AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tenah had met her uncle for the first time shortly after her mother had left them. Almost as if Avora’s presence had kept him at bay. Gadreel had burst into the manor without invitation, disregarding Tenah entirely. Because her father had been a kind man at one time, he’d invited Gadreel to stay for dinner.
Gadreel had drank too much. Wretched names had been hurled back and forth, birthed from old familial wounds she didn’t understand. Supposedly, her father was a traitor to Ruzgorn. Next thing she knew, her uncle had set their parlor couch on fire in what could only be described as an infamous Delemor tantrum before storming out.
Late that night over tea in the attic study, her father had shared insight into their barbaric culture. How killing was revered by Ruzgorn. About the power they gained from it, acquiring the strength and magic of the shadow slain.
Her father had made it clear at the time that he found this repulsive. “Nothing is stronger than the experience derived from patience and drive.”
Now, Tenah questioned everything her father had ever told her. Could he have secretly revered that culture? Had Gadreel won him over somehow and they were both working in secret to topple the isles?
Either way, she would find out.
Refreshingly cold magic trickled through her weary mind.Care to join me on a midnight stroll to the archives?
Tenah froze. She gripped the letter to her uncle tighter.Aeyis?
Sorry, I assumed the mind talk didn’t bother you, considering it was your main source of communication with your guardian.
Unbelievable. You’ve already probed me.
Can’t help it. Your mind is like a puzzle with scattered pieces.After a pause, he added,That sounded bad, didn’t it?
Tenah pursed her lips.What’s in the archives?
Why don’t you come and find out?
She rolled her eyes.As long as we can make a stop first.
Booming laughter resounded through the hall as Tenah crept from her bedroom.
Gireth leaned back in a chair on the terrace, engaged in a rowdy game of dice with strangers. His toned, bronze arms were bared in a sleeveless shirt, and he’d switched out his leathers for sweatpants. Stacks of krotens and half a dozen empty pint glasses littered the table.
He tipped his chin up at her in invitation. A few of his partners in crime peeked over at her. Her gaze snagged on the phoenix crest stitched into their fine clothes.
Vozarians, here in Denoden?
Her pulse quickened. Were they visiting or seeking refuge? How much territory had her father crossed with his feingrot army? How much destruction had he spread?
Tenah debated joining only to interrogate them.
They are here for some big celebration, Aeyis informed her.
Gireth picked up on her hesitation and threw up his arms, cracking a wide smile that showed off unnaturally sharp canines as if he’d been cut from the wild. “Come on, live a little.”
Shewascurious how a rudimentary game of dice could bring such joy to a table of strangers.
Don’t let him tempt you with his vices, Aeyis cut in.He’s lost way more than he’s ever won.
Considering she had neither the time nor the fortune to play, she shook her head at Gireth and broke for the stairs.
Aeyis haunted the street just outside the villa, a looming specter under the evening streetlights. He’d changed into plain, slouchy clothing that matched the bedraggled state of his hair.
Tenah mimicked his long strides. It was hard not to become distracted by the ethereal glare of his magical dust in her foggy eye. She couldn’t make out street names or solid forms on her left side. Rapidly, her declining vision was becoming another weakness.
Noting the shift in their surroundings to rickety wooden buildings and broken windows, she asked, “Care to tell me what we’re after?”
According to that shopkeeper, the tome is hidden in the archives.
She cursed. “And she only offered me a page of it.”
