Page 61

CHAPTER FIFTY-EIGHT

FRANKIE

Wait, no. That’s not Tenn. Whoa, he looks a lot like him. And the IV Mark of the Emperor on his left arm didn’t help him not look like Tenn. Although this guy was probably five or six inches shorter than my cousin and now that he stepped fully into the room, I realized behind the sparkle in his eyes the color was a bright silver not a mismatched green and blue. But he had the same long wavy black hair and their skin tone was identical, and while I’d need to see them side-by-side, it seemed they had the same cheekbones. He even carried himself like Tenn did.

I looked to Everest and whispered, “ Who is that? The Emperor? ”

Everest let out a deep sigh, which I did not understand. Then he said into my mind, “ Cyrus Proctor. Son of Myrtle Proctor. Descendant of Edward Proctor. Coven Leader. ”

My eyes widened. My head snapped back to Cyrus so fast my neck cracked. That was why Cyrus looked so much like Tennessee. he was Tenn’s grandfather a few centuries removed. Eventually a child of Cyrus’s would bring Tenn into this world. My jaw dropped. That meant this guy was also my cousin. And he was also Coven Leader. Somehow that’s not a coincidence but I don’t know what it means.

Cyrus Proctor stopped beside a middle-aged woman with graying brown hair and brown eyes. He looked down at her and nodded. She arched one eyebrow then looked directly at me. I sat up straight, but she’d already looked away from me. Both her and Cyrus were now glaring at Sweyn who was screaming from the middle of her bed, still surrounded by her bloodied dinner.

The woman reached up and wrapped her fingers around a gold locket and that I recognized instantly. That was the Hierophant’s locket. Orange magic flashed between her fingers. She reminded me so much of Bentley when she did that. Cyrus lifted his hand and blue magic shot out of his palm and wrapped around Sweyn’s body. She growled and lifted off the bed, Cyrus’s magic dragging her toward him before he dropped her on her knees in front of him. But he did not release his magic.

“ Mother—” A young woman who didn’t look more than my age leapt around the middle-aged Hierophant then slid to a stop. “ Get off them! ”

My breath caught me in a rush. That was a Bishop. I didn’t even need to ask. With the blonde hair and golden eyes, she looked like Emersyn, Hunter, and Kessler. But it was the power in her aura that set the record straight for me. Bishops had power unlike the other arcana. It was like standing in front of the sun.

“ Lavinia,” the Hierophant whispered in that motherly tone like she was warning her.

But Lavinia raised her hands up and spirits popped up from beneath the stone floor, glowing in a translucent blue. I looked back to Lavinia and found the Mark of Death on her arm. She snarled, “Where would you like them, Mother?”

Everest wrapped his arm around my waist and dragged me behind Sweyn’s throne, so we were out of sight. “ The Hierophant is Elizabeth Bishop. her daughter Lavinia is the daughter of angel Gabriel. Elizabeth is the other Coven Leader,” he told my mind.

I crept to the edge of the throne and peeked around just in time to watch spirits carry Sweyn’s court out of the room. They were bound with golden magic that looked like ropes. No matter how hard they thrashed the spirits’ grip was harder.

Lavinia leapt onto the bed and started checking pulses on the humans still chained to Sweyn’s bed. She was chanting in a language I didn’t know but sounded like a church hymn. Daughter of an angel. Lavinia’s eyes were blazing with Heavenly power, I’d seen enough of Tenn and Bettina at play to recognize the aura of angels.

““They’re still alive. Barely.” Lavinia moved from human to human. “Alden, please?— ”

“I’m here, Lavinia.” A towering man with strawberry blond hair leapt over to the bed and started ripping the chains off the bars. The VIII Mark of the Strength Card was bold on his pale freckled forearm. “Get them out of here.”

Sweyn thrashed against Cyrus’s magic, hissing as it zapped her. “How dare you enter my Kingdom–”

“Careful, monster,” Elizabeth snapped. That sharp coldness in her eyes was all Tegan. “The Coven gave you this kingdom. We can take it from you any time we discover you’re not worthy.”

Cyrus cocked his head to the side and narrowed his eyes on the bed drenched in human blood. “Perhaps we should finish the job The Coven was too lenient to do five centuries ago.”

My heart was pounding.

“Cyrus, bring her upstairs. Let us see what the Irit girls found while we were in here.” Elizabeth stepped to the side and gestured to the broken doors. “Then we shall decide what to do with her.”

Cyrus cracked his knuckles then reached down and grabbed his own blue magic coiled around Sweyn’s body like it was a rope. It was only as he lifted her that I saw he’d bound her mouth as well. Alden, the Strength Card, stepped over and took Sweyn from Cyrus then the two of them marched out of the room.

The room was empty now, save for me and Everest . . . and Elizabeth.

She waited until Sweyn was out of sight before she turned and looked directly at me. “Hurry, Tower. Your window is closing.”

I gasped.

She bolted up the stairs.

Everest let out a ragged breath as if he’d been holding It. He held my magic bag open and shoved his hand inside. “This will not rest well. They are only here to help you?—”

“ How do you know ?—”

“It’s a long story. Let us not waste this gracious favor that will have repercussions.” He pulled two identical looking metal slabs out of my bag and sat them on the stone floor in front of us. “ The Tower makes the last impression.”

My stomach knotted and turned. I nodded and leaned forward on my knees to get a better look. Now that I was up close, I saw the differences between the real one and the decoy easily. They were both some kind of metal, it was almost gold but too dark in color yet not quite silver. It was somewhere in that in-between zone. The one on the left had etchings carved into it, both words and images yet nothing was in a language I recognized. It looked like a fancier version of the Rosetta Stone. I ran my fingertips over the engravings and light flashed beneath my touch. Golden light illuminated all of the etchings and streamed into the air like sunshine streaming through a forest.

Everest let out a deep breath. “That decoy is good.”

I smiled up at him. “ I expected nothing less from you . ”

“Nor I of you.” He took both of my hands in his then pressed my palms on the pages, one on each, with his hands covering mine. “Do not overthink it, just push your magic into the pages and it will do the work.”

Yeah, no big deal, dude. But his faith and confidence in me was too strong to let down, too strong to not just do what he said and pray he was right. I took a deep breath and called upon my magic deep in my bones. C’mon, flames, let’s finish this. I pushed my magic through my palms and into the pages, neon-blue waves rolled out of me like a tsunami.

“ The pink magic,” he whispered in my mind.

I nodded and pictured those glowing pink flames in my mind until they flickered beneath my fingers. They moved like any wildfire would, slowly burning every crevice of the page until everything was awash in glowing pink fire. The blue wave swirled back around to swerve in and out of my hands. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.

“ Take this page with power entwined,” Valathame’s voice spoke into my mind. “ Trace the words forever in kind.”

I repeated the words in my head over and over, each time a golden light grew bright and brighter. I kept going until it stung my eyes and warmed my palms. Everest pressed his hand to my back and the tension in my body evaporated. I exhaled in a rush then opened my eyes.

Two identical pages sat before me.

I did it.

“I told you so, ” he whispered, then pressed his lips to my temple.

Thank you, Valathame.

As butterflies danced in my stomach, I grabbed my bag and dove inside for my rune bracelet, the one I hadn’t dared to wear while here. I held it in my hand and the runes flashed gold the moment the stones touched my skin. Okay, Lassie. Which one of these two pages is the real one? The real missing page from the tome we took from Atzaran?

A pink arrow popped up immediately, pointing directly to the page on the left. The one I knew to be the real one but was still relieved to have the proof. I nodded. Thanks, Lassie. I shoved the bracelet back into my bag then lifted the page up. I took a good look at it then carefully slid it into my bag, then tied the bag around my waist. To be on the safe side, I transformed it into a gold waist chain with a charm then tucked the chain under my clothes. We couldn’t risk someone getting that now that I’d gone through all of this to get it.

Everest snatched the decoy then lifted me to my feet. Together we hurried around to the front of the throne to place it when the throne shot straight up into the ceiling. Everest cursed and jumped up to try and sneak the page into the compartment while it lifted but the stupid door wouldn’t open. Everest snarled and dropped to his feet. He shoved the decoy page into the waistband of his pants then closed his waistcoat over it. Without a word, he grabbed my hand and dragged me out of Sweyn’s room.

The second we hit the main floor I heard the sound of Sweyn’s screaming. It was getting closer. Apparently, Cyrus had ungagged her. Hurried footsteps sounded in every direction. I heard the arcana ancient language being shouted down the halls in echo. Vampires shouted in alarm, no doubt in surprise to find The Coven at their door.

Everest yanked me down a narrow passageway behind a secret door that opened to the outside. He didn’t stop when our feet hit the snow either, he raced us over to the tree line at the far side of the property.

I yanked him to a stop, even though I knew he’d let me. “ Everest, what are you doing? Stop. We have to get the decoy back ? — ”

“Go home. Now. I’ll put it back. I have it?—”

“ What? No. Everest, no ?—”

“Yes, you must. This quest was to get the real page, and you have it. You can go home now and put this whole mess behind us?—”

“ The decoy ?—”

“I will put it in the throne?—”

“ No, I need ? — ”

“Please, go?—”

“ Is this because of what Sweyn made me do to that guy ?”

He flinched and then frowned so hard his brows pinched in the middle. Then he took my chin between his fingers. “Do you care what Sweyn has made me do? What I’ve had to do in order to survive?”

My eyes widened. “Everest?—”

“You told me five hundred years ago, you begged me, to do whatever I needed to do to survive–”

I kissed him. I took his face in my hands and kissed him long enough for him to get the message. Then I pulled back and looked into his eyes. “ You could take her right now, right in front of me and I would hate it, but I would never be angry or upset if it means you live long enough to be mine again.”

His shoulders sagged. “Then why do you assume I would feel any different about tonight?”

Tears filled my eyes.

“You cannot stay with me, my love. No matter how badly I wish you could, you must go. Every minute you remain within this dreaded castle my fear comes closer to suffocating me.” He took my hands in his. “You have the page. I’ll handle the decoy. Go home to me.”

But I shook my head. “ I need you to be there, Everest. I need to know you’ll be alive when I get back. I cannot leave while you hold the decoy. I don’t want to get back to my future and find you died three hundred years ago from Sweyn catching you. ”

His face fell just as a massive shadow passed over us. He hauled me to his chest. I spun in his arms to watch a huge dragon land right in front of us. Before I could take another breath, ten more dragons landed behind the first one. Each and every one of them lowered their heads and growled so loud the ground shook. The heat from their breaths melted the snow between us.

And then the biggest one in the front, the one with shiny black scales and bright purple eyes, sniffed me. He flinched then shook his head. His eyes narrowed on me. I knew this wasn’t some dumb beast, this was a shifter, and if his coloring meant what I thought it did . . . this was the King of shifters.

He smells coven magic.

I bowed and glanced over my shoulder. Everest held both hands up in surrender.

The trees rustled in my peripheral vision then a giant eagle shot like a rocket and landed at the black dragon’s feet . . . in human form. Except, this wasn’t Akecheta’s face. This was a new face, a new disguise. I remembered hearing him explain to Koth in the future that he had to take on new identities, like Elan that they knew. So, this version with the pasty pale skin and blue eyes with brown hair was evidently the current Akecheta. Black lines stretched across his face. His eyes flashed through about a dozen colors before returning to their natural black.

“Get back in there. Now.” Akecheta’s voice was the same as I remembered. “Finish this. For us.”

I nodded. “ Gracias. ” Then I spun on my toes and sprinted for the castle.

Everest caught up to me in the blink of an eye. He had us zipping through corridors faster than I could track where we were going until finally we emerged through the back door of the ballroom. Just twenty feet ahead sat the throne. One last piece of this puzzle then I could go home to my Everest.

We lunged forward just as the ballroom doors flew open and a sea of terrified vampires flooded the room. Everest wrapped his arm around my waist and leapt forward, landing directly in front of the throne. I spun in his arms to look at the compartment but there were too many eyes. The vampires moved too fast. In the blink of an eye, we were surrounded by all of Avolire. Gasps echoed around us. Everyone was staring at the front of the ballroom with wide eyes and jaws dropped.

I turned to look.

Sweyn and her court sauntered into the ballroom with The Coven hot on their heels. All twenty-two of them. As Sweyn marched through the crowd that parted for her and sat on her throne, The Coven lined up shoulder-to-shoulder along the three walls of the room that weren’t behind the throne. They didn’t speak. That massive black dragon that looked a lot like Koth lowered down like a dog about to pounce but his head filled an entire archway. Little puffs of hot smoke left his nostrils.

Sweyn snarled from her throne beside me. “If The Coven thinks they can raid my castle unprovoked, then?—”

“Careful, Sweyn.” Cyrus Proctor stepped forward and crossed his arms over his chest, a move his great-grandson pulled constantly. He arched a black eyebrow. “We just pulled a dozen nearly dead humans from your bed. You’re hardly in a position to make threats.”