Yew Queen Trilogy, стр. 28
Kaippa returned to the center of the room, the spot where I’d first felt the odd buzzing under my skin. He dislodged the center stone, reached inside, and pulled out a slip of thick paper with lines on it.
“Not much of a magical tome.” I tried to stop shivering. This magic thing was kicking my ass.
“It’s a key.” Kaippa took the paper and slid it into the space between two stones on the back wall. Nothing happened.
“A true mage expert, hmm?” Lucus grumbled.
I grinned at his sarcasm. Grasshopper was learning. “Yeah, Kaippa, what gives?”
Kaippa tried another spot. Still nothing. “I have to find the right location, then the room will reveal the spell book’s receptacle. The location is related to the ley line we’re currently traveling between appearances.”
Lucus pointed a finger at the door. “The earth’s energy runs from there, through here, and beyond.” He indicated a line that cut off a three-fourth slice of the circular chamber.
Kaippa dipped his head and did a little old-fashioned bow that I would now deem the full body sneer. They certainly hadn’t become friends over the last five hundred years.
He slid the thick paper between the walls in three more places until finally, there was a click.
And I could not believe what I was seeing.
Chapter 19
“Okay.” I threw my hands up in defeat. “I’ve had enough. Fae. Vampires. Shifters. Magic. Castles. I reject this reality.” I pointed at the alcove that had opened when Kaippa had slid the magical paper in the wall. Resting inside was a skull.
Of a unicorn.
“Nope. Nope. Nope. I’m seriously done.” I started to walk out of the room, my mind like a freaking dumpster fire of epic proportions, but Aurelio stopped me, gripping my arm in a gentle but firm hold.
“Coren, please stay.” With his blond hair swept away from his face, his pointed ears were plainly visible. They were a bit longer than Baccio’s and Lucus’s. He’d glamoured his wings and horns away. “For the first time, I feel a small amount of hope. With your shifter blood, you could free us from this prison.”
“And if I do, will humankind suffer for it?”
“We will do our best to control ourselves.”
“He claims he can keep you all reined in.” I jabbed a thumb in Lucus’s direction.
Baccio snatched the back of my shirt and whirled me around. “Do as we say or you die.”
“You’re such a perfect bad cop, Baccio. Do you all rehearse this? Tell Lucus he needs to work on the good cop side of things. He’s still an asshole.”
Lucus took a step toward me, his mouth tight, but he stopped himself from coming to my rescue.
I ripped my shirt from Baccio’s hand, knowing he let me do it, because damn it, he was far stronger than me. “I prefer Aurelio’s approach to prisoner negotiations, jerk neck.”
“I don’t care.”
“Such a darling, you are.” I blew him a kiss. “Listen, I know you all can kill me if you want, but you aren’t going to do it. You need me to break this curse, right?”
“Yes,” Lucus and Kaippa said in unison.
Kaippa continued. “We must have your living blood for the casting. You can’t be dead if we want it to work.”
Baccio glared at Kaippa. “Truly? I thought we could work magic with cold shifter blood as well as living blood.”
Kaippa shrugged. “You can do some magic with dead blood, but not the more complicated spells.”
Was the vampire lying for me? From the wide-eyed look on Lucus’s face, I guess Kaippa was indeed lying to Baccio and Aurelio for my sake. Kaippa wanted to be free as much as the rest of them, and he knew that because I was actually a mage that I had to be kept alive to do the casting.
I sighed, feeling like my magic was about to snap on me again. “Fine. Let’s crack open that unicorn skull and see what magic spell is hidden inside. You know, the spell we’re going to cast with my shapeshifter blood. No big.”
Shaking my head, I followed Lucus and Kaippa to the formerly hidden alcove. Kaippa removed the skull, keeping one hand on the horn. It looked a lot like a single antler, bone-white and tapering to a deadly point. The skull wasn’t large. Maybe the size of a miniature horse.
Hekla would’ve loved to see this thing. The thought of my best friend sent a wave of homesickness through me. I missed Hekla’s happy gossip, pumpkin muffins, croissants, jokes in the kitchen…
Kaippa handed the skull to me. The bone was cool to the touch and smooth. But it appeared empty, no spell book anywhere.
“What gives?” I looked from Lucus to Kaippa.
Kaippa’s eyes seemed to blacken even though they were always dark. Now, they seemed to soak in the light from the windows, dimming the entire room. “It needs your blood,” he whispered.
A chill crept over my back. “Right. Of course. More blood.”
Kaippa bared his fanged incisors.
A barely audible growl emanated from Lucus’s throat. “Baccio and Aurelio, leave us. I will feed the trees before the sun is down, and then you can sleep.”
I glanced at Lucus’s brothers. Baccio opened his mouth to argue, but Aurelio shook his head and led him out of the chamber.
“Where is that handy dandy knife?” I tried for a joking tone, but my voice shook a little too much to pull it off. I was actually surprised the tiny slice on my palm had already sealed itself shut. That must have been a really sharp blade.
“No need for a knife.” Kaippa grinned.
Lucus shoved him backward, and I almost dropped the skull in surprise. Kaippa landed on the floor under the alcove. He laughed, but it came out almost like a sob, and I could see the hunger in his gaunt face.
“Here, Coren.”
Lucus handed me the knife, and once again, I cut my palm open. Gods, it hurt like hell. Going on instinct, I smeared the blood over the top of the skull. The buzzing under my skin intensified.