“You two want to take a break?”Card asked, rubbing his eyes and yawning.“Get some food.Coffee?”
“Yes,” I said.“Both.”
“One more page,” Lula said.
“Love, it’s been hours.We’ll take a break and get back at it.Half an hour, tops.”
“No, I think…” She made a frustrated sound.“I think one more page.The book seems to want…I think we need to turn one more page before we take a break.”
I swore but pushed the glasses back on my face.“One more.But then I need a break, a real break.Deal?”
“Yes.I know.Yes.”
“Ready,” I said.
“Ready,” Card said.
“I’m turning the page,” she said.
This spell flared blue, then spidery writing filled the page.It looked like plain ink, although it had a nimbus glow to it.
“Lost god,” Card said.“I think it is.Brogan?”
“I think so too.”I adjusted the mirror waiting for the words to resolve into something I could read, or a diagram to appear, or some other clue that would tell me what this was.
A chill ran down my spine.
“What?”Lula asked, sensing the change in me.
“It’s…dark.I can’t see exactly what it does, but it’s violent.Card?”
He’d shifted to the edge of his chair.“Agreed.This was meant to destroy.”
“How?”Lu asked.“Is it a sword, a bomb, a storm?That stupid diamond thing again?”
“It’s a beast,” I said, swallowing down the sense of power, of fire kindling through the spider web ink.“Something caged that can be awakened.”
None of us said anything.
The mix of relief and horror was uncomfortable.We’d found something that might be powerful enough to kill Headwaters.But if we used this spell, if we released a beast like this upon our enemy, there was no guarantee we’d be able to control what it destroyed.
“Are you going to do the spell now?”Abbi asked, worried.“Because I don’t think you should do the spell now, I really don’t think you should.”
“Lula, will the book allow you to return to the page without having to go through the rest?”Card asked.“Can you mark your place?”
“I know where it is.I know how the book…accesses it.Yes.I think I can find it again.”
“Then we all need a break,” Card said.“Food, maybe sleep.It’s only a few hours before dawn and we have a big decision to make.”
We’d been at this all day and night.No wonder I felt like I’d been dragged behind a truck.
“I’m closing the book,” Lu said.
She did, and I stood and rolled my shoulders trying to throw off the dread in my gut.
Finding that spell, the one that might kill Headwaters, made this even more real.
We were going to fight Headwaters—kill him—in just a few hours.
