I chuckled because I believed her, and I could imagine her getting into all sorts of trouble as a kid. “Pops didn’t have many rules, so we tended to stick to the ones he did have.”
“That’s fair. You ready to do the honors?”
I blew out a breath and knelt at her side. There was nothing but a simple brass latch between me and whatever had hidden in here all those years.
Still, touching it felt wrong after having it drilled into my head my entire childhood never to touch it. But Pops was gone, my parents were gone, and this was mine now.
Savvy’s too, but she had no more interest in revisiting our painful past than I did.
I lifted the latch, the same old familiar tingle buzzing in my fingertips. The lid was next, and then I lifted my lantern to get a better look at what was inside.
More books. They were haphazardly tossed in, as if whoever had last opened the chest had been in a hurry. But on closer inspection, the first one I picked up was leather-bound and full of handwriting, not print.
Elodie peeked around my side, not touching but too curious to wait.
“They look like journals. Did your grandpa keep a journal?”
I shook my head. “Not that I ever noticed, and this looks pretty old. Granted, hewaspretty old. So it could have been his from a long time ago.”
“I imagine you and Savannah kept him too busy when you were here for him to journal.”
“True.” I set the top book aside, nothing about it in particular calling to me. Something in this chestwas, though. I flipped through another book or two, but they were empty. Blank, old pages.Disappointing.I would dig through the rest later.
“Do you feel that?” I asked, bracing my hands on the wooden sides of the trunk.
“No, what?”
“Something… buzzing.” There was an urgent pull, something I couldn’t name or place. I quickly picked up the other journals, making a stack on the floor next to me. There was something else in this chest, something that had been calling to me since I was a child.
The call was stronger now, and as I dug through various trinkets that probably did something cool and magical, it only seemed to grow bigger in my mind. With everything lifted away, there was a false bottom. A single brass ring was the only indication that there was more underneath.
I didn’t hesitate, lifting the false bottom with considerable effort, the hinges protesting.
With a great creak and a faint splintering sound, it finally lifted.
A pair of broadswords lay within, peeking out from black fabric. I pushed the fabric aside, hungrily poring over them.
“Those look really old,” Elodie whispered, holding her own lantern high so we could see better.
The grips were black, but the light reflected off blades untouched by time and spirals of silver around the handles. Thepommels were made from the same bright steel, perfect circles with a carving of a wolf inside.
But even as I drank them in, they called to me. No, not they. Just one.
Time seemed to slow as I reached down, taking the handle of the slightly larger blade. Every muscle in my body locked as if I were etched in time—no, in stone.
Finally.The word breezed through my mind as my body began to burn.
Chapter 41
Elodie
For a moment, I didn’t realize anything was wrong. Just a moment, caught in the awe of the discovery, before I realized Valens had frozen, his whole body shaking as if he were being electrocuted.
“Valens? V!” I grabbed for his shoulders, but an unseen force blew me back, and I skidded across the attic floorboards, knocking my head against the base of a heavy old lamp.
Dazed, I lifted both arms as it started to fall, rolling away just before it crashed, sending shattered glass arcing through the space.
I was back on my feet in seconds, but Valens hadn’t moved. He was still stuck, and I had to dosomething.
