I smirk. “Bullshit. If you really didn’t like them, you would have driven them insane years ago. Instead, you’ve watched their backs. Most people would call that touching.”
He studies me, his lips curling up. “And what do you call it?”
“Convenient. It means I don’t have toactuallyworry about you killing them or vice versa.”
“As if he even fucking could,” Baelfire calls from inside the cottage.
Silas moves to the threshold, too, pressing a gentle kiss against the side of my neck. He ignores that Parker is glaring daggers at him like he has a personal vendetta against the blood fae.
“You will nottrulybe alone,” Silas murmurs in my ear, softly enough that I doubt Baelfire can even hear him.
He goes on telepathically.Everett and I are a mere thought away. And although my mentor has his idiosyncrasies, his obsession with knowledge drives him. You’re a curiosity to him, and as such, he will not allow harm to come to you. If anyone else tries?—
I’ll kill them, I reassure him before leaving to talk to the wizard.
18
MAVEN
Though my quintetisn’t happy about this situation, twenty minutes later, Ross opens the door to an expansive study room within one of the many other buildings in the Sanctuary.
It’s something between a library, alchemist lab, and indoor garden, with books lining every wall and a small sitting area beside thriving plants. Ross again dips his head and continues acting far too fucking formal with me before closing the door, leaving me alone with the Garnet Wizard.
Who has aged considerably within the last hour and a half.
When we first met him, I would have guessed he was in his late forties. Now he's definitely in his fifties, and his hair has grayed into his eyebrows. He’s sitting in one of the cushioned settees sipping tea and smiles when he sees me analyzing him.
“Silas did not warn you of my curse beforehand because he has been sworn to the utmost secrecy, as is everyone who enters my Sanctuary.”
He nods at the teapot and cup waiting for me on the small coffee table beside a small stack of ancient-looking books. I briefly skim the titles on their old, cracked spines.
A Complete History of Paradise
Divine Compendium: All We Know of Gods and the Saints Who Walk Among Us
Sancti, Semidei et Prophetae
I'm still translating the last title in my head when he motions again at the teapot.
“Tea?”
I don’t trust eating or drinking anything offered freely, but I take the opposite seat and study him, putting the pieces together.
“It’s your curse. You age quickly.”
“Four years per hour, to be precise. My life cycle resets each midnight—or rather, it used to. For centuries, ever since I lost my keeper and quintet, it has always been the same, but recently, the aging cycle has become quite unstable. I might wake old in the morning and age backward, for example. Extremely tedious and something I have taken as a sign of my probably-impending death.”
I see now how Silas matched this curse with The Scarab nickname. This is one of the most severe curses I’ve heard of, so it’s also no surprise that Silas wants Baelfire’s scales to try to treat his mentor’s condition.
Still. It’s fucking weird that he’s openly telling me about such a taboo subject.
The wizard sees my expectant look and shrugs, setting down his teacup. “That was my way of offering you transparency, for I am not one to beat ineffectively around the bush.”
“Me neither.”
“Excellent. Then, let us be frank with one another. I have long stopped caring about keeping the Nether out of this world. Indeed, my untraceable Sanctuary is my own world. It is safeguarded from any monster, human, or shadow fiend that I do not wish to admit. Only my deeply loyal acolytes and I know how to leave and enter through two rare spells, which I canchange anytime. If the prophecies are true and you are to bring about the end of balance between the five planes and wreak havoc on this world, I and my collection of knowledge shall be quite safe here.”
I absorb that. At least now I know Gideon can’t get into the Sanctuary, even if he does track us here. It also means Douglas and any others after us won’t reach us for now.
