Page 46 of Deadly Reckoning (Broken Ashes #7)

I shake my head, “What’s that got to do with anything?”

“There’s nowhere dangerous in Raiden’s library, and even if there was, we’d deal with it like we always do,” he replies, and Raiden nods. “And you love everything that’s dangerous.”

“Yeah, okay, good point,” I admit.

I’m pulled through the maze of shelves to the furthest back corner of the library, and one that I can quite honestly say I have never been in.

The magic holding my shirt suddenly lets go, and I stumble back into the guys, who thankfully steady us all before we end up in a pile on the floor.

“Alright, so it’s led you here, but why?” Griff asks.

“For a book, I’m going to assume, but I have no idea which one or why. None of the books in this section has anything to do with anything that’s happening at the moment,” Raiden replies as he studies the shelves.

Before I can say anything, a book flies off the shelf and straight toward me, smacking me in the forehead.

“Ow, fuck,” I growl as I barely manage to catch the offending book before it hits the floor.

Raiden and Griff burst out laughing as I stand there holding the book in one hand and rubbing my forehead with the other one, that fucking hurt.

“It’s not that funny,” I grumble, which only seems to make them laugh more.

After a moment, Raiden says, still smiling, “I’m sorry, man, are you okay?”

I nod and try not to look amused as I reply, “Yeah, I’m okay.”

“I guess that the magic wants you to know something in the book,” Griff says.

“No shit,” I snark, making them both chuckle again.

I feel the magic buzz again, and the book in my hand lifts in the air. I watch it with narrowed eyes in case it decides it wants to attack me again, and relax slightly when its pages open and start turning rapidly, before it finds the page it wants and then gently floats down into my hands.

I frown, “It’s a plant.” When I carry on reading, my eyes widen, “Holy shit, it’s a plant that is known for bridging the gap between the two ingredients that don’t want to get along in the ward spell.”

“No fucking way,” Raiden mutters as he looks over my shoulder. “I don’t recognize it. Wait, it says here that it hasn’t been around for centuries.”

I sigh and turn back around to face them both, “Of course it fucking hasn’t, I mean that would just be too useful.”

Griff frowns, “Why would that magic go out of its way to pull you in here, smack you in the face with the book, only for the information in that book to be absolutely useless?”

I shake my head as I look at the picture of the plant, “I have no fucking idea, it doesn’t make much sense.”

“Can I have a look?” Griff asks me.

I nod and hand the book over to him, “Sure. I mean, we thought that angels were extinct, or rather never existed, and unicorns. Maybe this is another one of those things?”

Raiden nods, “Possibly, maybe it’s only thought to be extinct?”

“It is,” Griff says. “This plant grows on my clan lands in Scotland, it’s the last known place that the plant grows. Although if this is to be believed, then it’s only known to my clan members.”

I stare at him for a moment, “Wait, seriously?”

“It’s on your clan lands?” Raiden asks just to make sure.

Griff nods, “Yeah. I remember it as clearly as anything. You would have to ask permission to have some, and the clan elders would want to know what it’s being used for, since the plant is so scarce, but I'm pretty sure that they would let us have some.”

We’re all silent for a moment.

“Well, it looks like we’ll be going to Scotland too,” Raiden grins. “I’ve always wanted to go to Scotland.”

I raise my eyebrows slightly as something else occurs to me. “Maybe you need to talk to your clan about what’s going on with your magic more urgently than you thought you did.”

“Ransom’s got a point, actually,” Raiden agrees. “It’s pretty coincidental that the one thing that he needs for the ward spell to work is on your clan's land.”

Griff frowns, “Do we even believe in coincidences anymore?”

“Probably not,” I reply. “Which means you need to talk to them about why your magic is behaving differently.”

“Yeah, you’re probably right. We’ll focus on getting to Ireland first since it was made pretty clear that we need to get there as soon as possible, and then we’ll figure out how to work in going over to the clan lands.

We aren’t going to be able to just get Doc to transport us in, we’d get attacked without question.

Which means we’re going to have to go in the more traditional way, which takes a bit longer,” Griff replies.

“We could send a message to say that we’re coming?” I suggest.

He shakes his head, “They’re so cut off from anything that they don’t even get mail, and they don’t have access to any other sort of communication.”

“When was the last time you saw them?” Raiden asks.

Griff frowns as he thinks about it, “Erm, probably a couple of years ago, maybe longer. I’m not really sure. I do know that it's been long enough that ma is going to be mad as hell that I haven’t visited more.”

The look of fear on his face makes me grin.