“Fine. I see it’s business only with you all. I’ve found something I wanted to share.”
“About Samara?”
Lizzy nods, because she’s stuffed the rest of the muffin in her mouth, then speaks in garbled words, “Sorry. Starving.”
Knox grabs her another and leans across the counter, putting it on her plate.
She nods and holds it up in the air. A wordless thank you before she peels off the wrapper.
“So, what did you find?” I press.
“Tony brought a few books from Helsgard, so we were doing some research last night.”
“Last night?” I tease.
“Stop,” she blushes, then mouths ‘later’. “Anyway, we went through all the books and couldn’t find anything aside from the usual Djinn are dark fae who are believed to have wiped out or contributed to the mass execution of true fae. So we took a quick trip to Helsgard.”
“You just went to Helsgard?” Knox asks equally parts shocked and impressed.
“Tony arranged it. But that’s not what’s important. What’s important is the book wedidfind. It was old. Super old. We had to use magic to flip the pages, because they encased it in an airtight box to prevent it from further deterioration.” She takes another bite of muffin. “You would think with all the advancements of our magic, we’d be able to find a way to protect historical works.”
“Or perhaps just rewrite them?” Callum notes, with a hint of sarcasm.
“That would be a lot because the book is huge. And if that weren’t the only problem, you don’t know what’s in the book because all the pages are blank. It only reveals what’s on the pages when you ask it a question.”
“So there could be a wealth of information in the book. You just don’t know until you know?”
“Yes. Very frustrating. Tony and I stayed up all night asking it a variation of questions about the Djinn fae. All we came up with was the rules and then something else.”
“Go on,” Knox urges, hands clasped under his chin.
“Oh, look who’s back,” Jax snipes, walking into the kitchen with Emmett following close behind. All the guys pass a silent telling glance between one another like they’re checking in, but I don’t know for what. Jax’s eyes fall on me and a heat races across my skin, before he turns away just as quickly to grab a drink out of the refrigerator.
“What is this nonsense?” Emmett asks walking over to the muffins, picking up one briefly before putting it back down.
“You were out, and we didn’t know when you’d be back,” Knox defends. Emmett fills a pot with hot water before putting it on the stove and then grabbing a blood bag out of the fridge.
“Looks delicious,” Lizzy says monotone before her eyes snap at me. She sometimes has a bad habit of inside thoughts slipping out.
“Better than me eating your friend,” Emmett retorts.
“When you say it like that, I don’t know if you’re being kinky or not,” Lizzy claps back.
Emmett stares at her for a second in awe, then chuckles.
“Anyway, as I was saying… there’s a small blurb about something called the Mist of Morreux that has been locked away in Pandora’s box. It also mentioned another book- the book of Maldor, but it’s been lost for a while and I’ve only heard whispers of the mist, so I don’t know how it could help. I wanted to come and see if you all have come across it because there isn’t much in the book.”
The room shifts and I get a feeling they have, even though no one is jumping to say anything, so I press, “Surely you must have heard about it at some point, Callum?”
He looks at me, studying my face, then takes a breath. Before he can speak, Jax calls his name, nearly shutting him up, but Callum holds his hand out. “Yes. We have heard of the Mist of Morreux. When Samara used our wishes against us so many years ago, we were very upset. We searched high and low for something that could reverse the spell or end her.”
There’s a strange weight in the air, between all the guys, like they know something they aren’t saying and are curious how far Callum’s going to go. Emmett’s stirring boiling water, trying to pretend like he’s not paying attention. Knox is fiddling with the paper wrapper of his muffin and Jax… well, he just looks confused... maybe angry. When I catch him looking at me, he quickly looks away.
Callum continues, “We found the Book of Maldor and in it, it spoke of Morreux. He was a dark wizard hundreds of years ago. After the Great Fall, and without the true fae around to provide guardrails, he sought infinite power. He practiced in the dark arts, gathering artifacts from all over and would leach out their powers. He became very powerful, but at a cost. As the power grew within him, he began to lose control and it started feeding off of him. Some say he grew weaker and his hair fell out and that he turned to skin and bones, then died.”
“Some say? You don’t believe that?” I ask, sliding forward on the edge of my chair.
Callum studies me for a minute, then shakes his head. “I don’t. There were rumors a black mist in the shape of a man walked around. Some mistook it for the dark shadows of another realm, but this was a man, not a shadow.”
