in the room seemed to chill.
The smile fell from Orion's face as he moved forward and looked in the bag. "Fuck me, what is that?" He reached out to it, grazing his fingers over the binding before shuddering.
"The Magicae Mortuorum," Elise supplied, moving to his other side and lifting the book out of the bag. She cringed as she held it then placed it on the bed and opened it to show Orion the strange, indecipherable language inside.
Orion reached out to skim his fingers over the words, his expression dark as he assessed it.
"Do you know what it is?" Leon asked. "Apart from a boner killer."
"Why did you have a boner?" Orion muttered.
"He always has a boner," Elise supplied and I released a breath of laughter. "So, if this book's power sank it then it must be bad."
Orion didn't laugh as he turned page after page and I stole a look at his expression, his pupils dilated and concern etched into his features.
"Do you know what it is, amico mio?" I asked.
"I don't...but I do know how to read it without having to pay the blood price," Orion answered, but there was an ominous edge to his tone.
"How's that?" Elise breathed.
"We need a Seeing Eye, a spyglass that can unveil this dark language," Orion said. "But I only know of one and they’re hard to come by..."
"Where is it?" I asked in a growl, sensing I wasn't going to like the answer.
Orion looked up at me with his brows pulled together and defeat in his eyes. "In Lionel Acrux's manor, inside his office. It’s in the bottom drawer of his desk…my mother gave it to him. So basically it might as well be in the depths of Darkmore Penitentiary."
"Fuck," Elise hissed the same moment as I cursed in Faetalian.
"Well you're in luck," Leon said after a moment and we turned to him, finding him smirking like the cockiest son of a bitch I'd ever seen. "Because you happen to know the best thieving family in Solaria and I could steal the scales off Lionel Asscrux's back if I wanted to. And maybe I will after I swing by his office and get that spyglass, just you watch me."
I lay in the huge bed that was officially mine in the Nights' house while the sound of birdsong washed over me from the open balcony doors. It was freezing cold and there was frost coating everything outside, but Leon had used his fire magic to heat my flesh before he left to go have a shower, so I was warm despite the cold air.
After the party last night and several hours in Dante’s private quarters where we fulfilled Leon’s fantasies, Dante had given us some stardust so that we could head back here and though I'd been curled in Leon's arms for hours and exhaustion tugged at me, sleep had evaded me. It was three days until Christmas. Three days until I had my first one without Gareth...or Mom.
The Nights had decorated the entire house with all kinds of amazing magical decorations, Leon’s moms using a combination of their Elements to fill the house with everything from frost-gilded bannisters to the most stunning Christmas trees in every reception room in the building - there were eight. Every room now had a roaring fire burning eternally in fake fireplaces, and the smell of them cooking Christmas treats constantly wafted along the corridors. It was nice. No, scratch that, it was beyond nice, it was the kind of thing I’d dreamed of as a kid, the picture perfect image of a huge family gathering with all the trimmings and more.
So why did the thought of partaking in it make me feel kinda sick?
I bit my bottom lip and tugged my Atlas into my grasp before dialling the number for the health centre where Mom was staying. After everything that had come out about Old Sal, I didn’t know what to think anymore. Mom hadn't been the one to suggest selling me to pay her debts, but it sounded like she'd still been willing to do it. So should I give her a second chance or what? What I really needed was to hear it from her lips, understand what had happened. And maybe try to recover something of our relationship if that was even possible now.
"White Haven Retreat, Linda speaking, how may I help?"
My heart leapt at the sound of the voice and I steeled myself for the answer I was guessing I’d get.
"Hey,