I heard the lie in his tone, but Marcus said, “This is all so crazy. It’s hard to believe we’re all at this prison at the same time, and we’re all demigods, too. It’s like fate led us together or something.”
Kallie snorted. “Look, Marcus, I know you’re pretty inept at magic—”
“Hey, my parents are pretty talented supernaturals!” Marcus protested. “Besides being the chosen one, Mom’s the most powerful witch in the coven, and my dad’s the Reaper’s Apprentice— a legendary warlock. No one back home can match their power.”
“Then what happened to you?” Kallie snickered.
Marcus wrinkled his nose, and I cut in. “Regardless, if you guysaredemigods, I think Coyote wants you to help me with the prophecy. I’m not saying you have to, but this would be a hell of a lot easier if my friends were with me on this.”
Kallie’s eyes sparkled in excitement. “This sounds like an adventure. I’m totally in.”
“An adventure where we could get killed,” Marcus argued.
“Even better,” Kallie said.
Marcus sighed and put his chin in his hand. “I guess I don’t have much of a choice, being a demigod and all. I’m the only warlock with all five tattoos from all five Casts. Mother Miriam wouldn’t have given me every power from the coven if I wasn’t a demigod myself. I’ll be dragged into this whether I want to or not. The question is, where do we start?”
“When we got separated during the Games, Charlie and I found a strange door in the middle of the woods on Darke Island,” I said. “I’ve been studying the runes we found on the door, and I think they’re Elvish. We believe the Elves are thesecret onesthe prophecy refers to. I’ve put Charlie up to researching the Elves, in case it leads us somewhere.”
“But what if it leads to nowhere?” Charlie argued. “All the Elves are gone. We can’t get answers from dead people.”
“Charlie, I think this is important. I saw Coyote right before we found the door. I think he might’ve led us there. Ithasto be crucial to the prophecy.”
Charlie tilted his head and scowled.
I raised the journal and waved it in the air. “While he’s working on that, I plan to figure out a way to decode those Elvish runes. They have to meansomething.”
I got up from the circle and began walking around the room, conjuring a new fireball in my hand for light. I didn’t find what I was looking for, until Oberi nudged my leg. I saw that he was carrying a thin wooden bow in his mouth— the same one I’d found here last semester.
“Good boy.” I took the bow from him and patted his head. When I sat back down, I showed Kallie and Marcus the bow. “This is an Elven artifact. Charlie and I found it here last semester. That was after we found a bunch of Elven boats washed up on the shore in Kinpago. Why are all these Elven relics popping up, and why are most of them on Darke Island? It has to mean something.”
I handed Charlie the bow. He ran his fingers over the runes, deep in thought.
Kallie sat back. “So what do you want me and Marcus to do? We want to help.”
“Speak for yourself,” Marcus grumbled, but Kallie punched his arm.
“I think if we are demigods, we need to look into it,” I said. “Professor Mazur said something about our powers being unbound by the laws of nature, but that does us no good if we don’t know how to use them properly. Can you guys try to find out more about demigods?”
“Definitely,” Kallie said. “If I’ve got demigod powers, I want to start using them.”
“Good luck,” Marcus replied. “Most of the lore on demigods was destroyed by other supernaturals. We have no clue on where to look.”
“Then we’d better get started,” Kallie said in a cheerful way. Marcus groaned.
“One last thing. If we’re talking about the prophecy, or us being demigods, it has to be here,” I said. “Professor Mazur made it pretty clear that demigods should be reported to the Warden, and I don’t want him to know anything about what we are, or what we’re looking for. We can’t risk the guards or teachers overhearing us talk about this stuff.”
“Agreed,” Charlie said. “We don’t speak about any of this unless we’re inside the Lair. Understood?”
Marcus nodded, while Kallie said, “I can put a ward around the Lair. It’ll prevent anyone who isn’t us from getting in or finding the place.”
“That’s perfect.” I took the bow back from Charlie. “I need to get this back to my dorm, to study it.”
“How are we going to sneak it in? No weapons on Institute grounds,” Charlie said.
I handed the bow to Marcus. “Here. Subconjure this for me.”
“Excuse me? I’m not your personal storage unit just because I’m a warlock!” Marcus protested.
