Nocturna (A Forgery of Magic #1)(18)

And so Luz took half of mankind in her hands and filled them with light.

Sombra took the rest and threaded them with only darkness.

But both the god and the goddess were wrong.

The tale went on as most children’s tales did—with the creation of a monstrous villain. Sombra, the god who created the dark, grew intertwined with the darkness until he and it were one. As the darkness grew in strength, so did he. He wished to snuff out the light and drench the world in shadow. The world was said to be a strange place then, teetering with an imbalance of light and dark as Luz and Sombra fought for control of man. Rivers ran violet and flowers grew as tall as castles. Creatures of myth roamed the land. But before the corrupted god could darken the globe, a man of dark and a woman of light embraced to become one, the man of dark falling and stretching at her feet to become her shadow. Their embrace created mankind as it was always meant to be—a balance of light and dark. From that balance, magic was born and the world finally found its footing. Rivers ran blue. Flowers were small enough to be plucked between a child’s soft fingers. Dragons shrank down into lizards and all beasts of legend disappeared from sight. Then came Alfie and Dez’s favorite part.

Sombra demanded that the light be snuffed out. As punishment, he was cast out of the heavens, forbidden to return. When he fell to earth, the darkness rooted within him corrupted all who crossed his path. The world’s finest bruxos parted the god from the dark power he so loved, turning his once immortal body to bones. Learning from Sombra’s faults, the remaining gods and goddesses turned their gazes heavenward. They built the kingdom their children would come to after death and left all matters of earth to mankind.

He and Dez had had so many questions for Paloma after hearing the tale. How did they trap Sombra? Was it true that if Sombra rose again he would bring about what legends called Nocturna? It was something that Alfie had only ever heard described as a great darkness that Sombra would cast over the world, a dismantling of all things good. But Paloma had shooed those questions away, telling them to pay attention to the moral of the story.

We all carry good and bad within us, light and dark. That is what makes us human. And remember, no matter how far into the darkness we may fall, it is never too late to seek the light.

Alfie stroked the book with his thumb. What was good and bad had been so obvious then. Now, as he stared at the illegal books he’d stolen from a thief, the line was not so clear. Alfie smothered those thoughts. For better or worse, he had the books. He may as well learn from them what he could. With that, Alfie grabbed the one on top. The first two books were on Englassen history, useless to him. The next one was about Englassen folklore and legend—another waste of his time. Alfie looked at the final book.

If this one didn’t hold the knowledge he needed to save Dez, he would have to let this go for good. He’d promised himself before attending the game that this would be his last attempt before committing to being Castallan’s future king like his parents wanted. Swallowing thickly, Alfie picked up the book, willing it to contain what he needed. The book was so old that the gold letters on the spine had faded to barely legible script, but Alfie’s brows shot up as he deciphered the title: Sealing the Damned.

“Co?o! For gods’ sake,” Alfie cursed with a roll of his eyes. Still, he opened it and began to read.

It quickly became clear that this was an eccentric book. The spellwork within it appeared to be experimental, almost fantastical. Alfie’s brows crept up his forehead as he read chapters that spoke of monsters of dark power and how to seal them with strange magic techniques.

It spoke of old magic. Magic with soul, magic that colored men with its desires and bent them to its will. Magic born from man’s sin.

Alfie snorted. What would be next, spellwork to slay dragons? Halt time? Stop death? Men colored magic, that was a universal truth. Fear of sin coloring magic was just something to say to children to make them think twice before dabbling in troublesome spellwork.

Still, his eyes clung to the crudely drawn images of creatures outlined in black. Monsters made of smoke and darkness that looked as if they’d crept from a child’s nightmares to etch themselves upon the old pages of this book. He turned to the next chapter, its title loosely translated as “The Strength in Circles, of Sealing and Banishment of Dark Entities.” It was utter nonsense, he knew, but he couldn’t stop himself from reading on, couldn’t help but hope that somewhere in its pages there might be something useful.

The chapter spoke of the circle as a symbol for eternity before describing spellwork that promised to seal spirits, demons, and entities of dark power in objects with a circle of blood and a word of magic. Written magic was an art he’d done in ink and chalk, but the book spoke of magic written in blood. Blood magic was only ever used in works Paloma called “unsavory.”

If the spellwork you seek requires blood, she’d once tutted, you ought to rethink performing such spellwork in the first place.

But maybe the magic that could help him find Dez required a little blood and a lot of nerve. Alfie ran his thumb over the dark circle drawn in the book and imagined it splashed red.

Alfie’s bedroom doors burst open and Paloma stormed in, her red due?a’s robes flowing behind her. When her eyes found him, an anger flared in her that he’d never seen before.

She strode across the room and stood so close they were nearly nose-to-nose. “Where have you been?”