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“So you found something yesterday?” Manny asked, breaking the silence.
“Where’s the book?” Killian asked as he looked around. He had expected it to be on the table, but he realized that all the books they’d reviewed were now reshelved.
Slowly, Elyse lifted a book from her lap and set it on the table. “It’s here,” she said quietly. She kept one hand on the cover, as if protecting it.
“Sera said that whoever is responsible for Prestowne is trying to—” Manny paused for a moment and shook his head, as if trying to wrap his mind around it. “—trying to bring a demon to life?” He rubbed the back of his neck as he met each of their eyes, like he was waiting for one of them to confess the whole thing was a joke.
Elyse nodded but remained silent. She seemed so shaken, her face paler than usual. Killian glanced toward Jaime, hoping to gain some sort of insight into what was going on with Elyse. Jaime’s face remained plastered in a scowl.
“So what does that mean for us?” Killian asked. He’d mulled over the information most of the night as he lay awake in bed. A week ago, he hadn’t even known that demons existed, and now one was terrorizing his kingdom. His thoughts had darkened as he pondered the nightmares a demon would unleash, and how he, of all people, had managed to get involved in such a crucible.
“We should see what the next ritual is,” Elyse said wearily. She stared down at the book, her eyes shadowed and heavy. “If we can learn what their next move is, maybe we can find them. Maybe we can stop them.”
She opened the book with slow, deliberate movements, as if it took great effort to do so. As her eyes passed over the words, her jaw clenched.
“What is it?” Jaime asked from his position against the wall.
Killian’s nostrils flared at Jaime’s tone—at his nonchalant stance. He seemed to care more about lording his library over them than he did about actually finding the person responsible for everything.
Elyse looked up, terror in her onyx eyes, her mouth slightly ajar. “The next ritual is the final one,” she explained. “The one that will give the demon a vessel.”
“Shit,” Manny murmured.
Shit was an understatement.
“Well how do we stop it?” Killian asked, trying to remain logical.
Elyse bowed her head and read aloud. “The final ritual will require angel’s blood, the eternal rose, and a willing vessel. On the summer solstice, the vessel must mix the angel’s blood with his own, covering the eternal rose. Just as the last light of day disappears, the vessel will burn the rose. Then the demon will be freed from hell and inhabit the vessel, strengthened by the rose’s power.”
Summer solstice? Killian did a quick calculation. The summer solstice was only seven days away.
“So we have a week,” Sera uttered, voicing Killian’s thoughts. She looked to Elyse, who gave a somber nod.
“Angel’s blood?” Manny asked incredulously. “Angels are real?”
Jaime gave him a pitying look. “You have no problem accepting that demons are real, but angels are hard to believe?”
Manny didn’t bother responding to Jaime’s rhetorical question.
“What is the eternal rose?” Killian asked.
Elyse, Sera, and Jaime all exchanged looks with one another. “You really don’t know?” Jaime scoffed.
Manny and Killian both shook their heads in reply.
Jaime finally left his place against the wall and joined them at the table, seating himself beside Elyse. “It’s a very powerful, very valuable artifact,” he explained, as if it were common knowledge. Though, to wielders of magic, Killian supposed it was common knowledge.
“I didn’t think it actually existed,” Sera uttered. She stared distantly at a bookshelf, her purple eyes glazed in trepidation.
Manny gave Sera a troubled look. “What does it do?”
“No one really knows,” Jaime answered, a mixture of concern and awe in his voice. “There are so many legends, all of them conflicting. Some say it gives the wielder immortality, others say it amplifies a sorcerer’s power tenfold.” He shrugged and crossed his arms again as quiet dread fell over them.
Killian stared at the book as he let the words sink in. The legends may not agree on the specifics of the eternal rose, but if the book before them recited instructions on how to obliterate an entire town, he had no doubt the rose was capable of helping a demon infest a human’s body. And if that body became immortal? He let out a defeated breath and leaned back in his chair.
Elyse still didn’t speak. Her lips were drawn together in a tight, unsettled line. Killian studied her, wishing he could know what was on her mind.
“Elyse, you used to sell magical relics,” he pointed out. “Did you ever come across any information on the rose?”
