Hegrimaced.
Az was good at a great many things. Archery. Swordplay.Kissing.
Language translation wasn’t really hisforte.
“That’s what I thought.” But despite his expression, I leaned forward and patted the free chair opposite Lizzie’s. At first I thought he’d object, but then he sauntered over and folded his muscular frame into the small seat. He made it look like a child’schair.
“We’re about halfway through this book.” I held up the old tome. Even though we’d spent the past few days flipping through its pages, the thick leather cover still emitted a constant fog of dust whenever it moved. “This is the one with Berith’s portrait, though that page doesn’t say much that we didn’t alreadyknow.”
Mainly that he was an asshole who liked to make deals to screw people over. Apparently, he’d spent decades trapping humans this way, far before the portal had even opened. The author of the manuscript seemed to find the entire thing incredibly amusing and had detailed a long list of his variousdeals.
“It’s become blatantly obvious that a demon wrote this book, so the details he’s chosen to share aren’t exactly helpful.” I pointed at a passage two pages past Berith’s portrait. “Here, he’s telling a story about how Berith made a human King think he was dying. In order to save his life, he had to repeatedly kill off his wives assacrifices.”
Az let out a low whistle. “Henry the Eighth. I always wondered abouthim.”
“Yeah, well. Berith had a lot of fun with the guy. But then he eventually got bored and gave him some kind of disease.” I flipped the pages, pointing at a drawing of a coffin, presumably of the deadKing.
“That’s interesting and all, Erela…” Az leaned closer, and I could feel his hot breath on my lips. It was all I could do not to stumble forward so that my lips would fall right on top of his. He hadn’t kissed me since…well, since Ramiel had yelled at us for kissing, and I wasn’t going to be the one to make the next move. “But we don’t need stories about old Kings. We need some kind of hint about where Berith would take the amulet or open theportal.”
“You think you can do better?” I asked with a flicker of irritation. Az drove me absolutely crazy sometimes. There were moments when I had the urge to plop a bucket full of water on top of his head. And then there were other moments when I wanted to actually watch rivulets of water dripping down hisskin...
And, of course, a lot of the time I wanted to do both atonce.
He was infuriating. And annoying. But he made me feelalive.
Not to mention the fact that he’d once told me that helovedme.
And it didn’t hurt that he was sculpted toperfection.
Az practically growled, his eyes reflecting the heat I felt in my core. “Give me thebook.”
“Is this one of those times when I should politely excuse myself and Mr. Whiskerson from the room?” Lizzie asked dryly. “You know, so you and Az can bealone?”
“No,” Az and I growled inunison.
“Yeah, if you say so,” Lizzie said, not soundingconvinced.
Az didn’t reply. Instead, he grabbed the book from my hands and frowned down at it. After a few moments, his eyes began to cross, and he flipped the page to read the next passage. Or,pretendedto read, anyway. He didn’t know Old Enochian any better than any of the other members of this Order. Only Lizzie and I had studied any element of thislanguage.
After a few silent moments of flipping pages and glaring, he finally sighed and dropped the book back onto my lap. “Fine. You win. I can’t read thatshit.”
A satisfied smile spread across my lips. “Are you conceding that I canactuallydo something better thanyou?”
“Don’t get too smug or I’ll suggest that Ramiel start you up on some trainingagain.”
My smile died. Ramiel’s definition of training was a lot different than mine. I happened to think of it as something that involved learning swordplay combinations, steady breathing exercises, and centering one’s mind on the task athand.
Ramiel seemed to think that knocking me onto my ass was an appropriate teaching method. Something about learning to expect the unexpected and being prepared to bounce back after suffering from a seriousblow.
I didn’t want to admit that his training had made me quicker on my feet, but it had. Just not quick enough.Yet.
“I’ll stick to translation for now, thanks,” I merely replied before glancing back down at the book before me, sighing. Az had flipped through so many pages that he’d lost my place. Most of the pages looked the same, and I hadn’t used a ribbon to mark the page I’d been translating. “Ugh, this is probably going to take me an hour to sort backout.”
“Wait.” Lizzie’s head popped closer, and she placed the tip of her fingernail against the old parchment. “What’sthat?”
“It’s a castle,” Az said, stating theobvious.
The author of the book had hastily scratched out the outline of a castle near the sea. It stood tall and commanding on a cliff, the towers casting dark shadows on the beach far below. My eyes skipped down the words written just below it. For a moment, the library was full of silence while my mind worked through thetranslation.
