our group chat, telling the others where we’re going and that if they want to come, to meet us by the door.

I grin when we get there and see all of the guys waiting by the door, River still hopping around trying to put his shoe on, and making me chuckle.

“Neith, I missed you,” he grins when he sees me, scoops me up, and kisses me before putting me back down, as Ransom reaches for me again, and I thread my fingers through his.

“I haven’t been gone that long.”

“Long enough,” River retorts. He grabs my hand and pulls both Ransom and me out of the door, “Come on, let's go. Are we going to see Neera too?”

“Yep, I thought we could get coffee at her store and say hi,” I say.

“Is there a reason why we’re all going into town, Love?” Coen asks, “Or is it just to get the gremlins among us away from work?”

Van’s eyes narrow slightly, “What were you doing?”

Coen smirks, “Reading.”

“About what?” Van asks knowingly.

Glancing away, but unable to hide his amusement, he replies, “Unicorns, and what kind of spell could be used as a potion to control someone as strong as Dimitri.”

“So, you were working too, then?” Reed grins as he gets into the van.

“Fair point,” Coen concedes.

“Did you find out anything?” I ask curiously.

Coen shakes his head, “Not really. I didn’t find anything apart from the usual things that I already know about that can control supernaturals, and I feel like none of them are quite enough to be able to control Dimitri.

” He carries on, “The unicorn thing was slightly more interesting, but still didn’t give much information, and I don’t actually know if what I read was true. ”

“That’s the problem. Unicorns are fiction, they’re stories,” Raiden agrees. “At least we always thought they were.”

“Exactly,” Coen agrees.

“What did you find?” Doc asks him curiously.

Coen sighs, “Apparently, or maybe the right word is supposedly. Having a unicorn give you its mark is extremely rare and also extremely dangerous.”

“Dangerous?” Reed asks, his eyes narrowing.

Coen nods, “Yes, because they are so sought after, and the person who has the mark has a direct link to them. They are able to find them easily using the mark, call on them in times of distress, and even, in some rare cases, use some of the unicorns magic as their own. Which means that people capture and use those with the mark in order to capture the unicorns. That’s as far as I got, and like I said, I have no idea which parts are fact or fiction, or even if it’s all fiction. ”

“Could we use the spell that Ransom designed for the books from the Elders to see if the information in the book that Coen found is true?” Griff asks.

Ransom’s eyebrows rise slightly, but he nods, “I hadn’t thought of that. I don’t see why not.”

“We can do that when we get a chance. If I’m being honest, the unicorn mark is the least of my worries. It’s not causing me any grief, it’s just there. I don’t even mind wearing the bracelet, I am perfectly happy to put it at the bottom of the worry pile for the time being,” I suggest.

Reed nods, “If you’re happy to do that, then that’s what we will do.”

“Just promise that you’ll let us know if something changes, with the mark, your magic, or anything really,” Doc says.

I nod, “I promise. Since we’re catching up on research, Raiden, did you find anything about anything?”

Raiden shakes his head, “Nothing that I’m ready to share yet.

I need to do more research before I can say for certain that I’ve found something, if that makes sense.

” He looks at Griff, “I did try to find out why your visions have suddenly changed and gotten stronger, but I couldn’t find anything.

The only thing that I can think of is that it somehow has something to do with the extra magic that the Choosing gave us. ”

“But that was magic that had something to do with death,” River points out.

“Exactly, it doesn’t quite make sense, but at the moment that’s the best that I’ve got,” Raiden replies, not sounding very happy about it at all.

Griff smiles, “Thank you. I’m going to do some more of my own research, but I have a feeling that it might be a question that I have to ask my family. It can wait, it’s not pressing. It doesn't feel like it’s the magic that the Choosing gave us though, so it must be something else.”