Phantom of the Library - Lidiya Foxglove Page 0,21
fully expected him to pull me into the pool, frankly, and was almost disappointed when he didn’t, but I suppose we had business to take care of. Damnit. He handed me the bundle and Jasper offered him a hand to help him out of the pool, and then Jake offered a hand to Graham.
“Phew…just another weird day in the magical world.” He looked at me as he started taking off his wet shirt. “Any towels around here?”
“Uh…here.” I handed him one and he slowly toweled off his sculpted chest while I tried not to let any drool escape my mouth. Jake was stripping too but he stopped to grab me.
“We had an epiphany down there, Baroness.”
“Oh?”
“Clan huddle.” Jake motioned for Jasper and Byron to get in closer to us. Billie and Gaston didn’t step into our circle, but they were listening. “We have all the pieces now, so this is about to get real. We just need to find Byron’s body now, right?”
“You’re looking at it,” Byron said, patting Jake and Graham’s shoulders.
“What?”
“Yes, some events happened on our end while you were gone,” I said.
“We were only gone for—what—an hour?” Graham asked. “Or is time strange?”
“I time traveled, had some Medieval sex with the OG Byron, saw his lips get sewn shut, cut them open…sat in a wardrobe for hours while a brutal battle raged around me…a lot of death… You know, I started that sentence meaning to sound kind of flippant and fun but I’m actually very traumatized.”
“Aw, Hel. Can I make you a drink?” Jake asked.
“Yes. That would be welcome.”
“So we’re all ready to open Pandora’s Box?” Jake asked.
“Yes,” Byron said. “I can put the pieces together tonight.”
“Are we doing that tonight?” I asked. My heart started to beat faster. Of course, I had made my decision to do this. I knew that we would reach this moment. “Maybe we should…prepare first.”
“Helena…,” Jake said. “I don’t think there is any way to prepare. What would we do? Get a good night’s sleep? Go buy some guns? Brush up on magic skills? None of that is going to matter if shit goes down.”
“It is pretty intense when you put it like that,” Jasper said. “But…it feels like everything that’s happened so far has led us here.”
“When the worlds are joined together, our fight will not be alone,” Byron said. “When the magical world realizes that they can now move into the world that aligns with them best rather than the gates being barred, for everyone who is furious, someone else will be grateful. When I join the worlds, it won’t just be chaos. For some people, it will bring peace as well as power. Be ready to call those souls to your side, and they’ll stand with us.”
“Will we feel it right away?” I asked Byron. “Do you what happens once you join the maps?”
“I can’t honestly answer that,” Byron said. “Originally, I was born to a union of three, with the blood of all three worlds in my veins, and I inherited the maps from my father. They were already joined. I was taught to be their keeper, from what I understand, although these are the memories I lost when I died. My sister Marisa saved my hair and blood, but for a long time the maps were passed around the magical world, split apart. She didn’t find a way to call me back to life until she knew I’d be able to get my hands on them, when their legacy had been forgotten. But she couldn’t revive me like a necromancer would. The best she could do was try to get my soul to attach to a new life. When I was born in this life, I thought I was just a normal incubus for the early years of my life. I certainly understand what Graham has been dealing with learning about the magical world. It was a shock to find out I was once a demigod, and that I had a chance to restore Lord Abiron’s legacy…” He trailed off a moment and then he took my hands in his. His golden eyes met mine with an expression that was raw, meeting my fears with his own.
“Angel,” he said. “I’ll be honest. I still feel more like a normal incubus than a demigod. But maybe all demigods feel that way at first. I’m scared too. But I also believe in my purpose, and in you—all of you. Except maybe Gaston.”