The trinity Celtic knot symbol, three interconnected leaves, had been engraved in the arched wooden door. I scanned over the carving after setting her down, opened the door. We slipped inside the small room.
To my right, an entire wall was made up of glass, on the other side of the glass, the forbidden underground springs.
“What is this place?” Fallon whispered, grazing her fingertips along the glass wall. The glimmering blue hue of the waters lit up her pale features.
“Sacred Sea’s chamber,” I had to force my gaze away from her, scanning the room for the books, “There’s an old tale about the color of the underground springs. The Forbidden Girl of the Caverns,” I started to say, approaching the bookshelf. “The forbidden girl was a wife to one, a mistress to another. She used these tunnels to sneak back and forth to see her lover, who was her father’s enemy. The story goes, she was planning on running away with him. But when her father discovered the truth of her infidelity, he’d hid her away somewhere in these caverns, ashamed of her treachery. Some say her father even drowned her in those waters. Her spirit has been haunting the tunnels and springs, waiting, to this day, for her lover to rescue her. Those waters have been that color ever since. Some say when her lover returns to the tunnels to save her spirit, her reincarnated soul will be complete again, and the water will run clear.”
“That’s … really sad. What was her name?”
I shrugged, felt my way around to the back of the bookshelf. “The books never named her. They just called her The Forbidden Girl. This town runs on many tales. Some true, some I believe to keep us in line. For a witch,” my fingers found a fault in the wall, “not being able to reincarnate with our entire soul is our hell.”
My dress shoes slipped on the slick and solid ground as I searched for grip, pushing the bookshelf along the side of the wall. The wooden bookcase creaked and moaned as it inched out of the way. Fallon approached me from behind.
“I think this is it.” I removed loose stones from the wall, handing them off to Fallon. In the pocket of the wall laid the three missing books. I let go of a breath, feeling a tight emotion spiral up my chest. “I can’t believe it.”
One by one, I grabbed the books and stacked them in my arms.
Book of Cantini. Book of Danvers. Book of Blackwell.
Every Heathen before you tried, and every Heathen failed,Goody’s words rang.
I fell back against the wall with a smile, let go of a relieved breath.
I met eyes with Fallon. “Let’s get out of here.”
Chapter 46
Julian
A great hushhad fallen over the woods. A malefic hush.
Languorous shadows, urged by the night’s tale, twisted around me as the fire blazed at my feet. Fallon was inside showering, changing. She’d never once asked me why we’d broken into the Sacred Sea chambers and stolen books from the room. On the way to the exit at the cemetery, we’d talked of everything else as we walked the tunnels, both avoiding the things we’d left behind us. I knew she wanted to, but she also knew I’d never tell her.
I picked up the Book of Cantini, flipped through the pages until my sight latched on to the crescent moon birthmark sketched onto the aged papyrus paper. I tore out the pages, crumbled them in my fist, and tossed them into the fire. I did the same with pages from the Book of Danvers. Once Clarice Danvers had found out how to break the curse, she’d stolen these journals and written the answers into the Danver’s book before Matteo Cantini confiscated them—just before he’d cast her out of Weeping Hollow.
The moment was so bittersweet. For almost two centuries, the Hollow Heathens searched and searched for the same truths I’d discovered, only to throw it all away for love—for Fallon. I wondered what my ancestors would think of me and if they’d be disappointed. If they’d curse my soul for eternity, casting me into a witch’s hell with the inability to reincarnate fully like the Forbidden Girl.
I wondered what my brothers would think if they knew the truth, the things I’d done. If they could one day understand that … I, Julian Blackwell, had found a love that was deeper than love, and I loved in a way as if it were all that I’d known.
The fire crackled, and a raven called out to me in the distance when I reached for the Book of Blackwell. I’d never held my family book in my hands, and the silver foil glimmered against the flames of the fire under a pitch-black sky. A drowsy terror stole through the woods, through my veins.
Why had everything felt right until this moment? Why had the Blackwell book been taken to begin with? Had my family always known the answers to the curse too?
The thought paralyzed me. I couldn’t bring myself to do it.
I couldn’t destroy the pages of my book. Not yet.
The raven called again, and I nodded as if I understood what it was trying to tell me.
Once I returned inside, I hid the books under the cushion of the couch. But not the Book of Blackwell. It screamed in the palm of my hand. I straightened my back and walked toward the fireplace, pressing my foot to search for the loose floorboard. The wood creaked, and I crouched down, removed the plank before wedging the book inside the tight space. The plank slid back into place, and I walked to my bedroom, where Fallon was standing. Her hair was damp. She was wearing one of my shirts and pants.
Fallon had only been in my bedroom once before, and it was brief. She had been upset, probably didn’t get a chance to get a good look around, not in the way she was doing now. There wasn’t much to see.
A full-sized bed pushed into the corner of the room under a window where moonlight cast a single beam between us. A lantern rested on the sill. Over the bed, the sheets and blankets were hand-made by Mrs. Edwin. A nightstand Phoenix had built, along with the chest against the opposite wall. No pictures. The only décor was the dreamcatcher Jolie had made me, hanging from my wooden headboard, which never caught dreams. No light aside from the lantern. My cherishedFrankensteinlaying on my nightstand. I watched her eyes flick to the novel, then back to me.
The way she looked at me had my heart stripping off its armor from the night’s events. I swallowed. Cleared my throat.
“Take off your clothes,” I told her and turned to close the door. Then pinned my back against it. “All of them.”
