A hairbrush.
Tangled amid the bristles were a few strands of unmistakable silver hair.
My hand tried to shake. I flexed my fingers and ordered it to stillness. It mostly obeyed as I reached out and took the hairbrush.
Garrick watched me draw it through my tangled strands. Once. Twice. He cleared his voice and turned away, so I could only see his profile.
“There must be a dozen objects in this room alone,” he said.
“That would be too easy,” I said. A particularly stubborn knot resisted the bristles of the hairbrush, but I worked it through. “A talisman can be an everyday object, but that does not mean it will be. Maura is the creator. She will choose an object of importance.”
Garrick stroked a hand across the stubble on his chin. “The king has a treasury.”
“Not to the fae. To the witches.”
He huffed an unamused laugh. “I would not put it beyond the king to hoard objects of significance to the witches.”
“Fuck.” My hand fell away from my hair, but the job was mostly done, anyway.
Was there no end to Maura’s treachery? Was it truly possible that she’d not only made an alliance with the king, but also made a talisman and then entrusted it to him? And somehow, I was the one who’d been ejected from my coven.
Garrick took the brush gently from my hand. “My thoughts exactly.”
My humorless, exasperated laugh matched Garrick’s from a moment before. “Breaking into the king’s treasury was not what I had in mind for today.”
Garrick set the brush on the mantle, where I could easily access it if I needed it again. When he turned back, his expression was resigned. “If that is what we must do, then we will do it.”
I lifted my chin, trying to get a better look at him. Shocked. “Did you hit your head?”
“I meant it when I said I would do anything to help you, Koryn,” he said. He was not looking away or avoiding me, now. He stared down with those intense eyes, the circle of blue burning in the sea of green, demanding my attention. “I will be at your side no matter what happens. Stealing from my father is the least of the sins I would commit on your behalf.”
Why did that send a bolt of desire straight between my legs?
My throat was uncomfortably dry. My lips, too. I swept my tongue out to wet them. I heard Garrick’s teeth grind together.
“I had another thought,” I said quickly.
Garrick’s shoulders loosened with palpable relief. “Anything.”
“Balar Shan is built in the form of a spiral.”
His silvery brows notched closer together. “Yes.”
“So are the Seven Gates.”
Garrick nodded. “The entire continent.”
“There is a reason it is called the divine spiral. It was formed by the gods,” I said. Maybe it was sex with the Dark God that had made me think of it. I tried to dismiss that disconcerting thought as I continued with the line of thinking I’d ventured down while lying alone in the dark. “It is sacred. And the most sacred of all is its center. It is where the first temple is, the first gate.”
“But the other witch said that the talisman is in Balar Shan,” Garrick pointed out. A thought I’d had, of course. But I’d also thought beyond that.
“And where is the center of the spiral in Balar Shan?” I asked, hoping I was wrong about the answer.
“The presence chamber,” Garrick said grimly.
Damn.
CHAPTER 30
