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He shook his head. “I can feel the absence of it, but…I can suddenly hear myself think. Humans aren’t meant to wear fae artifacts.” He glanced at the balcony. “Would you like to sit outside?”
His eyes shone as I nodded, following him out. He wore that same wide-eyed expression as he gazed out at the world.
“Will you help us?” I asked.
He shrugged one shoulder, leaning over the balcony handrail to peer down at the garden below. “I didn’t know I had a choice.”
“You do. Of course, if you don’t help us, there’s a good chance Regner will find you and kill you. This little incident proves that. But the choice is still yours.”
His mouth twitched as he glanced at me. He had such old eyes.
“Yes, I’ll help you. I want him dead more than anyone.”
We stood in a comfortable silence for a while, until he sighed.
“Everyone is worried about the barrier. But you should really be focusing on the grimoire.”
“The grimoire?”
He grimaced. “You all keep referring to it as a ‘book.’ As if it would fit neatly in a library.”
“It’s not?”
“Calling the grimoire a book is like calling the barrier a fence.”
“How do you know this?”
He gave me an impatient look. “I was there when Regner learned the grimoire could do more than he’d ever imagined. And I was there when he learned that there are others—and that he’ll never be able to find them, thanks to the barrier he constructed. This war isn’t the only reason he now wants that barrier down.” He turned his gaze back to the city in the distance, where fae buildings glowed as white as exposed bone. “What exactly do you know about the grimoire?”
I studied his face. Now that he wasn’t wearing that amulet, Jamic was almost…loquacious. Although, I had also saved his life. Perhaps he’d decided he could trust me.
“Conreth told Prisca the book—grimoire—was created by a dark god. It’s the reason Regner was able to create the barrier. He found instructions teaching him how to do it.”
He nodded. “There is much I don’t know. And what I do know, I overheard in snippets. But there is a priestess Regner favors who was often…kind to me.” His cheeks warmed, and he hunched his shoulders. “If we can find a way to speak with her, we will learn everything Regner knows.”
“Tell me what you do know.”
“The dark god knew his siblings were going to strip him of his power. His memories. They were tired of the favoritism his father showed him, and they didn’t approve of his plans for this world. Before they could attack him, he learned of their plan. He poured much of his knowledge, power, and self into three grimoires, casting them out into this world. He knew they would be used, and when they were, that knowledge would call to him.”
If Regner ever found the other two grimoires, we were doomed. I couldn’t let him become that powerful. He didn’t get to win.After everything he’d taken from all of us… The life I could’ve had…
Would I have known my mother if Regner hadn’t relentlessly hunted our people for so long? Would I have grown up somewhere safe? Would I have been surrounded by love?
“Madinia?”
I forced myself to focus. “What has Regner used the grimoire for?”
“I don’t know. But…I think he did something to change how the oceartus stones worked. To make it possible for him to drain and keep our power.”
I went still. If Regner had used the book to change the oceartus stones from their true purpose…
To take their power…
We could undo it.
We could give that power back.
Just as long as we killed Regner and took the grimoire.
