Josh took a dusty leather book from one of them.
“This room contains journals for every werewolf king since the Wickhams arrived here” he said. “This one is my great-grandfather’s. Since becoming king, I’ve been trying to learn what I can of my heritage. I can’t say that I was very interested in it before that.”
“You had other things to do,” Kevin guessed.
“I had a whole life planned out. Col ege, Wal Street, life in New York.”
“And then you had to come back here to be king.”
Josh shrugged. “I wanted a normal life, but things rarely work out as planned. Anyway…”
Josh flipped through the pages of the journal, final y coming to a stop about halfway through.
He read aloud. “Palisor is the source of power and renewal for paranormals. It is meant as paradise, a peaceful kingdom where paranormals can be free.
The darker paranormals such as vampires are not al owed within. The keepers of the gates to Palisor must guard against them through each generation.”
“So Aunt Sophie must have been a
gatekeeper,” Jake said. “That explains why she stayed even after everyone disappeared in the Wicked Woods.”
Everyone. Such a smal word to take in
himself, his parents, his uncle. Not to mention Kevin and Fal on. So much had seemed to start that day, but in fact, it had already been in place for centuries.
Kevin might have asked about that, but a thought came to him.
“What about Briony? How did she figure
into this?”
“If she’s related to Mrs. Edge, and we agree that Sophie Edge is one of these gatekeepers, then it is possible that she may be a gatekeeper, too,” Josh said. “My great-grandfather’s journal does suggest that it is hereditary.”
Jake shook his head. “But I’m related to Aunt Sophie. Why aren’t I a gatekeeper, then?”
“Good question.” Josh looked at Jake. Real y looked at him for several seconds. “Which makes me wonder. You two are so different. I mean Briony is…”
“Gorgeous,” Jake said bluntly, clearly unhappy about it. “And I’m not. I never wil be. I’m awkward, and wil always be forever awkward, stuck as half-vampire and half-werewolf for al eternity.”
“I didn’t mean it like that, Jake,” Josh said. “We al went through that awkward stage, but have you ever felt Briony was different…from you or anyone else?”
Kevin nodded. “She is.” Of course, he knew exactly how different Briony was.
Josh tapped his fingers against the book. “I’m not just talking about looks. There’s something else.
Something that I have been sensing since the moment I met her. Something I suspect we al have.”
“Yes,” Kevin said. “We know.”
Jake looked distraught. “I’m not sure I do. Are you saying that Briony is total y something else? That she’s not real y my sister?”
“No, I’m not tel ing you that,” Josh said.
“She’s definitely have some human in her, but she’s something else, too.”
Kevin found himself thinking back to Pietre’s taunts about Briony being closer to vampire than human. “Josh, if you know what she is, tel me straight.
Is she a vampire?”
Josh laughed at that. “From what I can see, she’s about as far from that as it’s possible to be.
Assuming these journals are correct, then what she is would be closer to one of the fey.”
“The fey?” Kevin asked. “Like a fairy? Holy-”
“She doesn’t have al the features,” Josh said,
“so I could be wrong. But maybe a form of it. I don’t know much about the fey, though. As you can probably guess, trying to grow up normal, this fantasy stuff was never real y my thing.”
Kevin stole a glance at Jake, who nodded.
They could both think of two people who were about as heavily into that kind of thing as it was possible to be.
“And that’s al I know,” Josh said. “Now, excuse me, because I have a lot to do. Saving the others was one thing, but al this means that a new concern has sprung up. Pietre’s new lair, wherever it is, seems to be attracting a lot of old vampires. A lot of powerful vampires. Until you brought me this, it didn’t make sense. But now, wel , I can see that master vampires would flock here, if they knew that there was a way to Palisor. Our war, far from being over, seems to be just beginning.”
Kevin couldn’t help a little twinge of fear at that.
He suppressed it, though. He had more important things to deal with. Like seeing a couple of people who might know more than he did about the fey.
Chapter 8
For Kevin, the hardest part was waiting,