A Book of Spirits and Thieves (Spirits and Thieves #1)(95)

“I know what I see before me. I see a thieving immortal who, instead of guarding this world like she was created to do, steals lives and magic.”

“I never agreed to be a guardian of anything.”

“I will destroy you.”

“Given where you currently sit and where I currently stand, I sincerely doubt that. No. You’ve managed to hide from me for all these years. I promise, you won’t escape from me again.”

“Do you understand a single word of this?” Becca asked. She hadn’t left Maddox’s side since he woke.

He’d been listening to them talk in hushed silence, fearful that Valoria would have a guard put a sword through Barnabas at any moment. But then that fear fell away and was replaced by confusion.

Barnabas and the sorceress.

Eva had been the girl Barnabas confessed to loving last night. The one he’d lost.

It was Eva’s sixteen-year-old daughter for whom Valoria searched.

Eva and Barnabas’s daughter.

A mystery girl who Barnabas had not referenced at all. She wasn’t the hidden heiress to the throne. He’d broken into the dungeon to find Maddox. Because he needed Maddox’s magic . . .

His head hurt from hurriedly thinking through all this, but he knew he was close to something incredibly important. The answer he needed more than any other.

What if it wasn’t a girl at all whom Valoria searched for?

What if it was . . . a sixteen-year-old boy with unusual magic?

His gaze shot to Barnabas.

The thief had told him that Valoria had torn the heart right from Maddox’s father’s chest. But now that he thought about it, Barnabas had never, not once, said his father was dead.

“This can’t be true,” Maddox whispered hoarsely. “Barnabas, it can’t. Can it?”

Barnabas drew in a sharp breath, his eyes widening with surprise, as Maddox’s unspoken question hung in the air.

The goddess, who’d watched both of them closely, focused then on Maddox, looking infuriatingly smug.

“The witch boy,” she purred. “How vastly I underestimated you. Barnabas must have thought he was so clever to fool me so well and for so long.”

“What’s she talking about?” Becca asked, frowning.

Maddox didn’t look away from the goddess. He held her gaze defiantly.

“Yes, there it is,” she said with a cool smile. “I can see the resemblance much better when you’re not shivering like a frightened child. Your father wasn’t much older than you when he fell in love with my sister.”

“Eighteen, actually,” Barnabas said, his voice tight. “There was a bit of an age difference between us, I admit, but we didn’t mind.”

“Even now, he plays the fool in an attempt to distract me.” Valoria clasped Maddox’s chin. “All this time I’ve been searching for a girl. If only I’d known your true parents’ little secret.”

“I’m afraid I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” Maddox replied, fighting to keep his tone steady. “My mother is Damaris Corso. My father was all but a stranger to her.”

She patted his cheek. “A nice attempt, but you can’t fool me. Not anymore.”

“Okay, Maddox,” Becca whispered. “I think I understand what’s going on here. I can’t believe I’m about to say this, but promise you’ll listen to me. I know this realization might come as a bit of a, um, shock? To say the least? But look at it this way. . . . You’ve always considered your magic to be a curse, right? You didn’t know where it came from or why you had it. Now you do. Your mother was a sorceress and, by the sound of it, one of the good ones.”

“Bring me the book,” Valoria instructed Sienna. “I’m ready to finally reclaim my dagger and punish the thief who stole it from me.”

“After you stole it from Eva, you mean,” Barnabas growled.

“If you think I can help you, you’re wrong,” Maddox said to Valoria. “I’ve examined the book, and it means nothing to me. I can’t use it to open up a gateway. My magic doesn’t do that, and that raggedy old thing certainly won’t make any difference.”

“No, I don’t suppose it would. Not the way you’re used to channeling your magic now, at least.” She eyed him from top to tail. “The magic I’m familiar with is elemental—the magic of life. You possess the flip side to this—death magic. Life and death do go hand in hand, after all. How curious it is that Eva, an immortal, would give life to a creature who is exactly the opposite. Usually when those of my kind create life with mortals, they end up with witches for offspring, like my loyal Sienna and her dead sister: women with small holds on elemental magic. You are a rare creature indeed.”

“Perhaps I am, but I still can’t help you.” Maddox tried to summon some of Barnabas’s irreverence but knew he came up short.

“Even if you could,” she replied, “you’d likely fail. From what I’ve seen of you, you’re too young, too timid. You doubt every move you make and seek guidance and permission before every action you take. What a waste.”

Darkness churned deep in his belly, and he balled his hands into fists at his sides.

“She’s wrong.” Becca shook her head. “You have to know that, don’t you?”