“Shut the door please, Hunter,” the seer says, turning her back on us and making her way to the bookshelves on the far wall. “I do not wish for us to be disturbed.”
I do as she asks, taking note of several items that could be used as weapons should the situation turn on us. The silver letter opener on the desk. A candelabra on the far table. The iron poker to the right of the empty fireplace.
Wren and I take the couch, the seer’s soft murmurs a backdrop as I put my arm around my gods-blessed, tucking her against my side.
“Want to tell me more about the reading, Birdie?” I want to know what had her so riled up. She still seems tense, although less so now that we’re out of the main hall.
She inhales, sidling up closer to me, her side pressing against mine. I’m watching Wren, but her gaze is trained on the seer. From the corner of my eye, I can see the elderly woman has picked up a book and is slowly leafing through the pages.
“It was . . . strange,” Wren murmurs.
“What do you mean?” I brush back a stray curl that has fallen over her forehead, and my fingers graze her Mark. “What happened?”
She frowns. “I’m not sure how to explain it. I was here, right?”
I nod, unsure of where she’s going with this.
“But I wasn’t. I was... elsewhere. In a place that didn’t seem to obey the same rules as this one.” She looks up at me, brows furrowed. “Do I sound crazy, Gabriel? Because when I hear my own words, I think I sound fucking insane.”
“No, you don’t.” Even though I don’t fully understand how something like that is possible, I know she’s telling the truth. “You were here, but somewhere else. I believe you.”
Her shoulders relax, and a soft smile spreads across her face. Gods fucking help me, has there ever been as beautiful a sight?
“Really?”
“Absolutely. Can you tell me more about it?” Hearing her voice after being in that dark, nothing place is calming something deep inside me, and I could listen to her speak for hours without tiring of it.
“It’s hard to explain.” She nibbles on her lips. “Things were... not normal.”
“What do you mean?”
A frown crosses her lovely face. “I mean... Well, how long do you think the reading took?”
That’s an odd question. I shrug. “A couple minutes?”
Five, maybe ten at most.
She shakes her head. “It felt closer to an hour for me.”
“What?” My fingers still, and I glance at Wren.” How is that possible?”
“I don’t know. There was strange magic at play.”
“Strange magic, indeed.” Evelyn drops into the wingback chair, her cane clattering to the ground. I didn’t even see her cross the room. She’s holding a large, leather-bound tome with a thick spine and handsewn binding.
The seer opens the book with care, thumbing through yellowed pages filled with colorful diagrams surrounded by paragraphs of text. She runs her index finger down the page, frowning as she seems to come to some sort of conclusion before shutting the book.
“It is as I suspected.” Evelyn folds her wrinkled hands on top of the tome and leans forward. “It has been over a century since there was a bond like yours in Myreth.”
“A fated one?” Wren asks.
“One between a Blessed and an Inherited, yes.” I open my mouth, but the seer holds up a hand. “Yes, I’m aware that neither of you know the full truth of what those are. You should get comfortable—we’re going to be here for a while.”
“How long is ‘a while’?” Wren asks. “Gabriel just woke up, and he should be resting. Maybe we should come back another day?”
“You could do that,” the seer says slowly. “But I would advise against waiting. There is much you don’t know, and you’ve already lost so much time.”
Because I was asleep and Wren was looking after me. I have already cost Wren potential time to learn this information; I don’t want her to wait any longer.
