He puffed out a quiet laugh and bit into a cookie. They were hisfavorite, and he wondered if someone told her or if it was a lucky guess. “Thank you.”
She tapped the top of her mug and pointed to his. “Hot chocolate. I’m not sure how, but things here taste better than in the other realm.”
Picking up his drink, he took a tentative sip and hissed. It was scalding hot. “I agree. Everything is made from scratch.”
“Being clear of mind is something I never thought possible.” She sighed and sipped her drink. Either her coffee was cooler than his, or she had a high pain tolerance. He scowled down at his boiling hot drink.
“It seems unfair that the magic exists to take away essence, yetSibylsare forced to succumb to their abilities for most of their lives,” she said, and Caius didn’t miss the bitterness simmering beneath her surface. “Why would theSeraphimdo that?”
“They wantedSibylsaround to predict any great disasters that may arise,” Caius replied robotically. It was something he’d wondered himself, and as a teenager, he’d often researched different mystics. He’d always loved reading and devoured anything he could.
“But no one predicted Atarah’s murder.” Bitterness overwhelmed him. “Or if they did, they didn’t come forward. It seems unfair to forceSibylsto live that way for nothing.”
Lenora dabbed her mouth with a napkin. “Vincula is the only place that takes a mystic’s essence, and it wouldn’t be fair to allowSibylsto live forever while others suffer mortality.”
She was right. In Vincula, mystics did not age, but they could die by force. Caius wouldn’t be able to stomach ending aSibyl’slife after a certain number of years to avoid their immortality; therefore, keeping them in Vincula was not an option.
The silence stretched between them, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. Quite the contrary, it was comforting to have someone who cared for him other than Sam. And maybe Lauren. She was a wild card.
Speaking of, he grabbed her report and opened his drawer to file it away, but Cora’s emergency report stopped him.
Lenora noticed the tension and set her drink down. “What is it, dear? Is there a ghost in that drawer?”
Bringing up Cora’s death seemed like a bad idea, but before he could lie and say it was nothing, Lenora said, “Don’t even think about lying to me.”
Closing his eyes, he pulled out the file and set it on his desk. “It’s a copy of Cora’s emergency report.” He took a glimpse to gauge her reaction, but instead of looking distraught, she looked curious. “When Rory accused me of killing her sister, I wanted to know why, and I had a copy of her report brought to me.”
Lenora reached her hand across the desk. “May I?”
It was amusing to him that she felt the need to ask. He would deny her nothing. “I’m sure you know everything in there.”
After placing the file in her hand, she flipped it open, and he watched pain contort her face when she saw the pictures of Cora’s body. The urge to snatch the file back was strong, and he had to grip the arms of his chair.
“How did the king have aMerrowerased from the database without raising any flags?” she asked without looking up. “TheMerrowdatabase is controlled by enforcers in The Capital, is it not?”
“It is,” he confirmed.Merrowswere soul stealers whose abilities were bound by a mandatory monthly elixir. He never understood whyMerrowswere created in the first place.
The books said they were created to capture souls, keeping the black ones trapped in jars and releasing the others to ascend into the aether. But why not let black souls descend to hell like they do now? He stopped trying to understand theSeraphim’smotives a long time ago.
She snapped the file shut and passed it back to him. “What ifSibylscould take the elixirs theMerrowsare forced to take?”
Caius rubbed his chin, surprised no one had suggested it before. “The elixir has only been around for a few hundred years or so, and if I’m not mistaken, it was curated specifically forMerrows. But ifthe formula was altered to cater toSibyls, hypothetically, it could work.”
If anyone suggested using it onSibyls, he doubted Gedeon would approve it, especially if he feared aSibylwould predict his transgressions. No one would listen to them if they weren’t coherent. “When we kill Gedeon, I will see that it is tested.”
“It’s a wonder that wretched brother of yours approved theMerrowelixir in the first place,” Lenora spat, and the tops of her rounded ears turned a bright shade of red.
Caius grabbed his hot chocolate and sipped, forcing himself not to make a face at the now cold drink. Did the drink burn him and then cool extra fast to spite him? It felt like it. “Merrowscannot help themselves when their abilities are unbound,” Caius explained. “The temptation to take and use souls for their own gain slowly blackens their own. The crime rate amongMerrowswas astronomically high. Finding a solution has been a priority since before my time. My brother couldn’t deny using a solution if one was found, lest he risk the wrath of theSeraphim.”
Not that theSeraphimcared anymore. He bit off a piece of cookie and chewed slowly.
“He killed your sister,” Lenora countered. “Was that not a risk?”
“It was, but I cannot begin to understand the way my brother’s brain works.” He grabbed a napkin and wiped his hands, thinking hard about Lenora’s observation.
Blackened souls saw no issue with the most heinous crimes known to man. It wouldn’t surprise Caius if a mystic’s black soul slowly ate away at their sanity.
Lenora gasped, leaned forward, and grabbed Caius’ hand, turning it over. He watched her curiously. “You must tread carefully,” she cautioned.
