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Zeke turned his head to meet my eye and nodded apologetically. “He’s right. We found something you need to see when you’re ready, baby girl.”
My eyes fixed back on Thea and the way her body sat hunched over. I refused to think about how much she probably suffered through the spell that had taken her life, but the simple fact that my childhood friend was gone was shattering me into pieces. Especially because it was probably my fault. I’d put her at risk by getting her involved, even though I knew that my mother was always one step ahead, and I’d asked for that key anyway. I’d put myself first, and my selfishness had cost Thea her life.
Strong fingers wrapped around my nape, a thumb pressing in under my ear as Liam turned my head to face him. I blinked at the look in his dark eyes, the deep feeling and affection that I could see there grounding me just as much as his firm touch. A sense of calm began to wash through me as his fierce protectiveness and unerring belief in me echoed down our bond, reminding me that I wasn’t alone in this.
“Drop that guilt, right now, Cordelia,” he growled down at me, his face so close that I could feel his warm breath on my skin. “You did not do this. You could not have stopped this. Put the blame where it belongs.”
I released a shuddering breath that I didn’t even realise I had been holding onto. I leaned into him, pressing my body closer to his in search of comfort even though I still wasn’t certain that I agreed with him.
He pressed a chaste kiss to my lips, the tenderness making my eyes prick with moisture again, but I blinked back the tears now. Maybe I deserved to feel some responsibility for this, but I certainly wasn’t the only one.
“No more tears,” I croaked, clearing my throat to give my voice more strength. “They won’t help us win this.”
His mouth pulled up in a crooked grin. “It might not bring back what we’ve lost, but never underestimate the power of some blood-soaked vengeance.”
My lips pulled into a vicious smile in answer before he leaned in and kissed me again, firmer now that I was no longer crumbling. The embers of rage in my heart reignited as his words sunk deep. It was time to end this, to find the Queen and hand out the justice she deserved.
With a last squeeze to the back of my neck, Liam released me. I deliberately turned away from the throne now, needing to push past the grief and focus on what we had to do. Zeke and Noah were standing beside a row of heavy shelves, quietly watching as we headed over to them.
Zeke reached out to brush his knuckles across my cheek, sending a burst of sympathy and pride down our bond. I gratefully leaned into his touch for a moment before straightening my spine and hauling in a deep breath.
“Ok, what have you found?”
Noah answered me, gesturing at the cases behind him. “So, if you ignore the super creepy shit and look at what is actually on here, it’s pretty obvious how old some of this stuff is. And dark. It’s all shadow, pain and death in these descriptions.”
He handed me a ragged, bound book, crusted with age and falling apart at the bindings. It was open on a page that showed a horrifically graphic image of someone carving a heart out of a screaming man’s chest, and there were hand-written notes in the margins that made me swallow hard against my gag reflex.
Zeke whipped the book away as Noah handed me a new one, this time newer, and containing a spell to summon the power of the storm. The same cursive scrawl lined the side of the main text, making me frown as I realised the writing looked identical even though it was clearly many years apart.
“Everything here is about power. How to get more of it, and how to use it,” Noah said, pushing the thought out of my mind as pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
“What she treasures most,” I murmured, handing the book back to Noah as he nodded.
“Exactly. It’s power, isn’t it, always has been,” he replied, sweeping an arm around at the large room. “And this is where she keeps everything that she needs to get more of it.”
I spun back to face Thea again, my eyes wide as his words triggered my memory. “Years. She took her years.”
“Er, what?” Liam asked, trying to keep up with my hectic thoughts.
I dragged my eyes away from my friend again as my stomach churned. “The rune on her head. It’s the rune of life. My mother used to threaten to drain my life away and keep it for herself – to take my years.”
“She’s been taking the life force of others and using it?” Liam summarised, sounding horrified.
Noah was staring at Thea’s body. “For what?”
“This is why you don’t remember anything about your ancestors,” Zeke murmured, his thoughts already racing ahead and joining the dots for me. “Your mother stopped you asking questions because she’s hiding the fact that she’s stealing life from others to extend her own.”
He turned back to the shelves and ran a hand over his face. “It explains why some of this stuff is centuries old. Fuck knows how old she really is.”
The truth of this revelation settled over me. It wasn’t even a shock if I was honest. For my whole life, my mother had been an all-powerful, unstoppable force. She saw everything, judged quickly, and punished brutally. The idea that she had found a path to cheat death didn’t surprise me at all, especially if it harmed others in the process.
Liam leaned down and picked up a small, white bone from the floor near his feet, his expression dark as he rolled it around in his palm. My stomach dropped as I recognised it as a shifter’s claw, the size of it suggesting that it wasn’t even full-grown when it had died at the Queen’s hand.
“I suddenly have a better understanding of why the Great Wolf set us on this path,” he said menacingly.
I nodded and shook out my hands. “We need to find the stone.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
