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“Here. Here. I agree. They are always plotting and up to no good. The less we know of them, the better.” Ulrik nodded at his brother. “Theseus, why are you so quiet? This is about your mate!”
All eyes were on Theseus and me. For the first time since entering, he looked away from his father and to the rest of his family. “I am saving my words for Father to find whatever it is he is looking for. Have you not noticed he enjoys leaving us to argue like children before he comes and changes the whole direction of our conversations, rendering everything we said before useless? We are all so annoyed with all the arguing that we simply agree on his terms without debate.”
They all just looked at him blankly. Rhea, however, smiled wide, looking over her shoulder. “He has found you out, my love.”
“They all have. Theseus, however, is the only poor sport enough to ruin our family debates,” Sigbjørn stated, causing the rest of them to snicker.
“Father, what are you looking for?” Melora finally asked. “Do you need help?”
“I—” he paused, reaching quickly to grab one of the books. “I have found it.”
The book in his hand was almost as dense and long as an encyclopedia. When I looked closely, as he stepped towards the rest of the family, it was an actual encyclopedia of ancient language and linguistics.
“I do not understand?” Theseus eyebrows bunched together in confusion. “This is what you were searching for all this time?”
“Yes, it is a tricky book to find.” He said, dusting it off.
“What? Vampire libraries don’t have a coding system?” I joked because what the heck else was I supposed to do?
“My system is perfect, thank you,” Hinrik retorted sharply.
Ulrik once again rolled his eyes. “Don’t mind him, sister. He’s overly attached to his books and scrolls. That’s why his mate must leave him sometimes as he would spend weeks organizing in here and offer no one attention.”
Hinrik growled at his brother at the mention of his mate. But Ulrik just stuck his tongue at him.
“Father,” Theseus called to get everyone’s attention back. However, Sigbjørn was still captivated with the book in his tattooed hands. “I know Hinrik and Ulrik are hard to understand, but I doubt this book shall help, now of all times.”
Both of his brothers turned to him, but Theseus didn’t care. However, I couldn’t help but smile. They all couldn’t help but tease each other. They really were brothers. This really was a family…a happy one.
One I was adding drama to.
“What good is life without drama?” Sigbjørn stated, glancing up from the book and to me. “Every addition to the family comes with its own challenges, discoveries, and changes. We must charge ahead together, nevertheless. It is but growing pains.”
He handed me the book. I wasn’t sure why, but I took it all the same. The moment it touched my hand, I felt a sudden jolt of static run through my fingers. Causing me to flinch and back away from it. The book fell to the table, and the moment it did, the book changed in every way possible. It was no longer dense and thick, no longer a book at all, but instead a pamphlet. To be more precise, it was now an identical copy of a February 21st,1663 sermon it had fallen next to.
“What did you do to it?” Atarah asked, coming up beside me to look. Awe on her face.
“She did not a thing,” Sigbjørn stated, quickly putting his hand on the now pamphlet. “Careful, the moment we look away from it, it will vanish and hide somewhere else in the library.”
“What is it?” Arsiein asked, stepping beside his mate, less in awe of it and more distrusting.
“A grimoire,” Sigbjørn answered, lifting the sheets.
“That’s the thing witches put spells in, right?” I knew that much at least, and Sigbjørn nodded.
Rhea snickered; “And this who they say is their new goddess.”
I frowned.
“Why is it not locked away with the rest of the old grimoires?” Hinrik complained, but I couldn’t tell if he was more worried that it was out or that his library system was being disturbed.
“It escapes.” Sigbjørn said, lifting it up, and again his eyes fell to me. “Over the years, we have fought many Wiccans. Of those we have defeated, we have had their grimoires collected, for the history of the witches they belonged to and to understand their ways. They serve us no other purpose as we cannot do magic. However, not only will this one never reveal its true self, but it enjoys hide and seek.”
“When did we gain this one?” Hinrik was clearly confused by it.
“I noticed it before we left a year ago. Though I do not recall how we gained it,” he stated, offering me the book. “You had a memory of being here a year ago…would you have dropped something?”
“Something like a spell book?” Was that something people normally dropped?
