“Do you have something to add?” Evander asks, leaning towards her. There’s a quirk to his lips as he studies her.
“Other than the fact you’re all childish? No.”
I sling my braid over my shoulder and sprawl into my chair at the opposite end of the table. Lachlan slides into the seat next to me, and I can feel the annoyance radiating off of him.
“Yeah, well, that’s better than being wildly unpleasant.” The words fly out of my mouth before I can think twice, and I regret them immediately. In calling her unpleasantries out, I tumbled into my own.
The table falls completely silent, and even Tane stops shoveling food into his mouth. A fork loaded with food hangs precariously in front of his open mouth.
But it obviously wasn’t the wrong thing to say when a small, not lethal, smile graces Luna’s lips. “Noted.”
Evander’s eyes flare at her small display of humor.
“Alright, so we know they were experimenting with the asphidra venom in crystals, but even with all the books we found, I haven’t learned why—yet. I’m thinking it’s a weapon? Like a grenade.” I nod and mouth “thank you” to the young lady, who drops a plate full of roasted chicken, carrots, and grapes in front of me. Steam wafts from the chicken leg, the skin perfectly roasted and covered in spices. My mouth waters as I pluck the leg from the plate and bite into it.
“So we’ll go through the rest of the books and hopefully figure it out. Have you come across anything in them about restoring magic?” Mathilda asks while hurling a grape at Tane. The grape bounces off his chest and lands in his glass. The force with which it lands in the glass has it topplingover and soaking his entire plate with water, washing everything on the plate onto the table. Tane lurches up, cursing, and Mathilda falls out of her chair laughing.
The color of the grape in the glass triggers my memory. I lurch out of my chair. I’ve seen that color before, and I know exactly where. There are shouts behind me as I race out of the dining hall and into the library, where we stashed everything from the secret cave. With each bounding stride, I push myself faster.
It can’t have been right in front of us all this time.
Can it?
I throw myself to a stop, and nearly skid face-first into the oak doors of the library before I rip them open.
“Lena!” Lachlan’s yell surges in from the open door as he dashes through the opening right behind me, a dagger in his grip. “What the hel? Are ye alright?”
The crystal I brought from the cave is perched right in the middle of the table I sat at earlier. Surrounded by the books I read and a pile of ones I had planned to go through. But my eyes lock onto the clear quartz, that’s glowing an eerie pastel green color. Without a second thought, my hands are wrapping around the quartz and I’m turning carefully on my heel.
“Key, do ye ken what yer doin’?” Lachlan’s eyes narrow at the venom in my hand. His hands are palm up like I’ve just pulled the pin on a grenade.
“I think I’ve figured it out,” I mumble, walking slowly and steadily through the door and down the hallway. Lachlan’s footsteps are right behind me, his head peering around my shoulder.
“Figured what out?” His voice is smooth, like any loud noise will cause me to drop it.
But the throne room is mere steps away. As I cross into it from the hallway and the throne comes into view, my stomach sinks.
I set the green crystal filled with venom directly in front of the crystal throne—their colors match perfectly.
The throne has been filled with venom.
Lachlan whispers from behind me, “They desecrated the throne.”
My eyes burn as rage bubbles up within me at the absolute mockery of my home, this realm. Boots scuff against the marble floor, and I glance over my shoulder to see my friends and Luna enter the room, weapons all drawn.
“Quartz magnifies,” Luna grumbles. “And asphidra venom blocks magic.”
Quartz, both with and without venom inside, litter the table as we’ve pieced everything together. The book about crystals is spread before me, and I’ve read the same page a dozen times. Bickering breaks through my concentration as I try to read the line about the magnifying properties of quartz once more.
“So the venom is in the quartz, and it can’t burn through it?” Mathilda asks, strumming her fingers on the table. Her long honey-colored hair is tied back in a high pony, the end of it braided and draped over her shoulder. The pale-blue of her eyes seems brighter in the morning light streaming through the windows.
“Obviously,” Luna huffs.
The same question has been asked more than a dozen times in different ways over the course of the day. And each time, the agitation has gouged a deeper divot between her thin brows.
“So they stopped magic by putting venom in the quartz crystal?”Tane asks.
His head tilts to the side as he slides a piece of quartz between his hands. The crystal makes a screeching sound across the tabletop as it passes from hand to hand. The intricate spiraling tattoos on his arms ripple with each push.
