She held up her hands, shaking her head as she stood firmly between me and the case. “You cannottouch Lugh’sspear.”
I narrowed my eyes suspiciously, but I nodded anyway. “Yeah. Okay, got it. I didn’tknow.”
“Not even the case,” shewarned.
“Yep. Not even thecase.”
She gave an uneasy nod and then moved away before turning to get one more warning in. “It’s locked, by the way. You wouldn’t be able to open it, even if you wanted to. Just...don’ttry.”
“Okay,” I whispered, watching her trembling back as she rejoined the pile of books on the living room floor. As soon as her focus was off me, I risked another glance at the case, heartpounding.
Despite being a beautiful spear, I couldn’t imagine what about it could inspire so much terror. It reeked of magic, but it was locked away, so it wasn’t like it could actually get to us outhere.
I flicked my eyes toward Imogen and then back at the spear. “So, what’s the deal with this thing? Why do we have to stay away from thespear?”
Imogen glanced up, her pink hair falling into her eyes. “Because if you touch it, you’ll burst intoflames.”
I blinked at her. Okay, I hadn’t expected that. “Say whatnow?”
She let out a little giggle. “I’m just kidding. I don’t actually know why we can’t touchit.”
“So, then....what about all that....?” I waved my hands, referring to her frantic freak-out.
Her expression sobered. “Lugh doesn’t want us near it, but I don’t know why. All I know is he’ll punish anyone who tries to even open the case. And his punishments are far worse than the trials. He tends to do it in secret, but...we’ve all heard the stories.” She inclined her head toward my broom. “So, touch it if you’d like, but don’t stay too attached to those hands ofyours.”
7
Eyebrows furrowed,I paced from one end of my chilly room to the other. Lugh had a spear, one he was terrified for people to touch. The person who had helped me in the vaults had also wielded a spear. The two could very well belinked.
Lugh could have been the one to help me in the vaults, even if it made no sense atall.
That fact alone would mean bonus points for Lugh. But I’d also just found out that he liked to chop off people’shands.
It had been a few days since I’d last seen him. My little mission to seduce the information out of him wasn’t going exactly as planned. I needed to ramp things up a notch and fast, or the cauldron would be in his hands before I even knew what itdid.
When the cleaning tasks were being assigned the next day, I quickly stepped in for the training room. I’d found nothing of note in Lugh’s room, though I hadn’t been able to search his drawers or his cupboards yet. Unfortunately, his room wouldn’t come back into rotation for another week, so I needed to try a differentapproach.
“I know a lot about handling and cleaning weapons,” I interjected before Selma could even finish listing the options for the day. “I’m happy to take on the trainingroom.”
Selma slid her eyes toward Imogen. “How’d she do with the King’sroom?”
“Fine.” Imogen shrugged. “Bit complain-y about the mess, but aren’t weall?”
Selma flashed me a wicked grin. “Bet you won’t be se eager to clean his room next week, now willyou?”
I decided to hide that I was in factveryeager, as I didn’t want to raise any suspicion. Knowing her, she was probably far more likely to send me back again if she thought I didn’t want to do it. “I didn’t know that it would be likethat.”
Selma snorted. “The King is one of a kind. Very well. You put in the time there. You can have the training room today. Imogen, you’ll go with heragain.”
Imogen didn’t complain this time. Instead, she shot me a wink and a thumbs up. My heart raced in excitement. It felt like years since I’d stepped foot inside a training room, even if it had been a week at most. I knew I wouldn’t have a chance to train now, but I wanted to step foot inside the space, breathe in the scent ofit.
And I wanted to see if they had anyspears.
We grabbed the cleaning supplies and headed to the training room. I pushed open the door, but stopped short when I saw who was inside. Imogen slammed into my back, but the impact didn’t nudge me forward. My head felt fuzzy. All the blood in my veins began toboil.
Lugh spun across the blue training mat like a tornado. He had a silver-tipped spear in his hand, and he whirled it sideways like it was an extension of his arm. He jabbed it forward at an invisible foe and roared. The invisible foe stood no chance against a charge likethat.
Sweat glistened on his exposed back muscles. His dark curls hung in his hooded eyes. As he continued through his next set of moves, I couldn’t do anything other thanstare.
