“Oh, shut up,” I snap. “I was perfectly safe. Except… well… she can apparently hurt me through the connection. She gave me a little jolt of electricity.”
Carrick growls, but my attention is taken by Rainey when she asks, “What did you two discuss?”
“Not much,” I report glumly. “I just told her she was born here, was my identical twin, and was stolen. I told her she didn’t need to be afraid, and she seemed offended I would even suggest that. She told me she wasn’t afraid of anything and then told me to stay away.”
“Maybe you should listen to her then,” Rainey suggests softly.
I sigh with frustration. “It felt like she hated me.”
“Then give up this foolish idea of going to the Underworld,” Rainey grits out.
Carrick’s body locks tightly, but his voice is droll when he says, “You’re going to the Underworld?”
Shifting in my chair to see him, I chastise, “This can’t be news to you. You know saving her is a priority to me.”
“But I didn’t think you meant to go there and do it yourself,” he replies coldly. “There are other ways—”
“Enough,” I snarl, rubbing at my temples where a distinctive headache has formed. “Nothing that just happened changes my determination. I’m going to get her out of there, and I’ll do it with or without everyone’s help. I’ll still focus my energy on the prophecy, too. I can do both.”
Everyone sits in silence, lost in their thoughts about the matter.
Except for Myles, who gets up from his seat and walks into the stacks at the far end. Rainey’s head turns to follow him, and I can tell by her expression that she’s just noticing his outfit.
My attention goes back to Carrick. “So… did you two learn anything big tonight?”
I can tell Carrick isn’t happy I’ve left the conversation regarding Zora behind, but I know we’re not done talking about it either. He’ll be hitting me hard later, so he easily lapses into a summary of how the night went.
I could tell he glossed over some unsavory details about what happens at these parties, but the night was not a bust at all.
“While we got leads on a few relics, one looks promising,” Carrick says, then proceeds to tell us about the chalice.
His gaze moves past all of us to where Myles is returning with a big book in his hands.
“But Myles got the best information of the night,” Carrick says, and there’s a tinge of pride in his tone. He smiles at my friend, inclining his head. “You tell the story.”
Myles hands the book over to Carrick, and I lean into him to read the title on the front of the leather cover. “Libri Mysteria,” I say aloud.
Myles regales us with his conversation in the men’s restroom and about seeing this book that supposedly contains what might be fairly legitimate descriptions of powerful objects, given that an actual demi-god wrote it. Demi-gods aren’t bound, and they can travel realms. Their power is unsurpassed except by the gods, so they can do so with impunity.
Carrick flips it open, and I can see it’s in Latin. He’ll be the only one able to translate it.
His finger skims over some of the words as he reads them silently. He then flips through several pages, reading just a few words on each page, before lifting his head to address the group. “Too much to ask for there to just be an itemization. It appears this is a travel diary, too, with a lot of descriptions of various realms. This is going to take a while.”
“You have your homework cut out for you then,” I reply with a grin.
He doesn’t smile back, which means he’s still mad that I tried to contact Zora.
CHAPTER 24
Finley
I come awake slowly, my head feeling thick and fuzzy, and my body slightly achy.
The body twinges are all Carrick’s fault because when he ordered everyone out of his condo after Myles brought out the Libri Mysteria book, he made excellent use of the library’s conference room table… and it wasn’t for us to read books on.
When people are around Carrick and me, we keep things cool, but there’s never any doubt that we’ve crossed the line and feelings are now involved. It might be the overt concern he shows for me while laid out on the floor after Zora shocked me or the way when I tease him, he almost actually smiles. Still, there’s always a bit of distance as if it’s not quite acceptable for us to be seen as a couple.
But when we are alone, he is an entirely different being. His focus on me is so intense I often feel like he’s the hunter and I’m the prey. Which is ironic because I’m going to always let him catch and devour me.
After the conference room table, we ended up in his bed, and, in an uncharacteristic display of mellowness from the demi-god who doesn’t know the meaning of the word mellow, he made love to me with such tenderness that it made me cry. It felt as if the last piece of some unknown puzzle that we’ve become clicked into place, and I had never felt so complete in my life.