The woman sways from side to side before she gestures at me with the bottle. “You want to know…” she slurs, “how I knew… about the bone.”
“I do,” I say, continuing to watch her carefully, uncertain how much sense she’ll make now.
She points the bottle at me again. “Tiny fleck in your left iris. White fleck.” With her free hand, she drags at the eyelid beneath her left eye and repeats. “White fleck. Like the bone. Right here in the corner. Touch a bone. Forever marked…”
It doesn’t escape me that Striker did more than hold the bone. He burned it against his heart. But I’m not sure if that’s something I should be worried about or not.
The woman stumbles and then lands on her knees again beside the statue, reaching up to pat it. “It’s okay,” she mumbles to it. “We’ll be okay…”
I don’t think I’m going to get anything sensible from her now.
I’m deeply troubled by the possibility that she’s telling the truth about it all: that there are four bones and that there’s a fleck in my eye that I haven’t noticed. Not that there are mirrors at the cabin—my sisters and I don’t care about appearances—but I would have thought my sisters would notice. Unless they thought the fleck had always been there… After all, I only met themafterI held the bone.
I’m also troubled by who or what this woman could be, but I doubt she would tell me, even in her now-inebriated state.
I need to get back to my sisters and tell them about this encounter and seek their guidance as quickly as I can.
I’m about to rise off the ground when the woman’s head snaps up.
“When one bone finds its master, the other bones will gather,” she says, her eyes startlingly clear again. “You’re in danger of?—”
She stops and stares at the bottle she drank from, a dark fury flooding her expression. “Fuck, that wore off quickly. They promised me it would last all night!”
With another cry of rage, she smashes the empty bottle against the statue.
“In danger of what?” I ask, ignoring her anger, although I’m nearly certain she won’t give me an answer.
“Death,” she snarls. “There’s a dark entity here in New York. He is the darkness behind all other darkness. All dark magic creatures bow to him. He has long coveted Typhon’s bones.”
She rises to her feet. “The Valkyrie Queen was keeping the bones safe, and he would not move against her. Now that she is dead, the bones are fair game. He will hunt for them.”
“Who is he? This dark entity?”
Her eyes glitter as she takes a step forward once more. “Oh, he won’t come for the bones himself. He lives in the shadows, unseen even by many of his closest followers, his identity guarded.” She shakes her head. “No, he will send his strongest warrior, a serpent shifter of unparalleled strength. It’s the serpent you need to watch out for. He is cunning and will not hesitate to betray even those closest to him?—”
Her voice chokes, and the pain that I first sensed from her returns in horribly strong waves. No longer dulled.
“This serpent shifter,” I venture. “He hurt you.”
“He betrayed me.” Her eyes fill with tears even as her lips draw back from her teeth. “I want him dead! I want justice!” She thumps her chest. “I want vengeance for my daughter’s life.”
A daughter lost.This must be the pain that brought me to her.
I’m no longer uncertain. My purpose is clear. But now, my intentions are two-fold: stop the serpent shifter from acquiring any more bones and bring him to justice at the same time.
“Give me the serpent’s name,” I say.
“He calls himself James Vanguard.”
“Where can I find him?”Assuming she knows.
“He frequents a restaurant called the White Wing Tavern. It’s one of the few locations where he’s likely to surface. But only at night.”
I shiver at how similar the name of the tavern is to the name that was given to Typhon’s bone called the White Wand. It’s bound to be a coincidence, so I push past my disquiet. “And the name of the dark entity that commands this James Vanguard?”
This time, the woman hesitates. “To speak it aloud…” She glances around us before she whispers, as quietly as breathing, “Be careful of uttering his name, Fury, for it is guarded by all dark creatures. This dark entity is known only as the Ultima Nostra.”
The moment the entity’s title passes her lips, a sudden rush of energy floods my mind, and my sisters’ voices scream so loudly within my thoughts that I reel under their force.
