“Maybe the meteor shower has something to do with it?” Kade suggested, crossing his feet on the table top and leaning back in his chair. “We have no confirmation that you were glowing before that, so maybe your birthday was like a second awakening for your magic.”
I shrugged, though that seemed like the only somewhat logical explanation. “Maybe.”
“Sorry I’m late.” Sawyer moseyed into the meeting, tossing the journal on the center coffee table before throwing himself in the seat next to me.
“No you're not,” I answered. “Being late is your new forte.”
He smiled at me, and I fought back my own stiff grin by dropping my eyes to my lap. I know we said we would pretend like nothing happened between us, but it wasso fucking awkward.
I could feel Sebastian's gaze settle on me, and I knew that if I looked up, I would see his eyelids meeting his dark eyebrows.
Sawyer copied Kade’s position, putting his arms up and behind his head. “Alright, Seb, put your glasses on and start reading me my bedtime story.”
Sebastian scoffed, but pulled his glasses free from his pocket. My breath caught when he put them on. I’d always loved when he wore his glasses. They added an innocence factor to him in which I knew he was not.
Kohen slid the book across the tabletop so that Sebastian could reach. Once in his palms, he let out a harsh exhale, then flipped to the first page.
He stared for a moment, utterly motionless. Then he flipped to the next page. Then the next. He frantically skimmed through the entire journal with his forefinger.
I couldseehis heart shatter.
He slammed the journal shut, throwing it back down on the table. “It’s empty.”
“What?” My surprise was evident in my voice. I reached my hand out. “Let me see that.”
Sebastian tossed it to me, and my reaction matched his when I saw the blank parchment with my own two eyes. I shook my head, saying under my breath, “That’s impossible.”
Venay said that she knew there wasvital informationwritten in this journal, but there wasn’t a single smear of ink on any of the pages.
“Did you grab the right book?” Kade accused Sawyer.
Sebastian answered for him. “It’s the right book. It matches the one I have.”
Damnit.
Everyone else took their turn scanning the empty journal. Pia ended up with it last. “So this was all for nothing?”
Apparently so. Everything I’d put Kohen through trying to figure out where the damn book even was. Proving to Beaumont that I was still alive. Jensen dying. We hadn’t even needed the journal to save Sebastian, so yeah, all for frickin’ nothing.
Sebastian leaned forward on his knees, covering his face with his palms as he released a deep, gravelly groan. When he sat up, his face portrayed calmness, but I knew that inside he was on fire.
“Back to square one, I guess,” Kohen mumbled, his disappointment unable to be disguised.
“It doesn’t make sense,” I uttered to mostly myself.
“I just thought of something.” Pia sat up straighter. “Why have we not even begun to question why this journal was in Draemor in the first place?”
“You said that King Hawthorne donated all of Cicily’s books,” I reminded her.
“Yeah. To archives inCaelestis, not Draemor,” she clarified.
“I mean, I questioned it, but no one else seemed that concerned about it, so I never brought it up,” Kohen said.
Kade's gaze darted to me. “Are you going to get pissed off at him, too? He should have told you that,” he mocked with a muffled laugh, referring to the argument he had overheard between Sebastian and I on our way back from Draemor the first time.
I sucked in the deepest breath of my entire existence, holding it in my chest to avoid blowing up at the comment. “You’re an ass, Kade.”
“If the journal ended up in Craterra, that’s pretty close to the borders of Draemor,” Sawyer supplied.
