“Yes,” I confessed after a moment of silence. “But before you say anything about my decision, Finn, just listen to me for a minute.”
He glanced between the other females in the room before giving me a nod and gesturing for me to continue.
“I don’t know whether Callum and Axel are who they claim to be. I don’t know if theyarespies for the Aurelian Guild.” Ihesitated before continuing. “But, what I do know is that, regardless of who they are, we can all agree, based on what we found in the library last night, that something is amiss. We already know Lucanus is behind the angels disappearing . . . he’s the one that has the power to force them to stay in the temples. There’s something going on in the shadows that is being hidden from us.”
“That’s actually why I was on my way over—” Sage interrupted, her voice a soft lilt as she moved to her satchel resting on the table in my kitchen. “While I was at work this morning, I found this.” She tugged an old book out of her bag and displayed it to us.
We stared at the ancient book, the chestnut-hued leather cracking in a few places, the yellowed edges of the pages seeming fragile to the touch. In gold script, across the center of the book, were the words,The Golden Reign of Aurelia.
“I almost didn’t notice the book,” she admitted. “But I was on the top level of the library in the closets in the back, and this book was wedged behind some shelves. I’ve only managed to skim a few of the pages, but it mentions both the EternalandAeternus.” Her voice carried an air of excitement as she spoke of her findings.
“You’re saying there’s some truth to what we’ve been looking into?” Kira asked hesitantly, and all our heads turned toward Sage, the only one of us whose continued education allowed her the privilege of working in the libraries.
She nodded excitedly. “I think so. We’ll need to read the book further to truly see, but if I’m correct . . . this may have the answers we’ve been searching for.”
“It still doesn’t stop anything that’s happened today.” The words fell from my mouth, leaving a bitter taste.
“No,” Finn admitted as he looked at me.
“But it could be the start of fixing it,” Emberly added, her eyes focused on me as she said the words.
I nodded as I stood up, holding Loxl in my arms as the foxnestled closer against me, pressing his small body next to mine in comfort. Glancing down, I rubbed the top of his small head, before pressing a kiss to it and moving toward the table where Sage had set the book.
“Let’s start searching for some answers, then.”
We had been sprawledout across the living room, having taken scans of the book Sage found and dividing the images into five sections—one for each of us to scour through.
A pizza sat on the coffee table, half eaten, and glasses were scattered throughout the space as everyone poured over the passages they’d been given.
“So, if I’m getting this right.” Kira interrupted the silence as she looked between the rest of us. “This book is essentially an account of Aurelia before The Rift . . . before it was divided into the four quarters we have now.”
“Seems that way,” Emberly confirmed.
Finn moved closer, all of us gathering around the coffee table as I placed a piece of paper down between us. Kira grabbed the pen, the ink gliding along the paper as she outlined Aurelia.
“It seems as though Aurelia was once thought of as the City of Gold. It was a land of light that appeared to be thriving even in the midst of the desert.”
Heads nodded in agreement.
“According to this book, The Rift emerged when the people turned away from the Eternal,” Emberly added.
“Wait,” I interrupted as I swiped through my device until I located the passage I had flagged. “This section here mentions itwas because they angered Aeternus and displeased him by turning to new gods.”
“We expected to find mentions of Aeternus based on what we’ve heard throughout our lives here. But the Eternal?” Kira added.
“So there are different accounts? In the same book?” Finn questioned. “That doesn’t make any sense. If the book itself isn’t even accurate, then this doesn’t help us at all.”
“Wait . . .” Sage flipped through a few pages of the book, scanning for whatever it was she was searching for. “Just another minute . . . I know I saw it somewhere.” She continued flipping through pages. “No . . . not here.” A few more pages flipped. “Wait—oh, not here either.” Another page. “No . . . almost . . .”
“For the love of?—”
“Ah, here it is!” she exclaimed, spinning the book around so we could all read the paragraph she had searched for. All sets of eyes homed in on the worn, yellowed page, the edges ripping, and we began to read.
“Aeternus himself came down, dividing the City of Gold as a great rift fell into the desert. Those who’d turned to the darkness found themselves shrouded from the Eternal until they deemed to seek the light once more.
“Does that mean . . .” Finn began before trailing off as Sage nodded.
“Aeternus is the Eternal?” I questioned, reading, then rereading the text.
