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“Edmund has given me permission to hold the test. Alma trusts me, and we need another keeper with everything going on. I wouldn’t worry, Elle.” His gaze wandered to Viktor. “You don’t have any competition. Viktor is too inexperienced. Sorry, I’m just being real with you. Elle’s got this.”
“I disagree,” Viktor drawled. “Under your guidance, Maddox, I think I can achieve anything.”
Maddox couldn’t help but smile, and I hated Viktor for it.
I picked the lock to Edmund’s office, breathing relief when it clicked open. I’d found a handy trick in one of the normal books in this place. With the door clicked shut behind me, I breathed in the musky air. I needed the Joker’s Ball.
It was wrong to cheat, but I’d been left with no choice. As much as I wanted to believe Maddox, that Viktor was too inexperienced, his ability to learn quickly and soak in information, plus his ability with curses, left me questioning if he would beat me. I already struggled with the advanced curses, and I had barely touched the history books. My Lor was a little rusty. I hadn’t kept on top of it like I should’ve.
This was all Viktor’s fault. I’d told him something I hadn’t told anyone, about my sister and why I wanted to be a keeper so badly. He took my vulnerability and discarded it like it were nothing. This, and Naomi hating me, was too much. My tears threatened to break through again, but I kept myself in check. I had a way out of this. The Joker’s Ball. If I could just find it. Please, please, please tell me he didn’t lock it away. Then, once Naomi had time to calm down, I’d force Craig to tell her what had really happened, and I’d have my best friend back. Until then, no one could get in or out of the mansion, so I needed to focus on the test. Four days was nothing. It went against my favor, as it was too short a time for me to master everything, let alone Viktor.
I searched through the clutter in the drawers of Edmund’s fancy mahogany dresser, then moved to the cabinets. Nothing there either. I bet he’d locked it in one of the rooms with wall safes. Speaking of, he had a safe in here, if I remembered rightly. Ah. Behind the painting of the river and ducks was the code-locked safe. I’d bet my skal it was in there.
Footsteps sounded outside, and I held my breath. Once the footsteps faded into the distance, I left the room. I’d come back when it was night.
Benji curled up next to me as I read through a history book. I had taken it into the living room and lit the fire into dancing flames, then had plopped myself onto the sofa.
Just in case the Joker’s Ball failed, it wouldn’t hurt to study. I dragged my gaze along the thin pages. I swear whoever wrote this was tasked with fitting as many words on a page in tiny text as possible. At least they’d modernized the wording. Still, I was going to be there forever.
Benji meowed.
“Sorry I forgot to feed you this morning.”
He gave me an accusatory look.
“Hey, I put extra in your bowl for dinner.”
He purred up against my thigh, calming me as I gruelled over the forgotten ages. It wasn’t until I reached the chapter about the gods when I perked up. Something interesting.
A millennium before our nineteenth century, Lucius and Estia ruled the only realm where souls of the dead were welcomed to spend their eternities exploring a realm so vastly bigger than ours, where disease, death, and hatred did not wander or threaten; the otherworld.
I skimmed several paragraphs about blissful afterlife until I got to the good stuff.
Vengeful spirits of the dead created demons who lurked our world, preying on weak souls to haunt and possess, wreaking havoc on families, and unleashing more plagues and despair. Some practitioners of magic grew darker as gambling, lustfulness, and deadly sins plagued our world, feeding the demons. The gods, the children of Estia and Lucius, were sent to cleanse it. They were Leda, the Goddess of the Hunt, Thalia, the Goddess of the Afterlife and Protector of the Dead, Aziel, the God of Thunder, and Raiden, the God of Creatures. Unlike their parents, their children were given physical forms and therefore could mate with mortals and enjoy the pleasures of the flesh. They were granted with eternal youth and a lifespan that could stretch over millennia.
Benji jumped up, his ears perking as he did. Something rustled the bushes outside. “It’s just the wind, silly cat.” I stroked him down as he fixated on the window, until he calmed, settling again. “Hush, it’s getting good.” I ran my finger down to where I had left off and devoured the words. Who knew history could be so fascinating? This part of it anyway.
The gods lavished in their new lives with mortals, partaking in sins and having children with humans, mostly Thalia, who created four demigod children. Estia and Lucius’s children cut themselves off from their parents, refusing to return to the otherworld.
The number of demons grew, more witches and warlocks turned to darker magics, and the once-pure world turned to one of sin. Lucius, God of Justice and father to Leda, Thalia, Aziel and Raiden, created the underworld, a place separated from the otherworld where demons could be trapped and those with sinful souls would be sent, once the darkness in their hearts was weighed upon death.
The gods, who spoke in their native tongue, Lor, taught the language to Istinia. Eventually, they were individually locked in their own prison realms, after Leda was killed and another took her place.
“What are you reading?”
I looked over the top of my book. Viktor held my stare. “You.”
He smirked. “There’s a book about me?”
“Hilarious.” I gritted my teeth. “Go be funny somewhere else, because I don’t want to even see you right now.”
“I knew you’d be mad.” He leaned against the doorway. “I came to explain.”
I put my hand up to stop him. “No explanation needed. You owe me nothing. I know your type. You’re out for yourself and don’t care who you hurt to get what you want. Trust me, it’s noted. You can go now.”
“Despite what you think, I do care that I hurt you.”
Huffing, I closed the book, dropping it on my lap. “That’s worse, considering you did it anyway.”
