Page 30 of Forgotten Arcane (Broken Ashes #6)
Neith
R aiden kisses me deeply as we ride out the last waves of pleasure before he pulls back and gently lowers me to the floor.
“That was fucking awesome,” I grin.
He smirks, pulling me into his arms as he says, “Give me ten and we can go again. I fucking love chasing you.”
“I love it too,” I agree. Glancing around us, I grimace as I realize that we’ve knocked several of the books on the floor. “Whoops.”
Raiden grins as he looks around the room too, “Worth it.”
I smile as we both move to start picking them up and putting them back in their rightful places, and I grab my underwear as well. They’re sliced and no good anymore, and I chuckle.
Raiden grins proudly as my legs continue to shake like jelly, and I stick my tongue out at him.
Putting the last book on the shelf, he chuckles and pulls me into his arms again as he kisses me softly, and says, “Come on. We should probably go back to that research.”
“Oh yeah, I forgot about that,” I grin as we walk back through the shelves.
“Good,” he replies. “I would have clearly done something wrong if you could think straight with my head between your legs.”
I grin, “You definitely didn’t do anything wrong.”
He smiles as we get back to the table with all of our books spread out on top, “Coffee?”
I nod, “Yes, please.”
Excusing myself to go to the bathroom, I throw my torn underwear into the trash and make a mental note that I need to remember to put on some more underwear before we go to the compound.
“Here you go,” he greets me with a smile and a coffee when I get back.
“Thanks,” I grin, kissing him again, and then we dive back into the huge pile of books that we have on the table.
It’s only a short while later when I find something.
“I found something about angels,” I say. Raiden looks up from the book that he’s reading, “It says here that there isn’t a variation in their wing color and that they all look like my mom’s do. It’s one of the things that defines them as angels.”
Raiden frowns, “Your wings are a different color. That must be wrong information.”
I nod, “Yeah, it must be, it wouldn’t make sense otherwise. Did you find anything?”
He nods, “Yeah. Although, it’s not much.”
“Anything is better than nothing,” I point out.
“It’s about unicorns. This is actually in a book that is classed as fiction so I’m not saying that we should believe it, but I do believe that some truth can be found in fiction,” he starts to explain.
I nod, “Agreed. I mean look at all those stories that the humans had about supernaturals before they discovered that they were real. They got a lot wrong, but they got some stuff right too.”
Smiling he continues, “Exactly. So, it says here that unicorns used to bestow a mark on a very few chosen supernaturals. It usually meant that the supernatural could call on them if they ever found themselves in danger, and that it offered other benefits as well.”
“So kind of like the kelpies then?” I ask.
Raiden nods, “Yeah, it seems like it.”
“What were the other benefits?” I ask when he doesn’t continue.
Raiden shrugs, “I have no fucking idea. It just stops and then starts talking about princesses and shit. There’s nothing else about the unicorn really.”
I frown, “Well, it’s more information than we had a moment ago, although it probably is more likely to be fiction than anything else.”
“True. I’ll carry on looking and see if I can find anything else that can help us get some more answers, but I’m not holding out much hope. We might have to find a better-equipped library than mine.”
I nod, and we both dive back into the books, and I pull out the one that Winston translated for us.
I honestly don’t know why I didn’t start with it, because within a few moments, I have already found some more information.
“Listen to this,” I say, gaining Raiden’s attention once again, “it says that angels use a very strong glamour to hide their wings when it’s necessary, and that the ability is built into every angel as a protection measure.
” Glancing up at Raiden in confusion, I ask, “I thought you guys said that I was shifting?”
Raiden frowns, “You are. There’s absolutely no doubt about that. You are definitely shifting and not using magic. What book is that?”
“It’s the one that Sully gave us,” I reply.
Raiden’s eyebrows draw down even more in confusion, “Well that’s not fiction. Not that we’re aware of anyway.”
I shake my head, “Nope. I guess we just wait to see if the Elders come through with those books that they promised they were going to try to find for me. Then we can verify the information using multiple sources. If it turns out to be true, then we can look into why I’m different.”
Raiden nods, “Yeah, I like that plan.”
Smiling, I turn back to the pile of books stacked next to me to try and see if I can find anything else that corroborates what the book is saying and confirms it to be true.
The sound of the library door opening shocks me. I have no idea how long we have been reading for, but my back hurts, and my eyes have started to go fuzzy, so it has to have been for quite a while.
“Hey guys,” Griff greets us with a smile, as he walks straight over to me and kisses me. When he pulls back, he asks, “Did you guys manage to find anything?”
I shake my head, “We didn’t really find much. We decided to look in the myths and legends section, so we’re not actually sure what is real and what is fiction.”
“We’ll find something, don’t worry,” Griff says.
“We did find out from the book that Winston translated for us that angels don’t shift, they use a glamour to hide their wings. We’re going to try to find some other evidence to back it up,” Raiden tells him.
Griff frowns, “That doesn’t make sense. Neith definitely shifts.”
I shrug, “Knowing me, I’m just weird. Maybe it’s got something to do with why it took so long for my angel to come out.”
“That’s true, we have no idea if that’s normal or not for angels,” Raiden replies thoughtfully.
“The Elders were right then, and there aren’t very many books on angels?” Griff asks.
“Well, I don’t have many, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t more out there,” Raiden replies, with a slight frown.
“You know, the Obsidian Market sells rare books. We might be able to find something there that would give us some more information?” I suggest, and I’m surprised when the Voices mutter in agreement.
“The Obsidian Market isn’t known for being safe,” Raiden says, his eyebrows rising slightly.
“And we’re SID agents, we would need to be incredibly careful if we went there. If someone found out that we were agents, or even recognized us, then it wouldn’t end very well for us,” Griff adds, looking worried.
I nod, “The market is dangerous, of course it is, they sell illegal and stolen stuff, but it’s also pretty fucking amazing if you know the right places to look, and the right people to talk to.
I have contacts there that should hopefully be able to help us if we did decide to go there looking for information on angels. ”
“It’s certainly an option, but I don’t think that it should be our first option,” Raiden replies.
I get where they’re both coming from. They’re coming from the right side of the law, a side that I didn’t really belong to for a long time, and if you look at the Obsidian Market from the point of the view of the law, then yeah, it’s not a great place and although I would agree that there are some horrific things that happen there that need to be ended, there’s another side of the Obsidian Market that is all about information and knowledge, and I like that side of it.
Especially since it’s not just information about people you’re looking for, or who stole something that you want.
It's knowledge, real knowledge, about all sorts of things, and although the book part of the Obsidian Market is small, I can almost guarantee that there will be something there that will be able to help us.
It was merely an offhand suggestion when I first mentioned it, but the Voices agreed, and I trust them. I think that we’re eventually going to have to go to the Obsidian Market for that reason alone.
“Come on. It’s lunch, and then we’ve got to get to the compound. If we’re late, Calia is going to kill us,” Griff says with a smile.
Raiden winces, “Yeah, we definitely don’t want to be late.”
“I’m surprised she’s not insisting on feeding us lunch too,” I grin as we leave the books where they are so we can come back to them later and then head out of the library.
We’re almost to the stairs to the second floor when I remember that I’m not wearing any underwear and that we’re most likely going to be leaving straight after we’ve eaten, so I need to put underwear on now and not wait until after we’ve eaten, despite how hungry I am.
“I’ll meet you guys in the kitchen. I just need to grab something from upstairs,” I tell the guys.
“No problem,” Raiden smiles, as I jog up the stairs.
After I’ve put on new underwear, I also decide to arm myself with a few more weapons.
I’m not entirely sure why, but it’s pretty normal for me not to go anywhere without weapons on me somewhere. I can’t exactly walk around with Betty or Asael, they’re a little bit too conspicuous.
I still have the weapons that I packed into my bag for the Choosing, even though I didn’t use any of them.
They stayed packed because I had Asael and Betty, and I really didn’t have a need for any more weapons.
I definitely couldn’t have brought another sword with me, Asael would have been pissed, and I wouldn’t have put it past him to do something like use his magic to slice a different sword to pieces.
I know it shouldn’t, but that thought makes me chuckle.