AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I stared down at the ring, the rubies, the sparkling circles of diamonds. "How?"
Luca glanced at Julian. "I suppose I thought…” He paused. "Julian was the last to possess it."
Julian nodded. "Lilin entrusted it to me." He cleared his throat and pulled the white hen into his lap. "That is—it fell into my care. Many years ago, I gave that ring to another."
I relaxed a little, lowering myself into one of the wooden chairs. "For protection."
"Yes," Julian said. He met my gaze, his dark eyes steady and even. "It kept her balanced."
Ona's eyes, ringed with red. “She was like me.”
“To an extent.” He stroked the chicken’s head with one finger. “Though Lilin is much stronger.”
I imagined a lifetime with Lilin coiled in my mind, of the years stretching ahead, never knowing if I was myself or someone else. I imagined growing old, still wondering if my thoughts were my own.
I sagged, a wave of nausea curdling my stomach. "Oh my God."
"Come," Julian said gently. He stood, lifted the book from the table, and held it out to me. "Come, River. I may not have the answers you seek. But we can try."
I met his dark gaze. Trust me, his eyes said.
I do, I thought.
With one shaking hand, I reached for the book.
30
"I should have paid better attention in high school Latin class," I muttered. "I don't understand a word of this."
"The spell you are looking at now," Luca said, leaning close over my shoulder, "enables a person to communicate with a demon between the realms."
He glanced at Julian, who glowered and didn't respond.
"Look at this," Theo said, crowding close on my other side and flipping back a few pages. "Mortuous Suscitat. Raise the dead? Surely that doesn't mean—"
"How can you read that?" I complained.
"I got an A in Latin," Theo said. "But tell me this can't really—"
"Many of the rituals in this book have higher costs than any mortal would be willing to pay," Julian said.
"Besides, do you see here?" Luca interrupted, running his finger down the yellowed parchment. "Flos diaboli oris. The incantation calls for petals from a devil's mouth flower. Those have been extinct for centuries."
"You see," Julian said. "Many of these rituals are no longer even possible."
Theo's eyes were wide. "But they were once? I don't even know what to do with that. They didn't teach this shit in my religious studies classes."
Luca shot him a wry glance. "No, they would not have. Modern theologians have no idea of the true nature of celestial beings."
"But you do," I said.
"Pardon?"
I shut the book with a snap, nearly trapping Theo's fingers between the pages.
"Explain it to us. Explain all this—" I waved my hand vaguely, "angel and demon stuff, so we can understand. I mean, if you'd asked me a week ago, I would have told you that Hell was a place you go after you die if you're bad so demons can torture you for all eternity. I also would have told you I didn't believe in any of that garbage. But apparently I'm wrong on both counts, so tell us what we don't know."
Luca glanced toward Julian, who held up one hand as if to say, This one is all yours.
