Page 77 of Transfiguration

“I don’t really have anyone to ask.” Page waved at the stacks of books. “I had him take everything he could find from the Fellowship on golems, blood magic, and Weavers. But not everything is in this city. Hart has books spread across a dozen locations all over the world.”

“They let the golem walk out with dozens of books?” Con asked, floored by the lack of security. Did they know how hard he worked to retrieve books?

“They letmewalk out with lots of books,” Page corrected. “Forrest, mimic me.”

The man’s appearance changed, shifting to look just like Page. It was scary how accurate it was, only it was the opposite. A small mole near Page’s left eye was on the golem’s right.

“It’s a mirror,” Con said, thinking back to a handful of books he’d read about mirrors. Some of the perception arts worked that way. “A doppelgänger…”

Page nodded. “It’s a good way to know if you’re dealing with the real thing.”

“Go back to the part where Matthew’s soul is missing?” Sam said.

“I sent Forrest to retrieve the urn, too,” Page said. “But it was gone.”

“Did Hart break it when leaving the office?” Con asked. The vampire had been crazy with rage, and the battle had broken through walls.

“No. The office was intact. The urn was just gone by the time Forrest got there.” Page flushed. “It was a few hours after the mess here. I was a little sick from going through the veil, and I’m still new to learning how to control this summoning thing.”

“Someone took Matthew’s soul,” Con said. “But they don’t need it to control the body, right?”

“The body isn’t in one piece,” Page said. “It wouldn’t be usable until it is. Seiran said you found pieces.”

“Small pieces. Would that matter?” Con asked.

“It could be the key to this whole mess,” Page said.

“How so?” Sam asked.

“We use his parts to trace the rest of him,” Seiran said. “And rip that monster from this world for good.”

THIRTY-THREE

“Sounds good in theory, but it’s all speculation. How about we face the elephant in the room and ask the seer?” Con asked, staring at Seiran. “You know, your fae kid?”

Seiran flinched. “He’s not…”

“He is,” Con interrupted. “That kid knows more than all of us combined.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Seiran said. “He’s across the veil.”

“But you can call him back.”

“I can’t. I’ve tried. Him and Bryar.” Seiran waved his hand in the air. “The entire arboretum is barren of fae, nor are there any guarding the house. No one is answering me. I can’t navigate well enough to cross without getting lost.” Seiran sounded a little panicked. “I don’t even know if Kaine is okay. He’s just a kid.”

The problem was that Kaine wasn’t just a kid. He was fae, with full fae powers, but still in some ways learning how to be a person. Con thought that sounded like a recipe for disaster, but he’d be facing a lot of that himself when he got Bella back.

“If Kaine is involved, I’ll deal with it,” Seiran said, his tone heavy.

Gabe crossed the space in two long strides and pulled Seiran into a tight hug. His gaze was stern when meeting Con’s eyes. This was what Gabe was warning them about. Kaine was missing? Was Bryar keeping him over there on purpose?

“They had that black ooze stuff covering them,” Sam said. “It turned to red and back to black but clung to Bryar. Kaine pulled him through the veil. Maybe he’s protecting us from Bryar going nuts? Fae warrior of blood magic and all that? Can’t we cleanse him again?”

“I didn’t cleanse him the first time,” Seiran said, his hands gripping Gabe’s shirt like he clung to a life raft. “He’s a creature of blood magic, and we are only really bound through his vow to me, and now Kaine. I don’t know what happened in the arboretum. I’ve never seen that ooze before. It felt similar to the old Ascendance circle, only more concentrated.” Seiran sighed and relaxed into Gabe’s arms. “What if Kaine is hurt? Or that stuff is taking him over?”

Con was pretty certain he could navigate through the veil, but he wasn’t sure about within the veil itself. He knew nothing other than general ideas about it. A dozen fairytales in different cultures could be all speculation or complete truth. What he knew was that he had to find Matthew’s body and now his soul. It seemed tied to everything.

“There’s got to be people at the Fellowship that know,” Con said.