Chapter 9
Tully
I waltz out of the tavern and into the cold night air. Argos’s rune stones are warm in my dress pockets—whether from his body heat or magic, I don’t know.
His scent is all over me. Musk. Woodsmoke. Sandalwood. I bite my lip, wishing I didn’t like it so much. I exhale, leaving all that behind and ripping my mask off. I tuck it into my belt and hurry through the snow.
Is it bad that I stole from someone while making out with them? I’m soaking wet from his tail’s delightful attentions under my skirts. I have to admit there is a part of me that wishes he was on his way back to my house with me, ready to spend the night exploring everything it means to sleep with a minotaur.
So am I a bad person? Did I cross a line stealing?
I don’t think so. My actions would be horrible if I didn’t have my heart in the right place. I’m borrowing the khymeia so I can study their power. It’s in the interest of keeping my town safe. I won’t keep the stones. I want to, but I won’t. Laini has woven a thread of ethics into my soul, damn her. Two years ago, I would have taken these stones and kept them forever and not had a single gray hair over it.
I shake my head at myself as I hurry home through the snowy streets. The lamplighters have done their duty, so the pathways and roads are painted in gold from the burning wicks on the oil lamps high above me.
A Great Crowned Owl hoots from a rowan tree at the corner. She swivels her head and her small antlers sparkle like ice in the starlight. It’s my friend, Lady Owl. I give her a nod in greeting. Silent in her graceful movements, she leaves her perch and flies overhead.
“How are you on this night of no moon, Lady Owl?”
She hoots twice. She’s doing well.
“Good to hear. Can you sense the power in the stones I took from the minotaur? Is that why you’re paying me a visit?”
Lady Owl lets out a low trill and one quiet hoot. I don’t know how exactly I understand her, but her sounds are quite clear in meaning to me. They always have been ever since we met eight months ago. She sees visions too and sometimes shares them with me. Nothing too helpful as of yet, but I enjoy her wise company.
“Yes, I’ll be careful with them. You sound like Laini.”
She hoots and clicks her beak, chiding me.
“Sorry. Owls are nothing like humans.” I reach my door and swing it open. She flies in circles over my front steps. “Want to come inside and warm yourself by my fire?”
Inside, I flick my wand at my hearth, and the logs are suddenly wrapped in orange fingers of flame. A flash of Argos’s dark eyes blinks through my mind and I suddenly feel the heat of his hands on my scalp. The way he tangled his fingers in my hair and how his tail felt sneaking up my skirts…
I growl, forcing those thoughts away and I take a steadying breath. Stupid, handsome minotaur. He has no business being so seductive.
Lady Owl settles on a perch I made for her out of fallen branches and some scrap wool Laini gave me. I take a seat in the cushioned chair by the fire and remove Argos’s stones from my pockets. They hum in my hands, their power quiet but steady.
One rune is repeated on both rocks. I set the stones beside me and grab the largest of my books on magical symbols. With the heavy tome weighing down my lap, I flip the parchment pages slowly. The fire snaps, and I look up to see Lady Owl watching the stones next to my leg like they are mice for the taking.
“Hmm.” I focus on the book again, searching until I find the runes I’m looking for.
My stomach sinks when I find what I’m looking for. This is what I was afraid of.
“This rune summons energy from the surrounding environment,” I tell my wise owl friend. “Argos is draining the earth when he uses these.”
Lady Owl echoes my feelings on that by making a low trill like a growl.
I pick up one of the stones and study the other runes. Paging through the tome, I make my way through every rune. There are two small ones for strength to the wielder, which makes sense considering these were obviously created to give non-magical creatures power. One rune on the slightly larger stone is shaped like an oak leaf. The book says it’s for memory. But the translation seems off to me. I reread the whole page on that leaf rune, but it’s not very clear.
“Have you ever heard of a magic that accesses a person’s memory?” I ask Lady Owl.
She coos. That’s a yes .
“Interesting. I didn’t know that was a thing.”
Two hoots and I am raising my eyebrow at the sassy owl.
“Yes,” I say to her, “I realize there is much you know that I don’t.”
Her next trill tells me she thinks of me as a youngling. I wonder how old she is, but I know not to ask a Great Crowned female that question. Witches have stories shared at the gathering that tell of what happens when you trouble the matriarch-level Great Crowneds about time or age. I don’t know why it bugs them so.
At some point, I must fall asleep because I wake to someone knocking at my door. I’m sprawled across my extra wide chair, one leg hiked up over the arm. Rubbing the sleep from my eyes, I point my wand at the door and open it.
“Come in, Laini.”
Her energy sometimes has a signature, so to speak. Not always, but when she’s keyed up.
“Are you all right?” She stomps her winter boots on my entrance area rug and clumps of snow drop around her.
“I’m perfectly fine. Thank you for asking.”
Look at me being so delightfully and disgustingly polite even though I just woke up and haven’t had my very strong tea yet. I adore Laini and I’m trying to be less of a beast.
The morning sun streams into my house and I rise to stoke the fire back to life. It’s freezing in here. Lady Owl rests on her perch, her big eyes blinking at Laini.
“Why did you take off so quickly last night?” Laini asks. “It looked like you two were having a very good time.”
I wave her off and trudge to the kitchen to make tea. “That was all part of the plan.”
“So you managed it? You stole his stones?”
I snort a laugh. “The ones not attached to him, yes.”
Laini laughs and clears her throat. “What have you learned so far?”
“Let’s finish here and I’ll fill you in.”
I hurry the tea along with my magic and soon we are both toting a steaming cup into the sitting room.
“Oh, hello, Lady Owl,” Laini says.
We get comfortable by the fire—me in my chair, Laini in the large, round cushion sitting near the crackling fire, and Lady Owl on her perch.
The owl hoots and Laini leans over my book as I open it.
I point to the last rune I looked up. “All right. Let’s see. I have learned that these can access a wielder’s memory and that they pull energy from the world to work. It’s dark magic. I don’t like it. There are other runes, too, but the rest are pretty basic.”
“What do we do now?”
“I’m going to use them near that mysterious hole in the ground and see if anything pops up,” I say.
“Mysterious hole? Oh, is that what Rom was trying to tell me about earlier?”
“Probably because he was about to fill it back in for me when I felt the magic hiding in that area.”
Laini makes a thinking, humming sound.“Any ideas on what it is?”
“No.”
“But it can’t be related to Argos and his magic rocks, right? Because he just now showed up and Rom said the divot in the ground was substantial. I saw where Rustion had it roped off, but there was a crowd nosing about the place, so I wasn’t able to see it properly.”
“I suppose whatever is in the hole was there before Argos arrived, yes. But it gave us no trouble before him. Therefore, it is his fault. All of it is his fault.”
Laini gives me a look.
“What? I can’t help it if the truth isn’t nice. He is a problem for our town. It is what it is.”
We drop that side of the subject and she helps me comb through more mouse-nibbled scrolls, yellowed books with rusted buckled closures, and stacks of leather-bound tomes in a variety of languages. Thankfully, most have sketches and symbols that explain the magic they’re detailing.
Finally, I spot a line in a black grimoire that looks promising. Laini pours out another cup of lavender tea and sits beside me.
“What is it?”
“This one talks about storing power in a stone via runes. Ah!” I jab the words with my index finger. “The rune on the stones is a type of strength rune! It just looks different.”
I take the stones out and hold them up beside the drawing in the book.
Laini leans close and squints. “I don’t know how you can tell these things apart. They’re all a bunch of lines and squiggles.”
“Look at this one on the underside. It’s like this one in the book just here.” I point to the next paragraph in the grimoire. “This is what I call a type of warm up rune. It gets the spell going, so to say. There are countless forms of this type of rune and they were used in the early days when witches were even more rare than they are now.”
Blowing out a breath, Laini eyes the stones. “So this is what they are then? Khymeia stones?”
“Yep. I think so. In fact, I’d bet on it.”
“You should use that term, khymeia, talking to Argos and watch his reaction. If he looks intrigued or surprised, then maybe he is as clueless as I hope he is. If not, he knew already and is probably hiding even more.”
I point at her and purse my lips. “Smart. Yes. I like that idea.” I get up and go to my desk. “I’m going to write to Rustion and keep him in the know.” I crack the window, letting in some of the wintry air, then bespell the note to fly to Rustion.
By the time Laini, Lady Owl, and I have downed some toast and jam, Rustion’s reply is zipping through the window by my desk.
I’m furious.
Laini flattens her palm. “What’s wrong?”
Lady Owl swoops down to peck the crust of Laini’s toast from her hand, and then the owl returns to her perch.
“He asks that I return the stones to Argos and bring him along when I delve into the mysterious magic under the ground near Widow Warton’s place. Claims ‘the lad needs a magical education’ to keep things safe in Leafshire. Ugh.”
“Maybe you can come up with a compromise with Argos if you can figure out how to keep his magic from destroying the earth.”
I snort. “Excuse me? What exactly are you thinking I should give up in this proposed compromise?”
Laini doesn’t hesitate. I love that she isn’t afraid of my moods and my power. She feels secure in our friendship now and I won’t be taking that for granted.
“I don’t know,” she says quickly. “Maybe he can sell his time creating those illusions for events and birthdays and whatnot. He can leave the rest of the magic sales to you.”
“I doubt he’d make enough from illusions to pay his rent.”
“Where is he staying?”
“At Cyrus’s.”
“Hmm. Cyrus is kind, but he can’t do without rent for his only room. I wonder why Argos chose the pub. He should be at the inn or taking a room on the town’s outskirts.”
“He’s a fool. He chose the cushy lodgings and now he has to pay for them. Have you noticed his accent and his hands?”
“What about them? I mean, he sounds northern, but other than that, no.”
“I think he was raised with nobles. There are a ton of minotaurs up north and that’s where their true kingdom and court sits.”
“Well, that would make sense. Maybe he was a scribe or something.”
“Maybe.”
“Why do you care, Tully?”
“I want to know where he came from so I can send him back.”
Laini chuckles and I glare.
“I’m not kidding, Laini.”
“Oh, I am aware.”