I needed to change this topic. “Is there anything I should know about Norse Woods that I haven’t been told yet?”
The men exchanged glances. “Well ...” Beck started, but Julian cut him off. “We will worry about it when the time comes because right now, I’m growing impatient. It’s been five days. We’ve given you plenty of time, and we can’t risk another. What happened during the dreamscape?”
“Zephyr was right. She was in Cleo’s dream. In a different form,” I finally told them after spending the last five days doing as much research as I could.
Julian arched a brow. “She? She who?”
“The Shadows. It took on the form of a person.” I set my mug on the porch railing. “At the time, I hesitated to speak up because the woman in Cleo’s dream looked very similar to Adora.” I held out my hand to stop their thoughts. “It was not Adora, but perhaps this woman was an ancestor or close relative of hers. It appeared that she wore a chain similar to Adora’s around her neck. The same chain I’ve also seen in a book Adora’s mother wrote.” I remembered this woman’s lips moving, as it was a repeating vision in my mind.Circe, she’d tried to say.
Beck drew Julian’s attention. “Marcelline Sullivan,” he said with a snap of his fingers. “She’s been in a coma-like state since the girls were little. What if she has something to do with the Shadows?”
If this were the case, it would devastate Adora. “According to Adora, her mother was in a coma because she tried to escape from Weeping Hollow.”
“Sounds like Adora’s in denial,” Phoenix said. “Marcelline was drowning Adora that day in the ocean. She swam as far as Bone Island before they finally caught up to her, and the only way to keep Adora safe was for the coven to turn her into a vegetable.” He pointed at Julian. “I bet somewhere locked up inside that head of Marcelline’s, she’s pissed and killing off Weeping Hollow out of spite.”
“The reason she is only able to access dreams,” Zephyr added.
“You mentioned a book,” Julian said. “We need that book, Danvers.”
The conversation was changing so quickly that I had not recovered from the initial shock of Phoenix mentioning Adora’s mother trying to drown her. Putting the pieces together, for this to make sense, was like getting hit by a tidal wave one after another. “Why would her mother try to drown her? She has two other daughters, yes? So, why Adora specifically?”
The porch fell silent.
A few seconds later, and “I really don’t know,” Julian said. “Whatever the reason, it doesn’t matter. We still need the book.”
“The book is likely to be at the Cantini Manor, but we do not need another Heathen turning rogue because of a girl like last time.” Zephyr nipped his chin in the direction of Julian. “And by Heathen, I mean Julian Blackwell.”
Julian’s head fell back for a split second. “I broke the curse, didn’t I?”
Phoenix rubbed his hands together. “Do I smell another book-stealing mission baking?”
“There’s no need for a mission,” I said, and four pairs of eyes crawled to me. “I stole it from her five nights ago.”
I’d spent most of my days and nights reading the book to the end, then re-reading and decoding the messages hidden inside. Before, I was unsure whether Alec and Circe were fictional, made up by Adora’s mother’s imagination, or if their story was true, and this book had manifested itself into her mother’s head. However, as soon as I laid eyes on Circe in Cleo’s dream, I knew it had to be real.
An hour later, we were huddled around the round table.
Julian was leaning back in his raven chair, fingering through the book as I retold the rest of the Heathens the story of Alec and Circe.
“You will not believe what Marcelline wrote in here,” Julian muttered, turning the book to face Beck. “This is the entire story of the Curse of the Forbidden Girl.”
“What’s the Curse of the Forbidden Girl?”
“A cautionary tale,” Julian muttered, tucking his nose inside the book’s spine. “To prevent treachery, really. She was a sea witch who was married to another witch but fell in love with a mortal. She was using the tunnels to sneak back and forth to see her lover but was caught. Let’s just say it didn’t end well.” He closed the book and dropped it into his lap, tapping on the cover. “And there are clues in here?”
I nodded. “The Shadows aren’t five entities. I believe it is one. That it’s Circe, and somehow her soul was split into five. The clues are leading us to the sapphire and the spring, so if I had to guess I would say the sapphire is waiting for us at the bottom of the spring in the Forbidden Caverns.”
CHAPTER 51
ADORA
January 27, 2021
The Day Before the Crimson Eclipse
4 Days until the Cantini-Sullivan Wedding
Fable groaned.
