Page 24 of Princess of Bael

“Holy shit,” Kayla breathed as she entered the room before me.

“Holy Divinity,” I corrected, unfurling my wings and allowing them to touch the ground. I could technically pull them in, but I preferred being in my natural state while in my home. The panes at the top of my windowed wall were glassless, allowing me a direct escape into the sky should I need it.

Kayla ignored my correction, instead wandering to the back windows and the sliding doors in the middle. She opened them without asking permission to step out onto the wraparound patio outside to take in the view of the pond and trees beyond.

A slice of Heaven, I mused, taking a moment to enjoy the scenery as well.

It never grew old, the rolling hills and blue sky an opulence I adored.

Clouds didn’t exist here.

No storms. No need for rain. Just a haven of paradise blessed with perfect temperatures, bright days, and crystal-clear nights.

A stark difference from Hell, something Kayla clearly noticed. As she’d been there the last… I frowned.How long? Thousands of years?

My eyebrows lifted.

Shit. No. Ten thousand or fifteen thousand?I glanced at the back of her head.And she still holds a grudge after all this time?

Well, I supposed I had ruined her life.

Shaking my head, I unfurled my wings and propelled myself up my shelves to locate the book I desired. Naturally, it was near the top of the room, but the spine fell easily into my hand as I stole it from the shelf.

I flipped the pages open as I descended, my gaze searching the words for the spell that would bring Kristina home.

The last time I’d used this, it had been on Johanna.

And the aftermath of that situation still stood on my veranda outside.

Ignoring Kayla, I settled at my desk with the ancient text in my hand.

“Hmm,” I hummed, finding the section I needed and gently laying the book on the polished surface of my desk.

The sweet scent of lilies assaulted my nostrils as Kayla returned, her natural perfume resembling a spike to my senses.

I ignored it, instead inhaling the aroma of the old book and focusing on my ingredient list. Making a mental list of what I needed, I took off around the room to find each item. I kept them all tucked away in alcoves among the books, not to hide them, just to maintain a certain organization. It made collecting everything simple, with the blank sheet of paper the final item required.

Kayla took over my chair while I flattened the parchment on the desk, her silence an irritation to my senses. Or maybe it was having her at my back that irked me.

However, I refused to comment on it.

And I busied myself with mixing ingredients for the locator spell.

Most of it was blood related, with a pinch of old feathers and some demonic sand from Kristina’s father’s home realm. The only thing left that I needed was a piece of her hair.

I stepped away from my desk to go to the bookcase in the corner across from the sprawling windows and pulled the book out that would unleash one of the secret doors in the room. It whisked open to reveal the closet beyond it. This compartment contained everything Divinity-related, meaning strands of their hair, old clothes, and anything else that could be used to track them as needed.

Kristina’s box was at the back, her strand of hair carefully wrapped within to preserve her energy traits.

I gingerly pulled it out without touching the strand—I didn’t want to risk mixing up the power signature—and carried it with the cloth wrapped around it back to the table.

Then I dropped the hair into the liquid and gently stirred it with the wooden spoon I’d plucked off one of the shelves from above.

“What are you doing?” Kayla finally asked as I started sprinkling the concoction over the parchment paper.

“A locator spell,” I replied, stating the obvious.

“If you could do that the whole time, why did you follow my lead?” Kayla asked, her tone genuinely curious.