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“A book?”
“The Book of Shadows. Kymaris started it when we first populated the Underworld, and as she received more stone magic, she cooked up all kinds of spells with it.”
“A spell book? A simple spell book will work?” It’s unfathomable to me that it could be so easy.
“It’s anything but a simple spell book. It’s alive with magic that’s strengthened and evolved over the ages. Some even say it’s sentient. It’s dangerous but powerful and used in the right way can probably accomplish anything.”
Hope surges and my chest swells with the thought I could potentially have Lucien back by dinnertime.
“But I don’t have the book,” Amell says.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Of course it can’t be simple.”
“It is simple,” Amell says with a smile. “My daughter, Thalia, has it but I’m not allowed out of the Underworld. You’ll have to travel to Vyronas to get it from her.”
***
After the originalmeteor struck the Egyptian desert, it was found to contain magical properties. Pharoah Khufu built a pyramid over it and named it Giza. Inside, he tried to hide this most important treasure all for himself. Unfortunately, the pyramid was ransacked and the huge stone was obliterated into smaller pieces anywhere from the size of a basketball to a pea. Obviously, the larger stones contained more power and the Light Fae were lucky enough to get a piece that enabled them to create their own dimension, called Faere.
Other dimensions were created, and now hundreds exist. One such dimension was just burned to ash by Cato because it failed to thrive, but others are important magical meccas.
One of these is Vyronas, and I was here not long ago bringing tidings to a man named Bastien Dunne. He was leading an army against an evil sorceress to reclaim the throne for a princess named Thalia. After the war was won, she became queen and married Bastien.
Also… she’s Amell’s one and only offspring.
Amell explained to me that she called upon him to help her tap into the dark magic she had inside of her blood by virtue of being his daughter. While she became stronger, she wasn’t a match for the sorceress. Amell gave her the Book of Shadows to help in her quest and had never bothered to retrieve it.
I arrive outside the castle gates in the capital city of Kestevayne. It’s guarded by two men dressed in black battle leathers, spears in hand.
“State your business,” one of them says as I approach.
I hand over a scroll Amell gave me, a simple missive directing I be taken to Thalia at once.
The guard reads it and jumps to action. “Follow me, please.”
I don’t know if he knows who or what I am. I wasn’t privy to what Amell wrote but it caused the guard to walk with such haste I practically have to jog to keep step with him.
We enter through huge wooden double doors and walk along stone corridors lined with silk carpets and oil paintings. Up a staircase, down two more halls, and to an antechamber where an older man with frizzy white hair stands with his hands clasped before him. He’s dressed formally in a velvet coat with gold buttons and tailored pants.
The guard hands over the scroll, pivots and leaves.
The old man reads the document, frowning briefly before turning a polite smile as he hands it back to me. “Please stay here while I announce your presence.”
He knocks once and slips in through a door—the throne room, I assume—and I wait patiently for him to return.
It takes no more than a minute before the door opens again and I’m beckoned inside.
Not to a throne room but into a living room filled with plush furniture, thick rugs, and fresh flowers on the tables.
The queen’s quarters?
The elder gentleman, who I assume is a butler, says, “Someone will be with you right away.”
He leaves without a backward glance, but he’s barely out the door when Bastien Dunne enters from another doorway. He’s the commandant of the royal army and the last time I saw him was on his wedding day to Queen Thalia. I’d been sent by Zora to collect Amell to answer for his crimes of interfering with the conflict here in Vyronas. It was almost adorable because Bastien and his brother, Kieran, were thinking to protect Amell from me but bloodshed was averted when the king of the Underworld came without struggle.
As I knew he would.
Bastien frowns as he approaches. “Are you here at the behest of the gods?” he asks, and I can’t say I expected a warmer welcome.
