“I need it in case there’s another riddle inside,” Raven said. “It might hold more clues.”
Leena gestured toward the dark interior of the cave. “If there is more to work out inside, chances are it, like the key, will require a translator who reads ancient Elvish. You could use a translation spell, but it would be far easier and less draining to simply allow me to do it.”
Raven sighed. The scribe made sense, and she wasn’t overly excited about going into the dark cavern alone. “Okay, then. Here. You might as well carry this, then.” She handed her the scroll. “If we run into trouble, I’ll need both hands.”
Leena took the precious scroll and carefully rerolled it before tucking it into her satchel. “Lead the way.”
Raising her wand, Raven floated a ball of light high in front of them. The glow revealed a set of stone stairs that led down, underground. Her heart pounded as she descended. As soon as she stepped on the third step, torches lit along the walls, and everything inside blazed to life, shone gold. The tomb was filled with treasure.
“Oh my god,” Raven mumbled when her eyes caught on a large yellow diamond resting on top of the pile of coins and jewels. It twinkled in the torchlight.
“Is that what I think it is?” Leena’s chest rose and fell like she’d sprinted a mile. That was fear in her purple eyes.
Raven knew what it was. She’d held one just like it in her hands once, only it was an emerald, not a diamond. Gabriel’s heart. “It’s a dragon’s heart. I’m guessing Tavyss’s.”
“It has to be,” Leena said. “I read about him just yesterday, and this gem is the same color as the ring described in the text.”
A lump formed in Raven’s throat. Medea had led her to the burial chamber of her beloved Tavyss.
“Where’s the grimoire?” Leena asked. “Why would Medea lead you to the heart and not the book?”
Tentatively, Raven lifted the gem and held it up to the torchlight. It wasn’t just reflecting the light but putting off its own. At first, her thoughts flashed to Gabriel’s heart, to how the emerald once held the light of his soul. But she didn’t feel another presence in the room or sense that Tavyss’s soul was still bound to this gem. What she did feel was the hot rush of power like a pulse in the air around her. Her breath caught.
“It’s here,” she said excitedly. “Inside the stone! Medea stored the grimoire inside Tavyss’s heart.”
Leena’s eyes sparked. “What? Why would she do such a thing?”
Raven smiled. “Because she was truly brilliant. A witch’s magic dies with her, but a dragon’s magic is inherent to their body. It’s why Circe asked the first dragon for her scale in exchange for the ability to shift. That scale could turn anyone who used it invisible… forever. And this heart has magic… magic that fueled the encryption on that scroll and the protective magic of the orbs.”
“Brilliant, yes. But how do we get the book out to use it?”
“I’m not sure. Let me think,” Raven said.
Leena looked around the tomb, hugging herself and rubbing her shoulders. “This place scares me, Raven. I have a strange feeling of foreboding. I don’t think we should linger here.”
Raven adjusted the heart, turning it in her hand and holding it closer to the torchlight. If she held it just right, she could see writing. “I can see it. The pages of the grimoire are open to a spell. I’m guessing it’s the one to extract the book from the gem, but it’s not in English.”
“Do you need me to try to read it? I know many languages.”
“No need,” Raven said with a smile. “I only need to know it exists.” As Leena looked on in confusion, Raven reached out with her magic, the same magic that had allowed her to absorb hundreds of books in every human language from Gabriel’s magical library, long before she knew she could do it. Metaphysical ribbons extended into the dragon heart, probing the facets to find the book within, feeling the magic and absorbing it off the page.
“What’s happening?” Leena asked.
“It’s part of who I am… my special power. I can absorb the magic even if I can’t read the words.”
“Like you did with the scroll,” Leena said.
“Mmm-hmm.” Raven continued to analyze the magic. “I think it’s fascinating how my magic and my sisters’ complement one another. Avery neutralizes magic. I take it in and transform it. It becomes part of me. As long as I practice the spells once I have them, they will always be mine. And Clarissa, she makes magic with her voice. Creates it from scratch. From nothing.”
“When you put it that way, I can see why the legends say you’d be unstoppable.”
Raven turned the gem, and the pages in the book started to flip. “We’re not unstoppable. Not yet. But we’re learning.” She absorbed each spell, feeling the gold light bleed into her, transfusing her with ancient power. So much magic. Her head swam with spells. Her body pulsed with it.
“Raven… Oh my goddess, your skin!” Leena gasped.
Raven looked down at herself. Symbols glowed through her flesh, and she remembered her first days in Gabriel’s library. This only used to happen when Gabriel touched her, before she’d understood how to process the magic she absorbed. She stared at the heart in her hands and dropped it onto the pile of treasure, sending a clatter of gold coins to the floor. The symbols faded.
“They’re gone. Are you all right?”
