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.
I then fell into an exhausted sleep. Given the fact Carrick is not in bed beside me as I come awake, I’m guessing he went off to do important things. I have found that demi-gods don’t need a lot of sleep—I’ve noticed sometimes he goes days without it—and I often wake up alone, which is something I’m reconciled is a downside to being with him.
And I always remind myself of the biggest downside, which is that we have an expiration date.
My head rolls on the pillow, and I see on the bedside clock that it’s almost eleven AM. A tiny bit of guilt rolls through me because as the supposed “key” to thwarting the prophecy, I don’t have a single thing to do that will help advance our cause.
Rainey is managing the rebuild for One Bean, and, I have to admit, that was genius of Carrick, not merely for alleviating me of the burden, but also in recognizing Rainey needed more than what she was doing.
Carrick is reading the Libri Mysteria, Zaid is reaching out to contacts on the seedier side, and Maddox is traveling among alternate realms, searching for anything he can find on the ritual and whatever powerful item Kymaris might need to bring the veil down. In this respect, we have a leg up as she doesn’t have demi-gods who can bend distance and travel all over. Although she’s collecting Dark Fae, the extent of their powers is unknown. But since she’s collecting them for something, my guess is she doesn’t want them out of her sight.
The only one not actively doing anything at this time is Lucien, but Carrick hasn’t called him