AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Gabe’s silent for a moment, the woods falling quiet except for the sounds of our scratching and the small movements of the rest of the herd who haven’t come close yet. I brave a half-turn to scratch Commodus, and immediately get a shoulder bump from Arcadius.
“You are a right beg,” I grumble at the unicorn.
“Darwin seems okay with it,” Gabe murmurs. “Not topping me. Just low-key dating. I can see him trying, you know?”
I nod. “I see it, too. Areyouokay with it?”
“Yeah. It’s good.” He’s quiet while we scratch, then he says, “This is going to sound stupid since you’re submitting to him, but I feel safe because you’re there, Teddy. You wouldn’t let anything bad happen to me. Charlie wouldn’t, either. I know that. And it’s not that I need either of you to rescue me. I’m strong enough to stand up to him in the moment. It’s more that I know I’m safe because you know what’s going on in my head. You’ll be there to catch me if I fall.”
I step away from the unicorns. I don’t care if they skewer me. My boy needs a hug, so I’m going to give it to him. Because that will always be my first priority: making sure my boys get what they need.
Gabe sighs when I step into him. He puts his arms around me and drops his face into my hair. “I love you, baby girl.”
“I love you, too. I’ll always do everything in my power to keep you safe. Not because you’re weak, but because you’re my heart. You always have been.”
We hug tightly until one of the stallions thwacks me on the back of the head. We break apart, laughing, and turn away from each other to give the unicorns attention. But the connection remains, like our hearts are holding hands.
Chapter45
The Hall of Shadows
Opening a Spellcase is pretty much everything I imagined magic would be when I was a little kid.
Even though Da and my brothers never used their magic for anything but evil, there was always something wondrous about it. Something that made my heart flower, seeing it, feeling it.
The ingredients we’ve assembled combine into a glowing, crystalline rune. Saturn’s Stone Sigil. As we walk back from my hearth room where we’ve created the crystal, I argue with the boys about even using the rune because it’s so beautiful. If I look closely enough, I can see the great planet turning within the stone. I feel my mind being tugged through the velvet void of space toward the stars, towards secrets only this little stone can show me.
I know casting the enchantment is going to destroy it.
It’s with tears in my eyes that I put the rune on the floor, link hands with my boys, and repeat the chant thrice.
I’m not wrong. As soon as we begin chanting, the rune throws off sparks. The second cycle produces a hissing shower of light like a sparkler. As we start the third cycle, I can see the rune breaking down.
But what grows above it ...
I expected something like a normal bookcase. Maybe a fancy one with glass doors. It’s not. It’s a golden, winding spiral in the air, branching out like the Tree of Life. Runes dance down each branch. When Darwin reaches a tentative finger out to tap a branch, it flowers, unfolding into a cluster of scrolls, each with its own glowing runes.
I’m not bad with runes; it’s been part of the core curriculum at school since I was in gingham. But none of these are familiar. I make a mental note to ask Doctor Prince what runic language they’re in, even as I lean in for a closer look.
When I breathe on them, the runes flicker to the Roman alphabet before fading back to their unknown language.
“Gabe,” I whisper.
He follows me without further direction. Air ripples around the Spellcase as Gabe blows his Element over it.
“Acta Capricornis,” Darwin says, his voice resonating with our combined power.
The Spellcase chimes and flames chase along one branch. The flames burst into a small bonfire at the end of the branch. In the center of the bonfire, a scroll sits, unburning.
Darwin takes the scroll gingerly and unrolls it. As his eyes scan the cramped script, his forehead pinches.
“Thence came Saturnus, also called Khronos, he who sows and reaps. In his right hand sits abundance. In his left hand sits plague. The first step of his throne reads thus, reach into the Earth, and grasp its heart and say its secret name,yllaperios, thrice and bring it forth, burning and bloody on your fingers to nourish the fruits of the field ...”
He trails off, his eyes lifting from the scroll to focus on me.
When I look down, my arms are black to my elbows, even though I haven’t consciously drawn on my Element. Dust rises in small, glittering whorls from my skin. My nails are long, black, curving talons. Darwin nods at the library’s parquet floor.
I kneel andreachdown into the Earth. The boys chant the name with me three times.
