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I remained unconvinced, but kept my doubts to myself. We made our way inside and, after flicking the kettle on, I made us both a strength potion, adding honey to make them taste a little more palatable. Belle usually made bare-bones ones that tasted like swamp water, because she insisted sweetening the potions diluted their potency. I was willing to risk that in favor of palatability.
Monty, Ashworth, and Eli arrived about twenty minutes later. I made another round of coffee and tea and served up the last slices of the banana bread cheesecake.
“Did you find the missing person?” I poured my tea and then slid a cheesecake slice toward me.
Monty nodded. “It was the basilisk.”
“Did the victim survive?”
“No. Aiden was heading over to inform the kid’s parents.” He grimaced. “We need to find a way to stop this bastard, stat. You had any luck with the wild magic?”
“Not yet, but it might be too early to get a full idea of his movements.” I glanced at Ashworth. “Any luck with RWA?”
He nodded. “We’ve a wrangler coming in tomorrow afternoon. If we could pin down the basilisk’s movements by then, it would be handy.”
I nodded and made a mental note to contact Katie before I climbed into bed. I took a sip of my tea. “I don’t suppose you’ve had time to do some more reading?”
“Actually,” Eli replied, “I did, and I came across what amounts to an interesting sidenote.”
“Interesting how?”
“It appeared at the end of the chapter explaining why conception within the source well was absolutely necessary—”
“Because it connected the wild magic and the embryo,” I cut in, “allowing the latter to use and control the power of the spring without consequences.”
Which was something we’d actually guessed before the book had confirmed it. It didn’t explain what was happening here now, however. The wellspring that had infusedmyDNA wasn’t the reservation’s, and while a connection had definitely formed, there was also somethingelsegoing on.
He nodded. “The sidenote briefly mentioned the offspring of a Fenna must either be conceived within the spring or bathed in its power within a set period afterward, so that the guardianship can move on smoothly from one generation to the next, but also so that the spring could continue to evolve.”
“We’re talking about a force of nature here,” Monty said. “It’s literally the energy of the earth itself. How on earth could it evolve?”
Eli grimaced. “It doesn’t say. I suspect, given the sheer amount of missing information, that the author either didn’t know or simply thought it was such common knowledge it wasn’t necessary to add.”
“They’d surely be talking about the gain of sentience, though, given what’s been happening to the wellspring here,” Ashworth said. “Perhaps, in linking generations, they hoped the wellsprings would eventually become self-protecting.”
“If that were the aim, wouldn’t they have mentioned it in the chapter dealing with the origins of the Fenna?”
“Maybe other tomesdidgo into greater depth,” he replied. “Just because this is the only book inourarchives doesn’t mean there can’t be other tomes held in the UK or Europe that hold greater details.”
“I guess.” I scooped up the last of my cake. “Did the sidenote say how long the introductory grace period was?”
“Not in that particular note, though it might well do so later in the book. It also didn’t go into the specifics of what would happen if the Fenna’s offspringwasn’tintroduced, though it did say to heed the warning of Llan Cewydd.”
“I take it you’ve googled the name?” Belle asked.
Ashworth nodded. “It’s an old village in Gloucestershire, England, though little of the place remains. It was reclaimed by the forest, apparently.”
“Do we know if there’s a wellspring in that area?”
“Not according to current records, but that doesn’t preclude the possibility there once was. They do occasionally dry up.”
And once again, we had no real idea why. “So, if the warning is to be believed, a wellspring was responsible for the destruction of that village because the Fenna’s child was not introduced within the set timeline,” I said. “But that doesn’t explain what’s happening here. I wasn’t exposed tothiswellspring as an embryo, so there shouldn’t be any need for a child of mine to be bathed within her power.”
And to be honest, I didn’t really want to risk her existence by doing that. Just because I’d survived immersion didn’t mean she would. Just because the text implied that survival was a given didn’t mean it was. Not with what the earlier chapters had said about the survival rate of the conception ritual.
“The wild magic all comes from the same source,” Monty commented. “Given this wellspring has apparently accepted your presence as its protector, it’s possible the ceremony might be necessary foranychild of yours.”
Obviously sensing my doubts, Eli reached out and gripped my hand. “I’ve plenty of the book yet to read, so maybe the answers will be found. It still might be worth asking Aiden to get you into the O’Connor compound so you can check the wellspring.”
