“Maybe not a babysitter,” Cara said. “But until Lucas is home safe, you are going to have enough triggers.”
Fucking hell. She was talking about keeping him calm. I sooo wanted out of here.
I looked around, taking note of details. A platform a hundred feet in the air would not be the best Jump destination. Ground floor forest would have to do.
“I’m on it,” I said.
“Excellent. Then, as soon as I run Marcus through a few little tests, you can go.”
I trailed after them as Cara took us back through the treehouse. When we passed through the kitchen, Aria and Kiko diverted to the fridge. Nikolai stayed with them, his silver eyes watching after us as we continued down the stairs.
“I don’t need an audience,” Marcus growled at me.
“You’re the one who’s all ‘go team’,” I snarled back. “If you’re going to bloody lose it, I should know.”
“You’ll have to take his word for it,” Cara said. “For this session, anyway, I would like some privacy.”
I snorted steam, but hesitated on the library level, and with reluctance, let them go on without me.
Vali was sitting at the table. The skull we’d found in Isobel’s boneyard sat before her.
After a moment, she glanced up. “Why don’t you make yourself useful?” She tapped at the pile of books she had beside her.
“I ain’t no bookworm.”
She focused her intense stare on me. “Seems like you aren’t a lot of things. Including useful.”
I sank my bulk down on the chair across from her with rather more force than necessary. “I fight. It’s all I know. It’s what I am.”
That admission popped out before I’d even thought about it. But by the way she looked at me, I’d hit a nerve.
“Ace didn’t think so,” she said.
I peeled lips back from my teeth. “Ace was a fucking dreamer. He saw things that didn’t exist.”
“You could be so much more than what Xumi created you for,” she said.
This conversation was going nowhere fast. I picked up the skull. “Any luck so far?”
She pushed two books toward me. Both had spines four inches thick, and leather covers that were falling apart. “See if you can find anything in these. But be careful with them.”
I held up my hands and wiggled thick fingers. “Careful ain’t exactly my thing.”
Her mouth pulled into a line, before she pulled the offered books back to her, she shoved another one to me instead, and said, “This one is more your speed.”
The Dragona was fucking pushy. But I found myself opening the bloody book and paging through.
It wasn’t as boring as I’d thought. It had vivid illustrations of many animals, including lots I had never heard of. Soon I was far more engrossed than I’d ever admit. Nothing I found, though, had those weird long, clear spikes in a crest around the skull.
Vali uttered a disgusted sound and closed her book. She stared at the shelves, and then her eyes traveled up to the top one.
“The Watcherbitch told us those ones are useless,” I said.
“But it’s weird that so many books have no reference to this thing.” Her fingers tapped on the table. “The Watchers pretty much know everything that breathes across the realms. Why doesn’t Cara know what this is?”
“She can’t know everything,” I said.
Vali stood and headed for the ladder. “Maybe it’s because it isn’t supposed to exist. At least, not anymore.”
