‘I do not know. All I know is that it is more precious than every treasure of every empire that has ever been, or ever will be.’
Dylan’s brows rose, Bells’ dropped in thought, and Nicole’s fascination increased a hundredfold. She looked down at the tiny vial.
Verin began pacing. ‘I must resist tasting it, even though I think it would give me a better idea. Freya had many little tricks up her sleeve. It could kill me instantaneously, or give me a slow, horrible death …’
Bells looked up, alarmed. ‘It could?’
‘Well, even before she met your father’ – Verin gave him a pointed look – ‘she was adept at potions and poisons, especially sleeping draughts. Made me one a time or two. Worked like a charm.’
Dylan leaned closer. ‘If it’s blood and was painted into a portrait over a hundred years ago, how has it survived all this time?’
‘In normal circumstances,’ Verin answered absently, ‘human blood or bloodstains don’t keep their reddish colour thanks to interference from sunlight. The blood turns grey as it desiccates.
‘Non-human blood, however, acts a little differently. An immortal’s blood can last for a lot longer, even though it will still disappear eventually. The only blood I know of that can survive the test of time like this is Empyreal blood. But, over a hundred years by itself? Unlikely.’
‘So, it’s most likely to be an Empyreal’s blood, then?’ Nicole asked.
Verin shook his head slowly, mesmerised. ‘I’ve tasted Empyreal blood and this is not it. But I will find out. I’ll just have to run some more tests. Its scent has been smothered by the other agents and varnish. Perhaps to hide what it is.’
‘What does this have to do with the artefacts Mum mentioned?’ Dylan asked, rubbing his temple.
Right, the three ‘goddess-blessed’ items capable of destroying the Wake …
‘Blood could have been involved in making them,’ their father mused. ‘To distinguish them somehow, or give them some sort of signature?’
‘How would that keep blood fresh, though?’ Bells asked. ‘Wouldn’t something happen to it after all those years?’
Verin nodded. ‘Certain supernaturals managed to find ways to keep it fresh. The Druids being the first.’
‘This was all your mother gave me of it,’ Elisabetta said. ‘She was working with a Druid at the time, perhaps they stabilised it—’
‘A Druid?’ Nicole interrupted, intrigued. ‘ADruidhad still been alive when you painted this?’
She thought they had all been slaughtered in Kyan’s time.
‘Did you see them?’ Nicole added.
Elisabetta nodded softly. ‘I only saw her briefly.’
Her.
Nicole thought of the emerald-and-white-garbed woman in the edge of the vision, but she hadn’t Seen anything else. No hair colour or facial features.
‘She said some of the blood had been stolen from her people thousands of years ago,’ Elisabetta continued. ‘The items Freya sought were deemed goddess-blessed due to this blood, hidden inside them, or cast upon them.’
Nicole knew the Morrígan – the goddess that supposedly created Empyreals – was the Irish Goddess of War, Death, and Fate, but was that the reason blood was ‘blessed’?
Because blood was spilled in war, or death?
‘So, there’s blood in each of these items?’ Dylan asked tightly, as if unsure whether to be disturbed or not.
The painter nodded. ‘Freya asked me to use the blood to craft a portrait of her, making it “goddess-blessed”. I had to figure out through much trial and error how to stabilise it in pigment form, and make sure that it was able to be used again once scraped out of the painting.’
Used?
‘Why didn’t she tell us in theDantepainting that her portrait was one of these special items?’ Nicole asked. ‘That we had it all this time?’
‘She didn’t want to reveal everything in one clue. The Wake have nearly found her many times before. She feared them getting their hands on even a single clue, so kept them vague enough that someone had to figure out everything and find all the right people and items to be worthy of the truth.’
