Silver Flame (Vampire Girl #3)(51)

I speed up, my excitement growing. "I'm sure he thinks he has good reasons, but he's holding me back, and we don't have time for that. People are dying!"

Pete is quiet the rest of the way, seemingly swayed by my argument. He could never stand the needless suffering of others.

Once we reach the correct hallway, I use illusion to make us look like the many scantily-clad servants who wander the halls and rooms of the palace day and night. We each carry a platter laden with food and drink and make our way toward Varis's room, as if we have every right to enter.

Once at his door, I enhance my senses and listen for any breathing. There is none. Instead of retiring to his room like he said, Varis probably went out to the local inn. I’d heard he was developing a taste for Baldar’s Nectar of the Elder Ones.

I turn the handle and the door opens, unlocked so servants can clean, or in our case, more nefarious things.

His room is as tidy and neat as I would have imagined.

"I have a bad feeling about this," whispers Pete, but I shush him and look around.

My enhanced vision picks up traces of recent prints of dust, things Varis touched. His bed. His closet.

I look under his pillow, find nothing, and then check the closet. Stashed deep past layers of fur cloaks, I discover the black leather book he hid from me.

When I touch it, my hands fill with cold, and I hear something in the distance. "You hear that?" I ask, but Pete and Es shake their heads.

Strange. I open the leather and run my hand over the cover. The ice seeps into the bones of my hand, making them ache, my skin prickles, and my arm hair stands on edge. I slam the book closed quickly and shove it back into its leather cover, then replace everything as I found it.

"So what now?" asks Es.

"Now, I need to read it."

I guide them back to my room and drop our new illusions. Pete and Es stay with me as I peruse the pages of the old manuscript, using a translation spell to understand the glyphs. Most of what I come across terrifies me: human sacrifice. Nude rituals. "Guys, I really hope I don’t have to do this stuff for Yami to grow stronger." I show them one picture of a woman being cut open from chin to groin, her organs pulled out to 'read'.

Pete recoils and Es bends over. "Think I’m going to vomit."

I flip the page and start scanning for something useful. The longer I have the book open, the worse the chill gets. The pages feel odd to me. Not like paper. And then I realize what they are. "Human skin."

Pete leans over the book to examine it. "There is precedent for that, even in our world."

Es wrinkles her nose. "Ew… this falls into the category of shit I don't need to know about."

I sigh and push on, reading deeper into the text. "Here. Finally. Something." I point to a section they can’t read.

"It says the Druids and Spirits have a shadow form, that which taps into the Darkness. The power of light and dark. Life and death. Creation and destruction. Sometimes this form manifests when the Wild Ones are in grave danger. However, this power can also be summoned at will by those with the right knowledge." I close the book and put it back into the leather wrap. "Varis knew all this. He knew this is the information I needed, and he didn't tell me."

"How do you summon the shadow form?" Pete asks, eyeing the book with a frown.

"Under the light of the moons at midnight I must chant the binding words and connect with my Spirit," I say.

Es walks over to the door leading out to my balcony and opens it, letting in fresh air and a stream of sunshine. "It's sundown. We have time. What should we do until midnight?"

I shrug. "Hang out? Pretend life is normal? Catch up? We've hardly had time to just talk since we got here. Come on. Let's find somewhere in this pleasure domain to drink coffee and eat junk food and talk."

With that plan set, we leave the Pleasure Palace and explore Dean's realm, stopping at different vendors to try their wares and eventually settling on a little cafe by the water.

Once we have food and drink, I look at my best friends… really look at them… for the first time since I pulled them into this mess. "Are you guys okay? Is this completely freaking you out?"

Pete shrugs. "It's actually pretty cool. I mean, there are things I miss. Like phones."

"And television," Es says with an exasperated sigh. "What do people do here to relax?"

I laugh. "I don't know. I haven't had much time to relax since I got here. Unless you count my time in the dungeon relaxing."

Es shutters. "No, thank you. I can't believe that bastard did that to you. I'd cut his manhood off myself if I could."

"Thanks," I say. "But he'll get what's coming to him."

"Are you happy here?" Es asks. "Are you happy with him?"

"I could be," I say honestly. "When I spent my month with Fen in Stonehill… yeah, there were problems, and everyone here seems to be at war with someone, but we also found a routine. I trained with Fen in the mornings and worked with Kayla learning blacksmithing in the afternoons. At night, I would study everything I could about this place under the watchful gaze of Kal the Keeper. I made friends. I learned a lot. And…"

"And you fell in love with the tough-on-the-outside-soft-on-the-inside sexy Prince of War," Es says, finishing my thought for me in the way only she can.