The kid nods.
“Yeah, it’s in there.”
“How do I see the spell?” I ask.
“You can’t,” he says sadly, shaking his head. “Only Luther can, and he’s locked up now.”
“What exactly is happening here?”
“Wyatt is making his move,” the kid shrugs. “He wants to be king. He has for a long time.”
“Why now?”
“He finally got enough demons to listen to him, I guess. He’s been rounding them up for a long time now. He uses them to keep people in line. We’re all scared of them and sometimes Wyatt lets them bite people.”
That explains the increase in demons near my home, I suppose. If Wyatt has been trying to overthrow the king and take the kingdom for himself, he would need a way to do that. He’d need a way to keep the kingdoms under his control.
Fear is a powerful way of controlling people, no matter where you’re from.
“I need to get to Luther,” I tell the kid. “My sister was bitten by a demon. She needs the potion. If I can’t use the book to make one myself,” I stare at the blank pages and flip them back and forth, as if doing so will suddenly make them appear.
“Your sister?” The little boy asks.
“She’s in Dark Village,” I tell him. “She was bit and it’s pretty bad. I came here to get the potion for her.”
“Wyatt destroyed Luther’s supply,” the kid says sadly.
“I saw.”
“Your sister, she’s pretty special to you, huh?”
“Yeah.” I look at the book again. Then I look at Greg. “How’d you come to live with Luther, anyway?”
“My dad worked for him,” Greg says. “They were friends.”
“And then Wyatt came for your parents?”
“It’s okay,” Greg says. “I know he probably killed them a long time ago. Luther told me. He said there’s no point in lying to me and giving me false hope.”
Wow.
Deep.
And how incredibly bold of Luther to be honest with a child. I wonder if I’d have the same guts. Could I tell a child that his parents were likely dead, murdered by the person who was trying to capture the kingdom for himself?
I’m not really sure.
“My parents are dead, too,” I tell him.
“Do you have anyone?” The boy asks.
“Just my sisters. Daisy is taking care of Tulip right now. Tulip is the one who was bitten. She was trying to save a little fairy girl from being attacked by a demon and, well, it attacked her instead.”
“What happened to the demon?”
“Tulip killed it.”
“Go Tulip.”