guts aside until he pulled his hand out – with a little red book.
“YES!”
Granny and Mum moved in close. He flipped through the pages and lights danced from within the spine. I was about to look away when I spotted a symbol in the book – it was a single rose.
“Look!”
“What’s wrong?”
I pointed to it. “I’ve seen that stamp of a rose. At school. But that must be a coincidence because —" I froze. “All Souls College was co-founded by Henry Lancaster the VI. Everyone makes a big fuss about it because I’m a Lancaster who snagged a fellowship. Dad made the school. He made it and I go there – wait…wait…I went there with him. I remember. Mum?”
She nodded. “Yes, we went there with him. And he would be so proud to know you attend that school.”
My jaw dropped. I shook my head and mimicked an explosion with my hands. “Mind blown.”
Malachi frowned and lifted the journal higher. His gaze traveled down the page as he read, then he flipped the page. “This is what we needed.”
My pulse quickened. “Does it say how to get it off of me?”
“No, but—”
I cursed.
“It seems clear that it getting stuck on you was not part of the plan, which may or may not be reassuring.”
Mum leaned in to try and read over his shoulder. “How do you know that? What does it say?”
“Well, first, it was Archangel Michael who told us we had to get her locket. That was why I took it.” He tapped on the page. “But Henry left us a note. It says that Michael told him the locket could not be destroyed because then Lilith could reforge it. The only way to render it useless is to bury it deep under Holy Ground.”
My eyes widened.
“It says to find this rose symbol at All Souls College and that will tell us where to go next.”
“Like a reverse treasure map.” My stomach turned. “Except it’s stuck on my neck.”
Malachi sighed and shoved the journal into his back pocket. “I’m hoping that when we get to the spot we’re supposed to bury it in, it will unlock itself. My gut is telling me we will find our answer in the process.”
“Leap of faith and all that jazz?”
He nodded.
Mum reached out and squeezed my hand. “Chloe, do you know where you need to go?”
Finally, something I knew with absolute certainty. I grinned. “Absolutely.”
Chapter Eighteen
Chloe
When my feet hit the ground, I almost cried in relief.
But then I looked down and found green grass under me. I cursed and leapt backwards so fast that my feet actually slipped on the slick grass and I landed right on my ass. On the grass. My ass was on the grass.
Malachi stepped in front of me, blocking out the sun hanging high in the sky. “Are you okay, love?”
My cheeks warmed. Love. Every time he said it, it did things to my insides. “We don’t walk on the grass here. Ever.”
He nodded and pursed his lips. Then his feet hovered off the ground, his black smoke wings flapping behind him. “Sitting on it is okay though?”
“Cheeky cheater.”
He grinned and flicked his wrist, and then I was standing upright. Before I could take a step, I started floating backwards. He gently placed me on the pavement, then smiled. “Better?”
I sighed and brushed my backside off. “Better.”
“All right, you said you know where the rose is?”
“I did. I do.” I walked to the edge of the grass field and glanced around to get my bearings straight and see exactly where he dropped us. Then I smiled. “This is my favorite spot on campus. Did you know that?”
He cocked his head to the side and glanced around us. When he looked back to me he gave me a little smirk. “No. But I did tap into your thoughts in order to bring us here.”
“That sounds really creepy, mister Prince of Hell.” I shook my head and then held my hand up over my eyes to shield them from the morning sunshine. “But I’ll let it slide for now because surely my brain cannot compute one more supernatural thing this morning.”
He chuckled. “Fine. How about it’s probably your favorite because you were drawn to the magic even while yours was blocked?”
“Still creepy, but an improvement.”
He smiled and shook his head.
I took a deep breath and just looked around. It blew my mind to realize that my own father had built this school five hundred and eighty years ago…and that I had