Grabbing a few vegetables we hadn’t been granted access to in the kitchen, I slid past him and watched as he pressed the button again to slide the shelving back into place. This was another point against my uncle. If he’d been the slightest bit nice, he would have told me where he stashed the good food in his letter.
Back in the kitchen, Bennett sighed and accepted the illegal goods. He’d started mixing the ingredients for the omelets, so we hastily cut up the new veggies and dumped spices in the mixture. Too many spices, but I wanted it to be ‘burn my tongue off’ spicy. I’d been eating bland food for so long I needed something to shock my system.
Easy banter passed between us all, the men acclimating to my presence quickly. Waylon was the most difficult to read, because he went from bratty, sarcastic trickster in one moment to melancholy grump the next. I tried not to blame him. If my assumption of his heritage was correct, he hadn’t met many people, and never under normal social circumstances.
Abraxas was quiet, but sometimes the end of his tail would catch something that one of us knocked off the counters, so we knew he was paying attention. We were knocking plenty around with two giant men and me trying to keep some distance between us.
By the time the food was done and we’d eaten every bite, I was tempted to spend the whole day with them, giving up on my new clue until the next cycle.
Sadly, I didn’t get the chance. A quick stab to my neck made me woozy, everything going fuzzy. All five men were in front of me, within my sight line, so I had no idea how one of them had killed me. Regardless, I swayed in my seat and fell, dying before I hit the ground.
Chapter 18
Mynextcycle,Ididn’t waste time hanging out with the guys and finishing the day we’d hardly gotten to start. It wouldn’t be the same, considering I’d have to go through the same information I’d already told them yesterday. Besides, I didn’t feel hungry despite knowing my body hadn’t consumed food for over twelve hours. I went through my typical morning, having a short and basic conversation about the situation with the guys, before heading up to the third floor with a pad of paper and a pencil.
At this time of day, the view was completely different. The mountains were dark, the sun coming up on the opposite side of the house. Small songbirds flitted around instead of the bats I’d glimpsed before. Luckily, I didn’t have to wait for the view to be the same as it was when I’d realized the significance of this window. All I needed to do was breathe.
Fogging the window with my hot breath, I started at the top corner and made my way down, copying an endless stream of numbers. There was no rhyme or reason to them at first. 6, 2, 5. 1, 9, 8. 20, 4, 1. I quickly recognized the pattern though. A book cipher. People had come into the Grand Library of Enchantments all the time searching for the book that would be the key to their mystery. There was clandestine activity happening among the shelves every day, with spies decoding messages sent by their handlers.
Those were the rumours, anyway. With the Council being the way it was, and the stories I’d heard from Solstice, I wouldn’t be surprised.
After copying every number onto my paper, I took it into the library and sat down on one of the plush couches. I’d need to find the book used to decode the message. The list of options in my head was short. He could have used one of the Dex Moran books on the library shelves. If he was particularly sadistic, he would have used a book from the hidden basement, but I was still convinced he had never wanted me down there.
Most likely, and the first option I would check, was the book that had belonged to my mother. I stepped over to grab it from the corner, realizing I’d never finished reading it. My relaxation hadn’t lasted long enough.
As usual, the picture fell out from between the pages when I flipped through, and I held it open to save the spot. I couldn’t guess if the cipher was ‘page number, line number, word number’, or ‘line number, word number, letter number’ all on the same page. Trying the first option since it would give me a longer message, I gave up halfway through when nothing made a lick of sense.
For the second option, I used the page the picture of my parents had been stuffed in. The cipher immediately made more sense.
The first word was TWO, with the following two letters being A and M. A time for the spell to be cast, I had to assume. Disappointment settled in the pit of my stomach at the realization that I didn’t have enough letters left in the cipher to give me any information on the spell itself. This was merely another clue along the way.
I really hated Uncle Felix more with every dead end.
Decoding the rest of the message, it only said FULL MOON. I had to assume the full moon was tonight, but I’d never checked. Unlike some mages, I cared little for the moon cycles. Sure, they could enhance magic, but no moon was strong enough to make mine potent.
Assuming the full moon was tonight, Bennett’s predicament made a lot more sense. Wolfmen transformed into beast form on the night of the full moon, whether they wanted to or not. Mages didn’t know much more than that. I wasn’t even aware of what a transformed wolfman was supposed to look like. They may be akin to shifters, who took on the form of their animal, but I’d always assumed they were something more abnormal. Why else would we fear them?
My curiosity was beside the point. On the day I tried to break this wretched seal, I’d have to stay alive until two in the morning, which was an accomplishment. If I told the men what was happening, would they stop killing me? Or would I have to play the game of chance, redoing the spell prep over and over again until I made it through the evening?
Technically, I couldn’t be certain the men were the ones killing me at all. They were the only ones here, but Felix may have placed a curse on me. Then again, a curse would be a bit more consistent. There was no pattern to when or how I was killed.
“You look deep in thought.”
I jumped and glanced up with wide eyes to find Bennett standing in the library doorway, leaning casually against one side.
“Oh, Ixaris, you scared me.”
He chuckled. “I didn’t think you startled easily. You were unphased by Kirin this morning, and the first time you saw Abraxas.”
I held back my snort. The first time I’d seen both of them, I’d screamed. When I’d seen Abraxas, I’d full on passed out from the panic. He didn’t remember that. Being unphased was deceptively easy when you’d had plenty of opportunities to be, well, phased. “You would be shocked by how easily I startle. Did you need to use the library? I can take my deep thoughts somewhere else.”
I’d honestly never seen Bennett in the library before, unless I counted the brief appearance he’d made in his search for a naughty Waylon. Why he was here during this cycle was a mystery, but I was used to that by now. Everything every person did was a mystery. Half the time, I thought I’d changed nothing from the previous day and ended up with a totally different version of events.
“I’d love your company,” he said.
Pushing himself off the wall, he strode purposefully into the library. The thick hair covering his arms peeked out from beneath the sleeves of his short-sleeved tunic, the bottom riding up to reveal a deep V leading into his low-slung trousers. He was hairy beneath the fabric, too. I knew it, but was trying not to think about it. By the time I’d dragged my gaze away from his crotch, he was grinning at my perusal.
He’d never said what he was doing in the library, only that he’d love my company. To me, it appeared he was here to do nothing in particular. When he got to my couch, he lowered himself down to sit against the opposite arm, kicking off his shoes and pulling his feet up. There were other seating options, including one across from me.
