His overt insincerity caused my jaw to tighten. I needed to leave before I said or did something I would regret. Sweeping my hand in a circle, the air shimmered and portal opened. The gleaming marble gave way to the carpet of my apartment.
I stepped through and the portal closed behind me like paper crumpling in on itself. Ylang’s voice followed me. “You forgot to ask me chicken or fish.”
5
Instead of my recurring nightmare, the whisper of fabric woke me up. Turning onto my side, I found a musty old tome on my bedside table and a note with what looked like chicken scratches on it. Calan was still working on his handwriting.
Where Calan’s bedside table was clean and barren save for a lamp, my side was a jumbled mess of jewelry, empty glasses, and even a few articles of clothing. The massive volume moved. I jerked back, my hand instantly clutching at my chest.
Looking at the floor, I found Snarp tugging at the edge of the sweater that was trapped under the heavy book. He'd effectively used my sweater to slide the heavy book toward him. It was halfway over the edge, balanced precariously over his head along with all my other junk that wasn’t far behind.
“Hey hey hey, knock that off.” I pushed everything back onto the table.
“That’s what I was tryingsss to dosss.” Snarp huffed as he flew up onto the bed.
The note was from Calan, telling me I had it for the morning, it could not leave the apartment, and that he’d gone on a job with Travis.
The sucker was a behemoth bound in sturdy brown leather. I ran my fingers over the shiny stones embedded on the cover. Guess I was playing research girl today.
“Come on, you dumb bird,” I said, swinging my legs over the bed.
A flurry of wings and Snarp hopped up onto my shoulder. Book clutched to my chest, we went to the living room.
It had been another late night spent in the car with the police scanner. When there had been a supernatural disturbance at a nearby gas station, I raced to beat the police to the scene. When I walked in on a gas attendant attempting to clean up what looked like the aftermath of a fight scene, it took me less than a second to sense the attendant had been possessed.
Despite the spirit’s best attempt to act like a human, I sucked him out and absorbed his essence. The euphoria was more intense than ever, and I was suddenly hungry for more. The cops showed up and I fled the scene.
Realizing it was almost dawn, I only managed to sneak back into bed a few short minutes before Calan got up to go for his daily training. The way he stretched then pulled me against his body, nuzzling my neck told me he was none the wiser.
I tried to brush off the guilt I felt at going out by myself, but why should I feel guilty? I was helping people. Smiting shit, as Travis pointed out.
And feeding a deep dark hunger for evil beings.
Everything was fine. I was fine. I just needed to do a little research. Which was exactly why I needed to learn more about the Reckoning. I cracked open the musty tome and immediately went into a sneezing fit that sent Snarp across the room to a safe distance.
After spending all morning going over the volume from the Order of Luxis, all I could say was I was no closer to figuring out why I had developed powers. Taking a quick sip from my coffee cup, I found the remaining half had turned ice cold. Setting it down, I rubbed my temples, recognizing it was probably for the best. The faint throbbing of a developing headache started behind my eyes. Where I sucked down romance books by the dozens, this dense reading with all thethous,thees, anderrswas enough to send my brain into smoky overdrive on the simplest sentence.
Part of me had been looking forward to perusing the rest of their book, to check out all of the dirt on Luxis. What could a little peek hurt? But turned out, except for the sections about the Reckoning, they had spelled the book shut. Not that it mattered. It took me two hours to decipher one page.
As far as I could read, the Reckoning was exactly as the Luxis said. It was a calling of the first evils to come and touch the chosen one with their darkness. The ripping, shredding agony of the experience was conveniently left out. I was tempted to add my own notes in the margin, but my hesitance to mark up any book stopped me. Maybe I’d slip a sticky note in there before handing it back...
I did have to wonder who at the Luxis thought it a grand idea to implement the Reckoning as a tool of punishment for treason? I didn’t have to think hard. Master Ilsa had been practically psychotic in her pursuit to dismantle my mind and reprogram it using any means necessary. If not her, whatever winning line of Masters preceding her, teaching her to think like a twisted sadist probably thought,hey this would be a neat torture method to set an example before we execute the traitor.
I touched the scar of my mother’s necklace on my collarbone. It had taken every part of me to pull myself out of Ilsa’s control.
Buzz, buzz, buzz.
Picking my phone up, a torrent of texts from Regina still coming in. Now the only control I needed to break from was Regina’s.
Did you remember to pick up your wedding dress?
I know you said you were sure about the dress, but there will be two bags waiting for you.
I would hate for you to put on your dress the day of and have regrets and no options.
It’s just a backup dress. Something more traditional.
I set the phone down and counted to five. My eyes caught on Snarp, who had fallen asleep on top of his cage.
