But I guess I shouldn’t be so surprised. If my father is a vampire crime lord and the leader of a reclusive family of assassins, then surely men who burn villages to save them can also exist.
Wilder starts spluttering.
“I’m going to trust you,” Sofarynn says with a heavy sigh.
My mouth drops open, and Sofarynn snorts. “Don’t look so surprised, or I might just change my mind. The gods know I shouldn’t but… you’re right. That spellbook deserves to be read, the spells within deserve to be cast.” She rests her hand against her chest. “Not by me, of course, I cannot wield magic. And even if I could, I promised Snorre that I would never pursue forbidden magic again after losing him.”
I glance at Wilder, pressing my lips together to try to keep from showing too much excitement that would cause her to realize just how desperate I am for this spellbook. My father always taught me to temper my emotions when striking a deal. If someone sees that you are willing to do anything for something, then they might get the idea to ask for anything.
Wilder, however, looks too stunned to speak. I suppose I cannot blame him. It isn’t every day that you meet the sister of a legend.
Sofarynn lifts a necklace off from around her neck and sets it on her desk. “I ask that if you find something interesting to tell me about it. I do love hearing about magic, even if I can never touch it.”
She turns to her desk, grasping a few books before she turns away, striding toward the door.
“Where are you going?” I demand, pushing to my feet.
She arches her brow. “To see my brother. One time is enough to be a pawn of a power-hungry immortal, I think. If there are truly other vampires involved, then there is nowhere safer I can be than at his side.” She nods to me. “Be careful, Bronwyn. I pray that your pursuit of this forbidden knowledge ends better for you than it did for me.”
Then the only friend I made here at the academy walks out into the night. Leaving behind both me and her key as it sits on her desk, glistening in the candlelight.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Bronwyn
Iknow exactly where Petrov Hansimov is laid to rest. Truly the only thing that had been standing in my way was getting Sofarynn’s key. I was always worried I’d have to find a way to steal it, indeed I think my family wondered why I hadn’t stolen it in my first year.
But instead, she gave it to me willingly. All I had to do was ask. It makes me wonder if all those afternoon meals spent with her finally paid off.
Or perhaps she saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself… something that lead her to believe that I’m actually a good person.
That I’m not taking this book for myself to help further my father’s criminal empire. Or maybe she realized she had no choice one way or the other, and she decided to remove herself from the equation.
After all, her last home burned, and it was blamed on her.
Bards still sing about it to this day.
How weary she must be after everything she has lived through. Perhaps if I were in her shoes, I would have done the same thing.I suppose I’ll never know because to me this key is more than just a key, it’s something my father told me to retrieve and if there is one person in this whole godsfrosaken peninsula I don’t want to let down, it’s him.
He gave me my life, he gave me hope, and a family.
I’d steal all the spellbooks he required of me.
The keyhole is a small nick in the stone at the base of a fountain to the east of the courtyard, easily ignored if you didn’t realize what was lying underneath.
Hansimov, like all the rest of the founders of the academy, was buried in tunnels underneath the city of stone. None of the other founders’ tombs have actually been found, save for Hansimov, but that’s fine because according to our best knowledge, only Hansimov was buried with his spellbook.
My sisters have been tasked to find the other spell books, but I was sent to collect the one known to be at the Academy of Magickers. Since the rest of my family are sorcerers, I’m the only one who wasn’t in danger of being branded as a heretic.
I drop to my knees next to a still pond located at the edge of the courtyard. There is a statue at the center of the pond, Hansimov himself. It’s probably why his tomb was found and those of his fellow founders were not. Hansimov was apparently ostentatious.
I mean, I suppose one would have to be to adopt the title of Lord of the Seas in a landlocked mountain range. Ostentatious or downright mad, but that doesn’t mean that his magic is useless.
After all, blotting out the sun to create a vampire paradise is just one possible application for this magic, and once I get my hands on that spellbook, that will be my father’s power.
My ownpower since technically I’m the only member of my family capable of wielding it. I will be his arcane master and finally have a place in his criminal empire.
Natasya can knit a monster out of the bones of men, making an unkillable army.
