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“Surrendering the book won’t spare Olivia, and there’s every chance he could bring about doomsday. Innocents will die. Chaos will rule. Humans will be slaughtered. Magickind may not survive. And whatever she endures will be in vain…”
Once, I would have cared not about magical beings suffering. But the Doomsday Brethren have become warriors in the most human—and best—sense of the word. Bram has become almost like a friend.
“What would you have me do? I will not let my mate die at the hands of that evil butcher.” I scrub a hand down my face.
Strategy. ’Tis what I need. But after centuries of blaming magickind for so many of my problems, I know so little about these people.
“Can you”—I struggle to think of anything unexpected—“magically bind the book and make it impossible for him to use?”
Bram freezes. Then he smiles. “That’s it!”
“You can?”
“Not exactly. But neither of us could write in the diary. There’s a good chance Mathias won’t be able to either. Give me a minute.” Bram races across the room.
A moment later, a door materializes. He heads through it. Before I can follow, the wall solidifies again. Where the devil did he go?
Less than a minute later, the wizard appears again, this time holding an ancient tome. “Got it!”
“What?”
“Merlin’s old writings are more cryptic than helpful, but...” Bram flips pages, then stops near the middle of the book. “Ah, here Merlin says something about him being too much of a man to use the diary. All this time, I thought he was being a macho sod. But given what Olivia learned about the book being an object of feminine reverence and our own inability to use it, I began thinking… Morgana’s writings are loaded with rants about men and their ferocious desire for power.”
“She wanted to be a man’s sole focus. She hated that I had more desire to fight than to fuck her again.”
“Precisely.” Bram smiles. “Merlin wrote that she created something more powerful than wizards. Again, I interpreted this to mean that she crafted the book to be more awe-inspiring than her male cohorts. But I think he meant something else entirely.”
“She made it impossible for a man to use?”
“Indeed.”
I frown. “Why would Mathias seek what he cannot use? Or are you saying he does not yet realize thus?”
“That is exactly what I’m saying. After all, I have the benefit of Merlin’s writings, and I still didn’t realize the truth until we tried to use the diary. But I’m sure, in his head, once you give him the book, he’ll have everything he needs.”
“Or he means to hold Olivia, too. We must be careful, or he will have the world at his fingertips.”
Bram opens his mouth, then closes it to greet someone. “Sabelle.”
I whirl to find her in the doorway, looking disheveled, her swollen mouth lifted in a smile. “Gentlemen.”
“You’re looking…energetic.” He grimaces.
“I made sure my suffusion was quick but effective.”
His face pulls into a wince. “Don’t tell me who he is.”
“Wasn’t planning to. Notice I didn’t ask a few days ago where you got the bounce in your step.”
I have not the time for their banter when Olivia needs me. “We must hurry.”
Bram clears his throat. “Of course. Write in this.”
Sabelle plucks the pen, then blinks at her brother’s outstretched hand. “This book? The Doomsday Diary? Are you out of your bloody mind?”
“This may be our only means of bringing back Olivia.”
Sabelle hesitates and swallows. “All right, then. What shall I write?”
